Two weeks out: how to get ready for the August 17 class start

Set your countdown

Pick your start date and the plan below adjusts to how much time you actually have. Every date here is a real Premier cohort start.

Week one of prep: settle the money question

Do this first, because everything else is easier once it's decided. In-person tuition is $3,000 paid in full or $3,500 on a payment plan — $500 down and a $3,000 balance spread across installments. There's no advantage to guessing at the number; build your exact schedule in the Tuition Planner, which uses the same math as checkout.

If you're going the Workforce Solutions, WIOA, or GI Bill route, start that conversation now rather than the week before class. Those offices work on their own timeline, and a case manager who hears from you two weeks out has room to help. The Funding Finder will point you at the right door, and our WIOA walkthrough covers what to bring.

Week one: have the schedule conversations

Classes are in the daytime. Exact hours are something we'd rather tell you directly than guess at in a blog post, so call or text (903) 913-6444 and get the real ones — then work backward from there.

With the actual hours in hand, three conversations get much simpler:

• Your employer. If you're working, tell them now, not the Friday before. Two weeks of notice is the difference between a manager who reworks a schedule and one who feels blindsided. We wrote a whole script for this in how to tell your boss you're going back to school.
• Childcare. Line up the regular arrangement and a backup. The backup is the one you'll actually need.
• The drive. We're at 2800 Gilmer Rd, Suite 106 in Longview. If you're coming in from Kilgore, Gladewater, Henderson, White Oak, or Tyler, drive it once at the time of day you'd be driving it. Traffic at 7:40 a.m. is not traffic at 2 p.m.

Week two: paperwork and logistics

Day-one enrollment at Premier is electronic — you'll fill out your forms on your phone, and your student account gets created from that. Which means the useful prep is simply having your information handy rather than hunting for it in a parking lot: your ID, your contact details, and whoever you want listed as an emergency contact.

If you've got a funding voucher or a benefits letter, bring it or have a photo of it on your phone. If something about your situation is unusual — a name change, a schedule conflict on a specific day, a documented accommodation you need — tell us before the first morning. Nothing about that is a problem in advance. It's only a problem as a surprise.

The last few days: sleep, not cramming

There is no pre-work you're behind on. You do not need to have memorized tooth numbers, and you will not be quizzed on anything the first morning. What actually helps in the final stretch is boring: get your sleep schedule pointed the right direction, figure out what you're eating for lunch, and set out what you're wearing the night before.

If you want something to do with nervous energy, the honest best use of it is our flashcards for fifteen minutes a day — not to get ahead, just so the vocabulary sounds familiar the first time an instructor says it out loud. That's it. That's the whole recommendation.

What day one actually looks like

Rather than describe it twice, we've already written it out: your first day, what to expect walks through the morning hour by hour, and the first week at Premier covers where you'll be by Friday. Read those the weekend before. They do more for first-day nerves than any amount of studying.

If August doesn't work after all, the calendar keeps going: September 14, September 29, November 9, and November 17. All of them are on the calendar page, and a later start you can actually attend beats an earlier one you have to drop.

Keep reading: Your first day, what to expect · The first week at Premier · August classes in Longview