Well, that went quickly. That may be what many of our readers are feeling after another registration season passes us by. It is one of the most stressful things a student has to achieve, and it comes when they are right in the thick of the spring semester, a time where, if you fall behind, you may very well cascade into failure.
Registration is one of those things that can never truly be perfect, but improvements are needed. Some of them have already happened, with one such example being an increase in online classes, which are a boon for commuter students looking to tackle those general education classes. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of them, and the seats in them usually go faster than Taylor Swift tickets.
This is frustrating, particularly during senior year when graduation may be dependent on a class that could be primarily run by a software program and does not require a professor to be lecturing for hours a day.
Some may luck out, though, and be blessed with priority registration status, like honors students and athletes, as they can register before anyone else. But the benefit of this status is becoming unfair when the rest of the proletariat must battle to be one of the hundreds of students this university shovels into perfunctory math courses every year. More freedom in the curriculum would alleviate some of this pressure and would benefit those selected topic courses that benefit a student in their future career, but we will not hold our breath awaiting that change.
In addition to scarcity, it feels like the registration process changes ever so slightly with each passing semester. This prevents students from ever truly getting into the routine and being able to be sufficiently prepared, with a new rule or special override that nobody knows about until the morning of registration.
So, while improvements have been made to the process, there are still major issues with scarcity. Most gen-eds and required low-level math classes were filled before the incoming freshman class finished their high school midterms. No amount of registration status or software processes is going to fix that.
The Slate welcomes thoughtful discussion on all of our stories, but please keep comments civil and on-topic. Read our full guidelines here.