Today was my day to register for classes for the Fall 2007 semester. Unfortunately for me, this did not go smoothly. The first problem was that my registration time was 3:30 PM. I have my Chemistry Lab from 1:30-4:50, so obviously my time conflicted with my classes. Thankfully, another student in my lab asked my professor to leave for registration, and was allowed to do so. Naturally, I thought I should do the same, since I wasn't sure my classes would still be available after my lab was finished. So, that's what I did, and she allowed me to go also.
There are actually two ways to go about registering for classes. The first is to go to the Office of the Registrar and have them do it. The other way is to log into the online portal from any computer and choose classes by oneself. I chose to register by myself, since in the past, the lines at the Registrar's office have been long and move very slowly. However, when I tried to get my classes after 3:30, the server told me that there was a hold on my account from the Biology Department. (Holds prevent one from registering.) It said that I needed to meet with my advisor, which I already had done on Tuesday. (We have to meet with our advisor before registering just so they get an idea of what we are doing.) So I called my advisor; no answer. I went to the Biology Department office and inquired about the hold. Apparently the secretary had sent an e-mail just this morning to remove my hold. Alas, the Registrar did not check her e-mail, and therefore did not get the message. So, she took care of it over the phone, and I rushed back to my room.
Now that the hold was gone, I could register. Wrong again. This time when I logged on, it told me there were too many people using the server, and to try again later. There is no later! I need to register NOW! So I kept trying (ahh, perseverance), but to no avail. So now I filled out the old paper form to do my registration at the Registrar's office. I went down there, stood in line, and explained my sob story about the Internet. The guy let me go in, and I waited in line some more. When it was my turn, the guy looked at my form for a split second and said, "You don't have your advisor's signature. You have to have a signature in order to register here." So, I told my story again, but he was not moved. "You take full responsibility when you register online. I can't help you if you don't have an advisor's signature." Then I calmly took back my form and tried my hardest to hold in my anger. No, I didn't blow up at anyone, but I was heard to utter some not-so-nice things about the whole registration process.
At this point, I had been out of my lab for more than half an hour, so I figured I might as well go back. I got back and went back to work on my experiment, and while I was gone, the professor had designated someone to do part of my experiment for me. What a great lady, huh? I never would have thought she'd be so nice to me! Anyways, once I finished the lab at around 4:45, I came back to my room to try once again. I had been reassured by the classmate that also registered today that my classes would still be open, since many people don't register until tomorrow. So, once again, I logged into the portal, and it let me this time. I got all the classes I wanted, and everything fit in very nicely. So, all in all, I guess registration went well, but I still didn't like the steps leading up to it. Here are the classes I will be taking in the Fall:
Vertebrate Physiology
Vertebrate Physiology Lab
U.S. History I
College Physics I
Introductory Physics Lab I
Theology and Ecology
E Pluribus Unum (Ethics/Religion and Society Elective)
That amounts to 15 credit hours, which I also took this semester. I will have four classes on Monday and Wednesday, three on Friday, two on Thursday, and one on Tuesday. I think that should work out very well, and some of these classes should be rather interesting.
Well, there's my story for today. I have another Chemistry-related post for later, now that I have written a book today. I hope y'all are enjoying your week, and I will try to post again this weekend.
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4 comments:
OMG this post brought back a lot of registration nightmares for me. I was working full-time and taking classes at night and it was next to impossible to register at night since no one who could sign anything worked past 5pm. So I usually had to take a day off work and do the running around to get signatures needed and then back to wait in line some more. It was always a huge hassle. I would have hoped that it was better today, but I guess not.
I have believed that doing things on line makes it easier and schools were going to be good at that. Like Erika, I had my troubles getting registered for classes. Sometimes a class is not offered but once a year and it is imperative to get in, now. I remember long lines and confusing directions, check points to insure you were not jumping the system, and insufficiently trained persons giving information on what to do.
I will be interested in hearing about that U.S. History course. i have been told that it has changed greatly in the recent past.
I always disliked registration too, but there were some things that I learned that made it less painful.
1. When you start to get into your 3rd and 4th years, enough people have dropped out or gone into different fields so that those level of classes don't usually fill up.
2. If a class is full, get an override card and attend the class as if you are enrolled. After 1 or 2 sessions enough people will have dropped out and the teacher will officially let you in, as you have demonstrated the willingness to stick it out.
Those never failed for me.
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