With school starting next month, I wanted to create a checklist for your first day of law school! This is geared toward 1L’s, but most of these apply to all law students. Whether you will be on campus or virtual, these are all good things to cross off your list before school starts to keep your life together before everything gets busy. Hope you all find this checklist helpful!

1. Buy or Rent Your Textbooks- Some people wait until school starts to get their books, but sometimes it can take a while for books to ship if you order them online. Best to be prepared, so try to get all of your books ahead of time if possible.
2. Get a Planner- I want to do an entire post on how I use my planner to keep my life together, but please, if you take anything away from this post, BUY A PLANNER!!! It is too stressful trying to keep everything on your phone/ computer, and it is a huge help having a physical planner.
3. Finalize Financial Aid- Make sure you’ve done everything you need to do for FAFSA/ loans/ scholarships. This will completely depend on your school, but just stay on top of everything and make sure you don’t miss any requirements or deadlines.
4. Make a Budget- I like to create a budget before each semester so that it’s easier to stay on top of my spending and expenses. I use Mint, which is free.
5. Make Sure You’re Getting Your School Emails- Make sure you’re getting your school emails! And make sure Canvas/ Twen/ Whatever your school uses is sending emails to your primary school email address.
6. Relax!- These next few weeks will be the most peaceful weeks you have until winter break. I don’t say that to stress you out, but make sure you take plenty of time for yourself so that you start the semester on the best note possible.
7. Organize & Clean Your Space- This is the best time to finish up anything you need to around your room/ apartment/ house. Any organizing or tasks you’ve had on your ToDo list for a while need to get done now, because once you start law school you won’t have time.
8. Social Media Clean Up- Law school is vastly different than undergrad. Law school is a professional school, and your professional reputation will stick with you. I would suggest putting your social media accounts on private and taking your last name off your accounts. It’s also a good idea to delete any inappropriate pictures from college that may be lingering on your feed.
9. Update Your Resume- You most likely worked hard on your law school application resume, but make sure you update it by adding your law school to it.
10. Update Your LinkedIn- Similar to your resume, you want to always keep this updated because it will come in handy for networking/ job searches.
11. First Day Reading- If you have pre-assigned reading for the first day, do this a few days in advance. Legal reading can be difficult to get used to, and it might take you longer to complete. So don’t save this for the night before class starts.
12. Print Your Syllabi and Add Important Dates to Your Planner- Hopefully you are able to access your syllabi before the first day of classes. If so, review the information thoroughly and add important dates to your planner.
13. Laptop Updates- When you have your notes on your computer, you don’t want to deal with the stress of something going wrong during class! Now is a great time to update your computer software, Microsoft, make sure you have plenty of storage, etc.
14. Order Business Cards- This isn’t necessary, but I would recommend it! You never know when someone will ask for one, and as a law student you will stand out if you’re prepared and always have them with you.
15. Visit Campus if Possible- Ignore this if your classes will be entirely online. But if you will be on campus, try to visit and get adjusted to the layout of the law school building to reduce stress when school starts!