I thought my final time registering for classes would go much more smoothly than it did Monday morning.
Like every year, I woke up early, watched until the second hand hit 7:00 a.m., clicked “Submit,” and prayed WebAdvisor would work. Unlike most years, I wasn’t overly stressed because I wasn’t trying to get into Dr. Smith’s Shakespeare class (R.I.P. last semester’s dream).
But lo and behold, the one and only class I needed to complete my major filled up between when WebAdvisor crashed and when I got back on.
I couldn’t graduate.
After a mini panic attack, I realized everything would be okay. The college isn’t in the habit of trying to keep us here an extra semester because a class filled up. And thankfully, the gracious and understanding English department had the whole situation worked out for me by 1 p.m. on Tuesday.
I can graduate in May 2016, but I can’t help but think we need a better system.
It’s not uncommon for classes to fill up with either non-majors fulfilling core requirements (when there are often three or four other options of classes they could take) or underclassmen registering as seniors who still have time to take the class. For a senior in a particular major who cannot graduate without that specific class, such a situation proves frustrating.
Therefore, I suggest two changes: First, students who are graduating in the fall or spring of any given school year should get first dibs on all classes, and majors should get preference over non-majors.
I spoke to the registrar, Douglas McArthur, who kindly explained that the rubric required to make my dream a reality would be extremely complicated and that he doesn’t know how to fashion one to solve this problem. And, admittedly, neither do I. However, perhaps the college could hire someone with the technical prowess I don’t have to develop a system like this.
First, we’d have to redefine “seniors” as “those who plan to graduate in the fall or spring of any given year.” Example: Sally, who came to Hillsdale with 500 AP credits and plans to graduate in 2017 cannot register before Tom who is graduating in 2016.
Students would need to inform the registrar when they plan to graduate, so that students graduating a year early would get the same preference as seniors. Thus, a student’s extra AP credits would help him register earlier as a grade-year freshman and sophomore, but not necessarily when he is a junior (unless he decides to graduate early).
Next, students would need to declare their majors in order to get preference in classes within their majors.
Registration would still work via seniority, but we would have two weeks of registration. The first week, seniors, juniors, and sophomores would register for only classes in their major (seniors on Monday, juniors on Wednesday, etc.). The second week, everyone would register for classes outside of their major.
Even though Hillsdale is a liberal arts college and encourages taking classes outside of one’s major, students still need to graduate with a major. Thus, a system like this would alleviate some registration stress if the college could develop a the necessary computer system.
McArthur said that besides our current use of computers (which definitely improved the process), the registration system today is the same as it’s been for decades – and he was open to new ideas if anyone had something that would work better.
