For those of you who will arrive on campus early, you might be wondering what to do with all of the free time you have before classes begin next week. One of the more useful things I did was spending some time exploring campus. I did this through the form of a leisurely bike ride, but you can just as easily walk around campus. This gives you a chance to get a feel for the streets and learn where each of your classes will be held. Furthermore, definitely make a trip to downtown Champaign and downtown Urbana. These downtowns are way nicer than you’d probably expect, and have better restaurants.

If you insist on buying your books sooner rather than later, you can do that now. The lines are usually not too long before classes begin, so you can spend a little time looking over everything they have for sale at the bookstores.

Finally, there will be lots of open house style events during the course of the next few weeks. There will be events for your floor, your dorm, the CS department, the ARC, and most fraternities/sororities. Take advantage of as many of these events as possible. They are great ways to learn about the many resources available on campus, and you really have nothing to lose (but a whole lot to gain) by attending. For bonus points, they usually have free food.