UTC is a fixed 24 hour time zone and does not change with Daylight Savings Time
There is no 11:59 PM UTC - 1159 UTC is 11hr 59m after midnight.
If your time zone has Daylight Savings Time, your relation to UTC changes.
UTC is 4 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) but 5 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time (EST).
Daylight savings starts the second Sunday of March, and ends the first Sunday of November. Therefore, it only switches once a semester, so you should set a reminder for yourself.
In Atlanta, UTC is 4 hours ahead of local time on any day in October
In Atlanta, UTC is 5 hours ahead of local time on any day in December
We recommend using a website like timeanddate.com to check the difference between your timezone and UTC.
Each class determines their due dates differently. Some use UTC. Some use ET. Some use AoE (look that one up)
Windows has a feature where you can add time zones to your system clock.
If you expect to work with people in other time zones, grad school is a great time to become comfortable with converting to other time zones.