Registrar’s Office Shares Advice for Course Selection

SOPHIA GOURLEY ’19
FEATURES EDITOR
In honor of Advising Week, The Trinity Tripod talked with Patricia McGregor of the Registrar’s Office about the best ways for students to prepare for course registration. Additional tips can be found on a document titled “Fall Registration Information” under the “Schedule of Classes” tab of the Registrar’s page on the college’s website or on the Trinity Today email.
Trinity Tripod: Which days is course registration held on this year, and what time will the portal open?
Patricia McGregor: Advance Registration runs from April 10-17, and students start enrolling at 7:00 each morning according to their class year.
TT: From the perspective of the Registrar, what is the best way to prepare for course registration?
PM: The best way to prepare for registration is to meet with your academic advisor well ahead of your appointment. Many advisors have a large number of advisees, so be certain to make an appointment early. Also, be flexible with your classes and have alternatives available. Trinity has small class sizes so many popular courses close quickly.
TT: What possible holds should students be aware of prior to attempting to register for classes?
PM: The most common holds that can impact registration are your advising hold (after you meet with your advisor, check to make certain the hold has been removed, faculty are sometimes interrupted and might forget to release it!), and holds from the Student Accounts Office. Less common holds that impact registration are holds from the QLIT and Writing Centers for students who need to fulfill requirements with those offices, sophomores who haven’t declared their major by the deadline, and the holds from students who have not completed the Bystander Training or who haven’t viewed the required video from the Women and Gender Resource Action Center. If you see a hold on your record (go to the Student Center in TCOnline to view them), contact the office listed in the hold to see what you need to do to clear the hold.
TT: What are some of the most common mistakes students make when trying to register for classes? How can these be prevented?
PM: The most common mistake is to watch for courses that require instructor consent. If you see the Y in this column, you need to obtain a PIN from the instructor in order to enroll. Another common mistake is not watching for prerequisites—if you haven’t met a listed prerequisite, you will need an override to enroll in the course. And finally, you want to make certain that when you enroll you receive a success notation and not an error—every semester we have a few students who think they are in a course, but actually received an error.
TT: What should a student do if they are placed on a waitlist, or do not get into the classes that they want/need to take?
PM: If a student wants to enroll in a closed course and the course has an online waitlist, they should place themselves on that waitlist and watch to see if seats open up. If they do, you can reach out to the instructor, although some instructors wait until closer to the start of the semester to fill open seats. If the course does not have an online waitlist, you should reach out to the instructor to be placed on their own waitlist, or ask for an override to enroll beyond the course limit. But, students need to remember that they can only place themselves on two online waitlists, so they need to prioritize which waitlists they really want. This helps to reassure faculty that the students on the list are definitely interested in enrolling in their course.