You remember it well: 7 a.m. on registration day. Your hand twitched over the mouse, and despite your still-dark surroundings and overall grogginess, you were screaming inside.
The next five minutes were a frantic scramble of forgotten passwords, copying and pasting, automated messages and, at times, rather violent keyboard slamming.
Whether your required classes were full, your planned schedule turned out to be horribly inconvenient or a pesky registration hold materialized overnight, you left KnightWeb with a sinking feeling.
At the bleary time of 7:06 a.m., this jam might have seemed insurmountable. Luckily, the six minutes you spent on your initial registration don’t have to define the next four months of your academic existence - there is a wide range of ways to refine or even redefine your early-morning scheduling attempt.
The first step is devising a plan for persistence. Registration is not over just because the mass exodus of satisfied registrants from KnightWeb has begun.
Throughout the next two registration periods - “all students” registration Nov. 12-16 and “open registration” Jan. 2-16 - keep an eye on your missing classes. There’s no doubt that other students are in the same situation that you are, and class swaps will be frequent.
But what if the ominous “C” next to your most important class on KnightWeb just won’t budge?
Contact the professor asking politely for an overload into the course. While sending the professor an email is certainly an option, you can avoid overload limbo by visiting them during their scheduled office hours. An in-person conversation will allow you to explain more why you need to take the class. You might even glean some important advice on pursuing your major successfully.
Conversely, you may have registered for all of your classes but then realized that your schedule is horribly inconvenient for a variety of reasons. Is it too challenging, not challenging enough or does it have class times that you simply can’t handle? It’s time to determine whether or not this schedule is right for you.
A meeting with your adviser might be necessary to re-evaluate the path you’re taking before the next registration opportunity comes up. Once you’ve determined a schedule that makes more sense, attack open registration with the same voracity you did the original registration day.
If, during registration, you found that your account was possessed by a financial or advisement-related hold, you should act immediately. Financial holds can be paid quickly by credit card on KnightWeb. If you are facing an advisement hold, contact your adviser to clear it. Then, work on overloading into classes and looking for class swaps.
While a bit of preplanning goes a long way, all of us experience registration flukes from time to time. Don’t allow them to get the best of you. Acting calmly and rationally in these situations can make all the difference in your final schedule.
When in doubt, call the Office of the Registrar, Erwin 102.