Just as the stress of midterms is starting to dwindle down, there is another issue at hand that is causing our blood pressure to spike above and beyond normal levels: registration.
In case you didn’t get the memo, registration for the spring 2015 semester for us freshmen starts tomorrow morning, Nov. 12.
“I am going to wake up early and register at exactly 7 a.m., I need to beat everyone else if I want to get the classes I am interested in,” freshman communication major Eduardo Rivera said.
With freshmen being the last to register, fighting for the remaining seats in a class is like fighting for your life in “The Hunger Games.” Okay, maybe not that dramatic, but still intense.
But before we can duel to the death for that philosophy class, we have to understand what we are doing. And, despite the overflow of packets and presentations, we still have nightmares about scheduling an 8 a.m. class. Most of all, we are flustered.
“Confused,” freshman Shari Uyehara said when asked how she felt about registration. “I can’t even think of another word, I am that confused.”
Rivera agrees that he was very lost in the beginning of the process, but meetings with his advisors really helped.
“I have two advisors and a quick session with each of them cleared up a lot of issues and answered a lot of my questions,” Rivera added.
But how many advisor meetings and department lectures do we need to attend before we have too much information?
“It’s kind of strange, how many advisors we have. One tells me to do this and another tells me to do that, talk about confusing,” freshman Amanda Critelli said.
Critelli, a communication major and a member of the volleyball team, already registered a week ago with other athletes.
So let’s face it, picking classes in high school was pretty anti-climatic. The biggest decisions we faced were choosing which AP classes to take and what period to schedule lunch. Needless to say, it was boring.
College classes, so far, are proving themselves to be an entirely different breed in terms of curriculum. Sure, we have core classes we have to get over with, which Rivera isn’t a fan of.
“I hate having to take three science classes for the school of arts,” he said.
But we also get to pick from a broad range of really unique and interesting classes.
“I am really excited to take some of the courses I picked for next semester. I signed up for a religion course called ‘Jesus.’ I mean, how cool is that?” Critelli said.
The greater choice is liberating, but also a little nerve-wracking. There are so many options and so little time to decide. The good news is that you can choose and schedule classes based on your preferences, something high school couldn’t offer.
Registration for freshman goes active online at 7 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 12. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor.