It’s that time of year again—scarier than Halloween and potentially more rewarding than Christmas: registering for spring classes. While it’s fun at first to build a new schedule and look at all of the interesting, unique, and downright bizarre course offerings, it can quickly become overwhelming. In order to avoid a registration meltdown, here are five tips for smooth sailing on registration morning.
1. Actually meet with your advisor(s)
They don’t just want you to schedule a meeting with them for their health—advisors can help you decide what classes to take now, which ones to save for later, and which ones are a waste of your time. Though it’s tempting to ignore the scores of emails sent out each day, pay attention to the ones coming from your advisor, and set up an appointment with them. Also, know who your advisor is, and make sure they know you because they can only do so much for you if they’ve never seen you before registration.
2. Know your registration time
This may seem obvious, but a lot of schools schedule registration by how many credits students have earned (this way seniors register first). Especially if you’ve been around longer than one or two semesters, it’s easy to lose track of how many credits you have. Therefore, check this out ahead of time, and make sure your registration time slot is seared into your brain. Because you miss it, your life is over. Not really. But almost.
3. Make a plan ahead of time
Don’t wait until the morning of to pick out your classes. It may seem like a good idea at first because you’ll know the classes you’re looking at are still open, but resist the urge. Registration isn’t the time to procrastinate. Save that for finals week, and use your self-motivation to make a detailed schedule that you won’t hate following for an entire semester.
4. Make a backup plan ahead of time
Since you followed the advice above and picked out your classes before registration even began, you’ll also need to make a backup plan (or two) just in case some of the classes you picked out are full when you’re registration time rolls around. This way you won’t have to scramble if one the classes you picked out originally is full—you can just slate in a back-up. This step is especially crucial if you’re low on the registration totem pole (sorry freshmen). However, you can avoid some scrambling by checking the availability of the classes you chose the night before you register.
5. Don't check Rate My Professor (or other equivalents)
Seriously, this might seem like a good idea ahead of time, but don't do it. Those sites are never accurate because the only people posting on them are the ones who were bitter enough about a class to go online and trash the professor. I've never had a bad experience with a professor, and I've also never posted a review of one online. Instead, try talking to your friends and classmates ahead of time to get a feel for what the professor in question is actually like. Of course, you'll never know for sure until you take a class with them, but talking to real live people (scary, I know) instead of consulting the internet will get you far more accurate feedback.
6. Have an Ethernet cable, especially if your campus's WiFi is spotty
There's nothing worse than getting booted off the wifi just as you're hitting submit on your schedule. In order to avoid this, and thus avoid being the person fleeing the residence hall for a computer lab in their pajamas at 7 in the morning, either buy or borrow an Ethernet cable. You'll probably get faster internet, and you definitely won't get kicked off the wifi during registration.
7. Set a reliable alarm (or two)
I’m not sure what time of day every other college on the planet chooses for registration, but here at Drake your time slot is either going to be 7:00 a.m. or 7:30 a.m. Since most of us are usually still asleep at these cringe-worthy times, it’s essential to have a reliable alarm clock and the motivation to get out of bed. If you’re someone that struggles with getting out of bed in the morning, set an alarm across the room so you have to get up to shut it off. Then you’re awake, out of bed, semi-coherent, and ready for registration8. Take a deep breath
Registration is stressful, but luckily it doesn't last very long. Days or even weeks of plotting usually culminates in 10 seconds of furiously typing in numbers and hitting submit. And if you don't get exactly what you want this time, there's always next semester. So when you're registering, just remember that everything will work out fine. Besides, the arrival of registration means something far worthier of a stress-induced panic attack is just around the corner: finals week.
