As an lower division adviser (one who advises first-year students and sophomores before they declare their major), I get a lot of great information from the Office of Academic Advising and the Registrar’s Office about course registration.  As registration is about to begin next week, I am going to copy and paste some of the info from those emails below.

Registration rounds start the week of November 7.  In the first round (Nov. 7 – Nov. 13, 11:59 pm) students can register for up to 8 hours.  In the second round (Nov. 14 on), students can complete registration up to 17 hours.  Each student can register at any time after his/her assigned time and up to the closing time for each round.  Registration times are set based on completed hours, so most second-year students will begin registration on Wednesday of each week and most first-year students on Thursday, although some will have earlier start times if they are in a higher classification by credit hours.

On Thursday, November 3rd from 4:00-6:00 PM in Luter Lounge, faculty from across campus will gather to discuss their departments, course offerings, majors/minors, and future career opportunities with first-year students. Pre-health, pre-law, and pre-business representatives will also be present.

On Nov. 10 & 17 from 5-9 pm, staff from the Office of Academic Advising will provide registration assistance in a designated first-year residence hall.  Closer to the start of registration rounds, students will receive information about which residence hall will be staffed each night.

For all students, the Office of the University Registrar staff members will be available in the evenings during registration rounds to answer students’  questions using Google Chat (see http://registrar.wfu.edu/registration-2/registration-after-hours/).

First-year students can use the Registration guidelines in their Forestry 101 books if they need a reminder of the process.

Finally, a very important step for students to take prior to registration: they need to go in WIN –> Virtual Campus –> Check Your Holds and Registration Status.  If there is a hold, the student needs to clear the hold before he/she can register.  A hold could be for an unpaid parking ticket or other charge that is unpaid, or for some other reason.

It is critical to note that registration takes place in the evenings, after most administrative staff have gone home; this was a change requested by students years ago, as they did not want to have daytime registration where their time had a conflict with them being in class.  So if your student does not check for holds, and finds out there is a hold only when he/she logs in to register, he/she will be unable to register until after 8:30 am the next morning, once staff are back on campus who can clear the hold.

I always tell my advisees, “check your holds a week before you register, and then again on the morning of registration.” That gives a person the better part of 7-8 hours to get the hold cleared on registration day.

There is nothing more agonizing than seeing the classes you want filling up because you are locked out of registration.  This is one of those moments where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  Urge your students to pay attention to that hold system.

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