Mark your calendars. Fall 2016 class registration is fast approaching and you do NOT want to be unprepared. It is probably the worst day of the semester because your entire future depends on that one day (no pressure though). Tips of the trade: meet with your advisor, have plenty of back ups, type as fast as you can, don’t get your hopes up. It’s a 10-minute experience that can ruin your entire day (if you let it) or make your day the best ever and then you can ride that high for the rest of the semester. It’s a wild ride, so you better fasten your metaphorical seat belts as you undergo the 10 stages of registration at Providence College !
Where you search and add/drop classes (the most unreliable website at PC.)
The number you need to type in before you can register (4 digits from hell.)
The number assigned to each class on cyberfriar (make sure you copy it right because it’s life or death.)
The moment you type and click as if your life depends on it (it does.)
The person who will give you the best info so listen to them (usually.)
The course list for the next semester is FINALLY released on cyberfriar and you can’t wait to start planning your life. You spend hours crafting the perfect schedule with the best professors (after consulting ratemyprofessors.com) and you are on top of the world.
(Hint: take Educational Psychology with Dr. Kevin O’Connor and for your theology 200 try to take New Testament with Fr. Leo Checkai)
You’re boasting to all your friends about your perfect life and how great next semester is going to be. You know that you are the crème de la crème and that you can do no wrong. You are positive that you’ll get every class you want and that nothing can go wrong on registration day because you’ll preregister for your major and only have to type in 2 or 3 CRNs. You have already met with your advisor and you got your ALT pin for registration morning.
But what if you don’t get your classes? What if everyone wants to take the same major courses you want to take and you don’t get in? What if everyone realizes that the section of philosophy with Dr. Costello is the best one to take so they all register for it? These thoughts WILL kick in and you WILL freak out internally. You’ll probably still brag to your friends though because you’re vain.
You look at the course schedule every day to make sure the athletes haven’t taken all the spots in your favorite classes. Then, the class year ahead of you registers and you just know that all the ethics and theology classes will be filled. You start to feel that weight on your chest that you’ll have to alter your perfect schedule. If you’re as stubborn as I am, you’ll refuse to take the “good” classes in favor of having no classes on Friday and take “just okay” classes.
It’s the day before registration. Literally every class you want is full. Back to the drawing board to try to craft the not so perfect schedule. You start realizing that you have to wake up at 7 am the next day and suffer through registration. You haven’t been practicing waking up that early so you set 10 alarms and put your ringer on loud to be safe. You charge your laptop all day and all night to be sure that you have enough battery for the morning. You find the number for enrollment services in case cyberfriar crashes (lol it will). You have flashbacks to the last registration and freak out because you still have PTSD and realize you’ll have to go through that all over again tomorrow.
Alright it’s 7 am, you’re waking up in the morning, gotta be fresh for registration. You log into cyberfriar, realize you have 30 minutes to go so you run to the bathroom and then sprint back to your bed. Sweet, its 7:05 and you have 25 more minutes. You get your ALT pin all ready to go and your paper with the CRNs you have to type in (you maybe even practice in Microsoft word to prepare yourself and improve your speed). You take a few deep breaths and before you know it, it’s 7:29 and it’s time.
No matter how much you prepare for this moment, you are half a second too fast or too slow so basically cyberfriar is down before you can even log in with your ALT pin. You start screaming at your computer to load faster and throw the nearest thing to you across the room. Finally, you’re in, and typing your CRNs as fast as humanly possible. SUCCESS you hit submit then wait for what seems like 8 years. Then 1 of 3 things happens: you get all your classes (luckiest person on campus), you get some of your classes (still lucky), or you get none of your classes. If 2 or 3 happens, you grab your list of back up courses and type those in quickly and pray to god that they aren’t closed yet either. (All of this happens by 7:35). If they’re all closed, good luck. You choose whatever classes are left and hope for the best.
NO I DON’T WANT TO HEAR HOW GREAT YOUR REGISTRATION WAS BECAUSE MINE WAS AWFUL AND I CRIED!!!!! When your friends text you to see how it’s going and if you got the classes you wanted you scream and throw your phone across the room because you most definitely did not get those classes and they don’t need to rub salt in your fresh wounds. It seems like everyone else on campus got exactly what they wanted and here you are sitting on your bed with a less than stellar schedule in classes with no one you know while your friends all got into that CIV class together with the really good professor but you’re stuck with the philosophy professor who got a -5.00 on ratemyprofessor. So yeah, you’re a little bitter at the moment.
There was nothing you could have done better. You tried your hardest. You did everything right. It’s okay. Everything will work out for the best. Time to get up for the day (or go back to sleep) because it’s all over, and there’s nothing you can do but wait and hope someone drops a class you want or just go with the flow with your new schedule.
You’re done. Thank the high heavens because you’re still shaking from anger, sleep deprivation, panic, and delirium. You stand up and realize that you’ve actually registered for classes and the worst of the day is over because nothing can compare to that disaster. You decide you’re going to go to Dunkin and treat yo’ self with an iced coffee. Since you don’t have class for a while, you watch an episode on Netflix and decide that you’re going to make the best of what you’ve got.
You check the PC app later that night and see who is in your classes. You actually see people you like and can sit next to in class. And oh wait, is that a hockey player in your class? Oh yes it most definitely is. So maybe this next semester wont be as horrible as you initially thought it would be. Maybe, just maybe, you lucked out with this registration and it’ll be a great semester, maybe even the best one yet. Only time will tell. The only thing that matters is that registration is over for 6 more months so you can rest easy until mid-November when you have to repeat these steps all over again.
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