It's the most wonderful time of the year! It's time to get ready for the next semester!
This week is course registration at Arcadia, and every single student is experiencing the same feelings of nervousness, distress, and anger. Will I get the classes I need to graduate? What if it fills up? My classes conflict! Gahhh. It's an underrated time in students' careers where our lives are in peril for this week and this week only.
But why should that be? Being able to register on time and continue our academic adventures should not be this painful. It should be painless; in a perfect world, every student would be able to sign up for what he or she needs. Unfortunately, we do not live in such a society. Instead, it's all about competition and first-come first-serve. That'd be okay if that was the only variable, but there are many missteps that can occur when registering.
First off, the whole process sometimes stalls for your advisor, who ultimately has to accept all your decisions. If your advisor does not email you back on time or have a time where they can meet with you, precious time trying to get into your course is wasted.
The system also punishes students on financial hold, which is not their fault most of the time. Sometimes, students do not even know they are on hold until a little bit before registration, and by that point, they may not be able to pay it back, especially in the case of parents or guardians who do not get paid at a specific time.
As an honors student, I will admit that giving honors students the privilege of choosing first can be problematic as well, especially if an underclassman honors student takes the last spot in a class that an upperclassman really needs to graduate.
The limited class offerings, conflicting times, and overall fear of not being able to take what you planned on taking that semester can freak out even the toughest students. It's not healthy, not needed, and not fun in the least. It just makes us panic until it's done with because it places even more stress on the future--and none of us need that negativity in our lives. For me, this semester in particular is troubling because it will be my first time registering while abroad, so who knows what could go wrong?
Overall, registering for classes is a thing straight from hell, and only the strong will survive. Good luck to everyone as we plan for the semester ahead--we're gonna need it.
