(Over)thinking ahead can make your perfect schedule a reality
Graphic via Dreamstine.
Course selection is upon us, fellow students — and if you’re anything like me, you await your assigned registration time with fearful anticipation. Who knows which classes UVic will offer from the master list? Will all of your prerequisites fit into the same schedule? Don’t even get me started on the dreaded waitlist.
For the past three years, I have gathered a set of registration strategies with all the diligence of an anxiety-ridden plan-lover. Personally, making decisions for the future makes me uncomfortably aware of whatever I’ve eaten for lunch. For those of you who get just as queasy about selecting courses as I do, I offer up my best advice for registration.
Check your program requirements
I hope this one goes without saying. But if you’re still wondering which classes you actually need to take, the best place to find them is UVic’s academic calendar. The “Programs” page (in both undergraduate and graduate versions) has checklists for every program and certificate at UVic, filled with so many details about requirements I find myself in danger of swooning.
See what they’re actually offering
So you’ve made a list of the classes you need, and perhaps an elective or two to bump up the GPA. But when you search for them on the registration page, half of them are nowhere to be found, and now the remaining options are starting to fill up. In other words — it’s my worst course selection nightmare. Luckily, there’s an easy way to get that disappointment over with: check out the actual class offerings by term on the UVic registration page — before you make your list of classes you need and classes you want.
Plan Ahead
UVic’s schedule-planning tool, Plan Ahead, is perhaps the pinnacle of my registration strategies. Besides building out your term schedule using the actual class times, you can save your plan in the system and use it to sign up for classes when registration day arrives. No need to search in a panic, wondering if the classes you want are already filled up — you can submit all of them at once, and use all of that leftover time to burn off the registration-day adrenaline.
Back up your backups
A plan is not a plan without a backup — or, in the case of course registrations, four backups. Personally, I make myself a “just in case” schedule for each term, rather than scrambling to find another class or section that fits into Plan A. Does it take extra time? Sure. Would I rather leave it to chance? No way. Plus, Plan Ahead lets you save up to four backups per term.
Timing is everything
It seems like every time I receive the email with my registration time, it falls in the middle of the day. For those of us with summer employment, this timing is especially tricky; signing up for courses in the middle of the workday doesn’t tend to mix with, well, work.
So, if your assigned time doesn’t cooperate with your schedule, find yourself a trusted associate to submit your plan on time. A parent, a sibling, an unemployed friend — show them your plan and backups ahead of time to avoid any frantic text exchanges on the day itself. Just make sure to keep an eye on your phone for multi-factor authentication, because come registration day, Duo Mobile won’t be doing us anxious planners any favours.
