A couple years ago, I wrote an article about scheduling semesters around academic requirements, work responsibilities and the idea of taking care of yourself. I wrote it based on my experience at my community college. I was a student that had transferred to the school and was going to be transferring to another school after receiving my AA in English so I wasn’t claimed by any of the academic advisors. I had to do everything on my own- as you can tell if you read the article Scheduling Your Semester.
But when I prepared to move to Montana State University, I was happily claimed by my assigned academic advisor and it’s been a breeze to schedule my classes ever since.
It’s routine to be locked out of scheduling your classes during the registration period, the school wants you to take advantage of your advisors so that you can ask them questions about the direction you want to go. If you’re starting to get a sense of what career you might want to get into after graduation, then that professor is the person you go to for help at the end of the fall and spring semesters. They know more about the classes that are offered at the school than you do and your advisor can steer you towards the courses that will help you prepare for whatever career field you might be interested in.
Take the English program for example: you can do literally anything you want with an English degree. People can move on towards Law school or Anthropology; students can decide to go into Business Communications without a degree in business; English Writing students can hone in on specific interests to become creative nonfiction writers like magazine or news writing. SO if you take one random writing class at one semester and you’re totally in-love with it and daydream about doing that stuff for the rest of your life, your advisor is the person who will tell you what other classes are most similar and which other classes will help support that skill.
Scheduling Semesters
Check your requirements online- Write them down in detail, including course level numbers.
When I registered for my Fall 2017 classes, there was a mix up about the amount of Literature credits that I had towards my minor and what was still needed for me to graduate in May. It turned out that I needed one more upper division course rather than a lower division course. So rather than spend the extra money accidently, my advisor straightened that out for me. We’re working on getting me out of here!
Consult the “Schedule of Classes” site page on your school’s website, then create a “Wishlist” of the classes that are offered for the semester you’re registering for. If some classes conflict with others, look up which semesters they are offered and which semesters they are available that year and try to find alternatives.
If you prefer some instructors over others, look at that on the site pages as well. Even though it is a better idea not to enroll in only a few of the same instructors’ classes every year, I totally get it. BUT getting a variety of instructors in your department is better because they will all teach you how to think differently and hone in on your skills with different approaches. You can also end up with a variety of different mentors.
*Also* When making your “Wishlist”, look at section titles. For this fall, there are 4 Mythologies course sections available and they all have different instructors, so they all have different topics.
TRIPLE WHAMMY:
different times + different instructors + different topics = more to learn and discuss!!!!
Now get ready!
I sure am!
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