Leave it to colleges to have students thinking about next semester while waist-deep in work for this semester. Course registration can be particularly stressful, especially when you need That One Course That Always Seems To Evade Your Grasp No Matter How Early You Sign Up Or Email The Instructor (such an instance deserves a proper noun, and will henceforth be known as TOCTASTEYGNMHEYSUOETI for expediency’s sake). So, how can you ensure that you’ll not only get every course you want—from a 5,000-person lecture to the comically small TOCTASTEYGNMHEYSUOETI—but also get the most enjoyment you can from them? With these five tools, you’ll have a low-stress registration and, with a little luck, a low-stress semester.
1. The College Catalogue
E-town students can find the catalogue online, and though it’s probably not your most visited page, it’s incredibly useful for short-term and long-term course planning. The catalogue includes a comprehensive list of majors and minors offered by the institution, as well as course requirements and descriptions of individual courses. It also lets you know about course prerequisites, expectations and how often they are offered. For example, some upper-level courses may only be offered every other semester, or even every other fall or spring semester. With the catalogue, you’ll be able to throw together a few four-year plans to adjust as you go along your college journey.
2. Rate My Professors
Picture this: for the core curriculum you have to take BIO 104 – Biology and Anatomy of Claymation Animals. There are two offerings for this course taught by two different professors—Dr. John Wallace and Dr. Jane Gromit. Both would fit into your schedule. How do you choose which professor to take it with?
The answer is a little website called Rate My Professors. This website gives you reviews of professors from students. The reviews include the course taken, the difficulty of the professor and sometimes even the grade received. Other helpful info includes whether or not the textbook is necessary, and how much participation affects you final grade.
So, when you read that Dr. Wallace falls asleep on his feet in the middle of his own lectures and writes his tests in Wingdings, you’ll know that Dr. Gromit’s class is a much better choice.
3. Schedule Creator Websites
If you’re a visual learner like me, you can’t just look at a string of class times and automatically know what fits into your schedule. That’s why websites like Free College Schedule Maker are integral in the registration process. This specific website allows you to quickly plug in various courses, as well as their locations and instructors, to get a sense of what works for you. You can see if Biology and Anatomy of Claymation Animals overlaps with TOCTASTEYGNMHEYSUOETI, or if you’ll have enough time to grab lunch as you dash across campus between the two. When the semester finally rolls around, you can have the printed schedule up on your wall as a clear visual representation of when and where your classes meet.
4. Professors
We’re getting a bit more organic here in regards to resources. Sometimes it’s good to get information about courses that interest you straight from the instructors. Find out when Dr. Gromit’s office hours are so you can drop by and ask a few questions about Biology and Anatomy of Claymation Animals. You can always ask what will be in the course—I’d be sure to check if Pingu was to be covered in class—and find out what the expectations of the professor are. It’s also a good opportunity to meet professors so they know you and have a positive impression of you on the first day. Even if you don’t end up taking the course, it’s a good practice to be able to talk one-on-one with professors.
5. Students
I’m not talking about the students who post on Rate My Professors, since they are anonymous. In this case, I mean real students. Physical human beings. People on your campus. If you know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy’s cousin who’s taken a course you’re interested in or concerned about taking, message them or ask to meet and talk about the course. Getting a fresh perspective from a student, especially one currently in a course you wish to enroll in, can give you a better sense of what you’re getting yourself into. If the student hasn’t had that course, but has taken courses from a certain professor you’re bound to have, that’s great as well. It’s never too early to prepare for your future classes.
College can be stressful—it’s a given. Registering for courses, however, shouldn’t be. With these tools at your disposal, and with a few solid back-up plans in case a bunch of seniors nab TOCTASTEYGNMHEYSUOETI yet again, your registration process should be as simple as COM 123.