Well, that day is upon us. The day many I’m sure many of you have been dreading for the last three months (I’m sure quite a few of you have been looking forward to the beginning of this school year- I know I have).

Whether you’re a new student or a seasoned veteran of the classroom, I have some often shared, but under-utilized advice for you on the eve of another school year.

Get to know your professors

Professors are people, too. They are more than willing to work with you as long as you’re honest and up front (and don’t have the script from an episode of Breaking Bad with you when you tell them what’s going on) about the problems you’re having with an assignment or deadline or exam date.

Office hours are your friend

Instructors don’t have office hours just so they can sit in their offices and play Candy Crush. They are there for you to come and talk to them and ask questions. It’s not possible for every instructor to answer every question and cover every little topic during class time, and like I said before, the vast majority of them really do want to help you out. You just have to make the effort on your end, too.

Go to class

If you want to fail your classes, close this window and go back to what you were doing. If you don’t, take a second on this one. Just because some instructors don’t take attendance doesn’t mean they don’t remember who you are. If you go to class, and they see your face every other day, they will remember you. I’ve had plenty of classes where my name was never called in the first or last few minutes of class, but when it came time to ask for a little help, the professor remembered me because I was in class and participated. It makes a difference, just go.

There are more things that will help you out, but those are three of the main points which will help all the others fall into place. Good luck this semester and for those of you who are new to EMU, on behalf of the Eastern Echo E-Board and Staff, I welcome you to the Eagle Family.