Registration 101: How To Make Your Class Schedule Work For You
Okay, so boom. It’s 7:26 in the morning. Your alarm is just four minutes from going off and your sleeping, subconscious mind can just feel it. You realize that you have a long day of classes ahead of you and unfortunately, you won’t know know what it feels like to lay back down in bed for the next 10 hours. With all of that in the back of your mind while you lay there, you try your best to enjoy every second of it until 7:30 hits.
Then, your alarm suddenly goes off after what seems like only four seconds passes by. You’re questioning what made you add an 8 a.m. to your class schedule in the first place. You decide to skip the class and sleep in, consequently resulting in a missed text, forcing you to fail the class.
All because you didn’t make your class schedule work for you! Doing so can be tricky, but making it happen is definitely possible. Follow these next few tips and you’ll be glad you did!
Talk To Your Academic Advisor
When it comes to creating your class schedule, your academic advisor should become your best friend. At most colleges and institutions, advisors are widely available and there to help you with all your scheduling needs. They’ll let you know what classes you should take, what classes are most popular among your peers and are filling up fast, as well as the difficulties of each course, allowing you to balance out how vigorous your overall class schedule will be.
I recommend having this be your first step of the process. Speak to them and have them give you somewhat of a guideline of the classes they’d suggest you take, and take it from there!
See What Options You Have
Most advisor meetings are timed and only last roughly 30 minutes or so, so when you finally get home, you can really sit down and dive deeper into detail when searching for class schedule options.
Look at your list of courses you’re interested in taking and see how many different class times are offered. View the requirements of the class (prerequisites) and whether or not that class is a requirement for classes you may need to take in the future. See how full the classes are and try to gauge how quickly they’re filling up. If you’re not 100% sure whether or not you want in on a class and there’s only a couple seats left, go ahead and register to save your spot. If you happen to change your mind, you can always go back and drop the course before the semester actually starts.
RateMyProfessor.com
If by any chance the creator of this site happens to read this article, I’m sure I can speak on behalf of the entire world’s student body when I say THANK YOU. The use of this website is imperative when creative your class schedule.
It gives you total insight on what to expect from a professor and their course. An accumulation of things like attendance, course difficulty, textbook use/price, curriculum, and methods of teaching are all combined, resulting in one overall grade of the professor on a scale from A to F.
My suggestion is to search every professor you’re thinking about taking before you actually register, and take heed of their grading! You just might be better off taking an 8 a.m. class with a great professor as opposed to 2 p.m. with a terrible professor.
Register Early
Early bird gets the worm! This will really start to become crucial when you get into the actual classes of your major, because there are often less classes offered. When you get your time ticket for when registration opens, make sure you’re already on your computer and logged in five minutes prior. Chances are, numerous other students are doing the same thing, so you might experience some delays or crashings of the site. However, having the chance to get the first pick of the litter will definitely be worth it! Believe me.
Do You
Overall, you should focus on creating a class schedule that personally works for you. Don’t register for a bunch of classes back to back if you know you get burned out easily. And vice versa, don’t space out your schedule if you have tons of other responsibilities and obligations throughout the day. Follow the aforementioned steps and do what’s best for you! By doing so, your class schedule will come out exactly how you want it more times than not!
