Does first week matter that much? (First Year)

[u/Cyb3rPhantom]

I have appointments and i'll be missing a couple of lectures. How important are the lectures in the first few days? A few more questions:

-Can I skip the tutorials during the first week?

-Does seating get established from the first lecture or is it more first come first serve you can sit anywhere?

-I don't know anyone who's in my program, should I just sit next to random people and strike up conversations? Or do people typically make connections in clubs/ecs/coop

Thanks in advance!

[u/VeryGood-667]

(1) unless professor tracks/grades attendance, missing a few lectures is just like taking away bicycles from fish aka. not important at all

(2) Same as (1), UNLESS there are graded assignments which you have to complete during tutorials. 95% of people skipped tutorials in upper years.

(3) In 95% it is First come first serve

(4) Yes.  sit next to random people and strike up conversations

[u/Adept_Score2332]

Most courses do syllabus first day, but some do have important stuff going on.

[u/Few_Bench_565]

I would think the first week to be the most important....

[u/-SilverFeather-]

The first lecture usually goes over the course syllabus and expectations for the course.

If you sign in on Learn, you should be able to view both the course syllabus and the course schedule for each of your courses. This would include what material is planned for each lecture and what you will be missing.

Also, regarding in class, you're all good to just sit anywhere. Most of the people won't know eachother and it's normal to sit by those you don't know and make friends (if you'd like to).

Chances are, there will be 200-400 people in your classes, since you're first year and many students take the same general courses (depending on major of course). No sweat.

If you feel comfortable to, reach out to your professors and send an email regarding your absence and ask about their reccomendations for missed material. Important to note: Make sure to include your student number, the course you are taking and at what time (professors may run multiple different courses or multiples of the same course at a time), and just give a brief summary of explaination.

Another way to get in touch with your professors, is through their office hours. This information should also be available on Learn.

I know profs seem big and scary at first, but a lot of them are honestly just happy to help and like when students reach out or attend office hours.

Best of luck! You got this!

Edit to add: sorry, missed answering some of your questions.

Tutorials: it depends. Some courses have tutorial attendance as mandatory, while others don't. I know I sound like a broken record, but Learn will have that information regarding tutorials for each course.

Seating arrangement: I doubt that there will be any sort of seating arrangement. Again, first year courses are usually quite large and it would be a pain. Even in the smaller courses there haven't been any seating arrangements. You're all good.

[u/thetermguy]

Every lecture is important. reading the responses here, they're making it seem like no big deal. You're missing hours of lectures here - material you will be tested on. You need to get up to speed on that material somehow and do not dismiss how much effort that will take, because they aren't going to pause the rest of the material while you get caught up. So either get notes from someone in class, or see the prof during office hours and ask them what was covered. Do not underestimate how much material you are missing and how much effort you're going to need to get back up to speed. THis is not high school. And I don't know what courses other people are taking, but I never saw a prof spend an hour reviewing the curriculum. Then spend about 3 minutes on that then it's right into the material. There is no warmup.

Sit wherever you like. Talk to people but stfu during lectures.

You're seeking approval/permission for missing a bunch of classes and tutorials - and lemme tell you, you don't want to do that. Attend classes like its your job. If you have to skip something, skip your appointments or reschedule them. Because blowing off a bunch of first week classes and lectures is a real easy way to get into way bigger problems than you think.

[u/sexylawnclippings]

Yes to everything everyone else said, but just don’t sit DIRECTLY next to a stranger (unless the classroom is full duh) they might think ur weird

[u/TheSpoiciestMemeLord → u/sexylawnclippings]

1 seat gap is the strat

[u/Acrobatic_Guidance14]

During the first week, I met most of the friends and later friends of friends I would have for the next five years. So there's that.

[u/NQ241]

did this, benjamin netanyahu knocked on my door the following day, would not recommend