As the spring semester starts to face its final heartbeats, students across campus have been meeting with their advisors and reaching out to their friends for help deciding which courses they are going to take in the fall.
With changes made to ISP courses and faculty swapping out which courses they will teach, the recent course registration period has been different from those in the past. Students across campus shared how their experiences went registering for their classes and the challenges or lack of them that they faced in choosing their schedule for next semester.
Some students said they had a positive, easy experience. “As an athlete, I get preference class registration which is an earlier time,” first-year Molly Diamondstein, an elementary education and English dual major, shared. “I was able to work with a team to get help, and Kim Bohannon set up a meeting with me ahead of time to plan out my schedule and the classes I needed.”
Diamondstein’s tablemate, first-year safety major Liam McGurin, said he also had a low-stress experience. “It was pretty smooth and easy to do,” he said.
However, other students shared that the process was a difficult one, and has been for some time. “Registering was very difficult; I’m still not even done,” junior Gianna Scola shared. “I’m an art major and we are notoriously hard to make classes for. I’m in a new program that added on some more things, and I have to figure out my senior schedule because there’s a chance I might not even graduate.”
“Every year I feel like I fight for my freaking life,” Scola said through laughter. “There hasn’t been a single year I haven’t had to email a professor to see if I can get into a class, and trying to get into gen-eds is super hard. I’ll be a senior and I still haven’t gotten to all of mine.”
Other students shared that while registering for classes can be difficult, the process is made easier through help from faculty.
“Picking my classes went fine,” first-year Molly Heath said. “I didn’t have that many classes to pick from. I did register a little late and two of the classes I needed were full so I had to meet with my advisor. It was more difficult because my registration time was on the second day, so everyone took my classes before I got a chance too.”
Heath added that an 8:30 a.m. registration time was not the best.
Jonathan McPherson, another first-year, shared some advice on making registration easier.
“My registration went alright–it’s best to go to your advisor before you register,” McPherson said. “[Your] advisor will pick out what is best for you. It is a smooth process when you get help from your advisor and course major. I did that, so my registration was not too bad.”
Another student, first-year Helen Ennis, offered a small piece of advice for those who design registration instead of those who participate in it.
“I think they could make it less stressful, but honestly my experience was good,” Ennis shared.
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