October 20, 2026
With fall break behind us we're into the second half of the semester. The second half of the fall semester is tricky - four weeks of classes, one week off for Thanksgiving, then basically one more week of classes before exams. That will go by more quickly than you think (especially since, as SMPA students, you're going to spend a lot of the next two weeks obsessing about the mid-term elections).
With that in mind, some unsolicited advice for keeping on top of everything and staying healthy.
First: Plan
- Put all of your class deadlines in your calendar, just as you do your work, internship, and class schedules.
- Walk back from those deadlines to final drafts, earlier drafts, research, and all of the other steps between the deadline and today. Put those in your calendar as well.
- Adjust your calendar to make deadlines and intermediate steps more manageable. You know what's coming, it's in your syllabi. Plan around the knowns.
- Bear in mind that stuff will come up. You will get sick, the interview you were counting on will fall through, the resource you need will be unavailable, a raccoon will steal your laptop (less likely than getting sick, but they’re dextrous and can be jerks).
Second: Take care of yourself
- Sleep is a wonder drug. It keeps your mind at its sharpest, it helps prevent you from getting sick, and it prevents you making too many foolish decisions. Get sleep.
- Unless you have a serious medical reason not to, get your flu and COVID shots.
- Watch what you eat and drink. Stay hydrated.
- Exercise, take walks, touch grass (the Potomac River is less than a 10 minute walk from campus, Rock Creek Park is an easy bike ride or Uber). Being in nature can cure a lot of ills
Third: Talk to your professors
- The time to let your professors know you’re not sure you can hit a deadline, that you don't fully understand a concept or assignment, or that you're otherwise worried about a class is today. Maybe yesterday. Saying you can't hit a deadline the day before something is due is too late, by that point you will have known about the deadline for at least two months. Your failure to plan is not your professor's crisis. We all want you to do good work - afterall, we have to read, watch, or listen to what you turn in, we'd rather it be good. Let us help you do that.
Fourth: Ask for help and offer it
- This is a corollary to talking to your professors. If you're struggling outside of class - with health, stress, or emotional challenges, ask for help. Sometimes a professor you're close to can offer advice or just offer an ear. GW has a long list of supports (academic and non-academic) for students, take advantage of them. SMPA has the Roberts Fund for emergency financial needs.
- If you see a classmate struggling, offer to help. That can be an ear or shoulder, proofreading a paper, or encouraging them to talk to a professor or professional at GW.
- Communities help each other, SMPA is a community, so lean on your community if you need help and provide help where it’s needed.
Finally: You'll get through this
- The semester will end, you will turn in assignments and take exams (or in rare cases get incompletes), and life will go on. You might not get the grades you want and you might not love what you turn in, but life will continue anyway. Last week I was invited to give a talk at Arizona State University. I dropped out of a PhD program at ASU in part because I was working in politics and in part because I blew advanced methods in two different departments, not how I intended to end my academic career. Stuff tends to work out in the long run.
Onward into the rest of the fall semester.