One of the perks of going to a small, liberal arts college is that the classes are smaller and there’s a wide range of subjects to choose from. Your professors are more available to you for extra-help and you don’t just have to take classes that fit within your major. However, while a liberal arts education aims to make you grow as a student, I’m convinced that the class registration process is designed to watch you crash and burn (especially if you’re a freshman or a sophomore). The class spots fill up faster than you can hit “enter” on your laptop, and the Internet will decide to lock you out of the website for 20 minutes past the start of your registration time. As a way to lighten up (and dramatize) this stressful and frustrating time of every semester, here are the 10 feelings you’ll likely experience during the course registration process, as told by characters on The Office.
1. Over-confidence
At the start of the class registration process, you’ve gone to see your academic advisor and you’ve picked out all of the classes that you want to take. You have a few back-ups just in case you don’t get your first choices of classes, but you’re convinced that everything will work out. You are even planning on going to some secret location on campus where no one else will be so the Wi-Fi will work faster. You’ve got this in the bag.
2. Realization
Throughout the day, some of your friends have told you a few of their own horror stories about class registration. One person lost their PIN number. Another person’s Internet was frozen for an hour. And another person only could register for one class. Then there’s that one person who got all four of their top choice classes in the first five minutes of registration (the other three people really resent this person). You’re beginning to realize that maybe you won’t end up getting some of your first choices. A small feeling of impending doom starts to settle in the pit of your stomach.
3. Nervousness, anxiety, and dread
It’s a few minutes before your registration time. You have butterflies in your stomach, and you can’t stop tapping your foot. You just want to get class registration over with, and with each passing minute you become slightly more nervous.
4. When your Internet stops working
The clock strikes 11:59, and you determinedly type in your PIN number and you press “submit.” But the website won’t load. How could this happen?? You heart stops in this near-death experience as you think of all the spots in your classes quickly being filled as your laptop still attempts to load. As Kelly so eloquently states:
5. Panic
Over five minutes have passed. You’ve tried exiting out of your browser, re-typing in your PIN number, turning your Wi-Fi on and off, but nothing seems to be helping your dire situation. You begin to slightly panic.
6. Denial
As friends begin to excitedly text you about the classes that they registered for, you still cannot seem to accept the fact that you haven’t even been able to log into the system. There’s no way that this is happening to you right now. Absolutely no way.
7. When your Internet finally loads
Wait a second; did your screen just change? Can you actually start selecting your classes now?? You frantically start typing in your course numbers. Your fingers are flying across the keyboard. You’re distraught, panicky, desperate, and borderline hysterical. The only feeling comparable to this is when Dwight starts a fire inside the office and all hell breaks loose.
8. Triumphant happiness
That feeling when you get into one of the classes on your list. It’s an elated, joyous happiness mixed with relief and a whole lot of triumph. You smirk at the system and the slow Internet. They couldn’t hold you back.
9. Disappointment
You got into one of your classes, but your feelings of euphoria start to dwindle away as you receive notification after notification that you’ve been waitlisted for yet another full class.
10. Acceptance
It’s been a tumultuous evening. You may or may not have gotten into a few of your classes. Hoping that you got on the waitlist soon enough so that you have good chances of getting into the class, you desperately email some of the professors about the possibility of taking their class. However, you know that there is nothing more that you can do at this point. You take a couple of deep breaths, and you accept the fact that even though you didn’t get into some of your top choice classes, you might end up loving the classes that you take.