It is that time of the semester again already—registration for next semester’s classes. Registration for Spring 2013 begins next week, Nov. 12. Many of you are probably bogged down right now with all of the stress that comes with the last month of classes, like preparing for research papers, projects and so forth, so a few good tips to help lighten the additional burden of worrying about next semester would probably be useful:
1. Make an appointment with your advisor. Sometimes it might be better to even confer with more than one just to insure that you are on the right track (some advisors appear to know more than others). Also, talk with your professors. They tend to know things, too!
2. Check your CAPP. You can access it through Banner (Go to Student Services and, then, Student Records). It can be an extremely useful asset in determining about where you are—which classes you have already taken and which ones you have left to take.
3. Go to your department and get a list of class rotations if it is available. Some classes are only offered certain semesters of certain years. When you get down to your last year or two, this can be very important in determining when you will be able to graduate. You do not want to be stuck waiting around another semester or two for just one class.
4. Ask around about professors. Get opinions. Check out the website “Rate My Professors.”
5. You can look up the classes that you have decided on through Banner also. Write down the information for each class—times, days and CRNs. Double check that it will fit in with your schedule.
6. Construct a back-up schedule! The chances are good that you may not get all of the classes that you want, and when this happens, you will want to have a Plan B for efficiency.
7. Look carefully at the number of hours you have chosen to take in comparison with the potential difficulty and amount of work involved in each class. You can access the UTM course catalog online and read descriptions of your classes to get an idea of what exactly they are. Once again, you can also simply ask around campus. Know your limits!
8. Know when it is your turn to register. Your advisor should tell you. If not, ask someone, or you can also check out the website http://www.utm.edu/departments/ registrar/appointments.php. Note that it tells you your date of registration based on the number of hours you have earned prior to this semester.
9. During registration week, continually check up on the classes that you plan to take and check whether they are full so that you will not be caught off guard when it is your turn to register.
10. Be ready! If you can, a few minutes before your time to register, go ahead and type in the CRN of your chosen classes in the slots provided under Add/Drop Classes in Banner. Once it is your time, you can click submit!
