Okay I don’t know about you, but I think scheduling classes for the upcoming semester can be one of the most stressful things on earth. I kid you not it’s like every man for themselves since everyone is desperate to get all of the classes they either need or desperately want.

And to top it off registration takes place right in the midst of when you have a whole bunch of exams and papers due… like our lives aren’t stressful enough.

So after a few semesters of registering for classes I think I mastered some skills or tricks along the way. I found them helpful enough to make this whole process a little bit less dreadful and hopefully they’ll be able to help you as well!

1. Seek an Academic Advisor/Career Advisor

Before you even start making your schedule, I highly encourage you to seek advice from the professionals at your school. It’s literally their job to be there for you so make sure you are using your resources wisely!

Just make sure to schedule your appointment ahead of time because these academic advising offices can get pretty hectic around the registration period. So my advice to you is to consider going before this time period, it can literally be just a random day in which you don’t have much to do. I promise it will take about a total of 20 minutes tops but it’ll be worth it.

2. Ask friends 

Last year when it was time to register for classes, I remember clicking “register” and I immediately got a notification saying it wasn’t possible to register for classes due to some financial hold on my account. My heart literally sank. All I could think of was ‘shit my classes are all gone now’.

I was so stressed but thank god my friend came to the rescue and told me I can ask friends to hold me a class. I reached out to everyone and they were able to hold all of my classes for me. The next day the hold was revoked and I told my friends to drop the classes so I could register as soon as they dropped them.

So if you find yourself in a similar boat, or if you know people who register before you do, definitely try asking them to hold the class for you. It’ll ease some stress and you won’t have to worry about classes being filled.

3. Back to back classes?

Ain’t nobody got time for that…

I made the biggest mistake of my life when choosing my schedule for this semester. I thought it would be a bright idea to have multiple back to back classes since i figured, ‘hey i might as well just knock all of my classes out during the day’. Thinking I would be content with finishing the day kind of early.

Boy was I wrong… it’s such a pain in my ass. I legit have to carry a crapload of books, papers, notebooks, etc. Also I have to always have a snack and a water bottle on me because I just don’t have enough time to sit down and actually eat a meal.

So if you get tired easily or if you just can’t do classes for long periods of times, then definitely try avoiding having back to back classes. Also maybe try to get a decent gap between the classes so you’re not rushing from one place to another since some campuses are really big and getting from one end to another can take a while.

4. Reminders

If you’re like me then things slip your mind all the time. Therefore I encourage you to set an alarm or reminder for the day and time you need to register. Just last week, it was time to register for my classes and I almost forgot because I was too busy out eating ice cream. But luckily I actually set an alarm to remind me I needed to get my butt to my laptop and register for next semester.

Even if you’re not that forgetful like me, it doesn’t hurt to just put it down on your calendar and set a reminder because you never know, things come up when you least expect it and it can distract you from other things.

 

 

 

 

Well those are the top tips I think that are most helpful when it comes to registering for classes. Just remember if you don’t get the classes you really wanted or really needed, you have the ENTIRE summer and add/drop week. Trust me, students will be dropping classes left and right. Don’t get discouraged and happy registration!! 🙂