First-Year Course Registration

In this Issue: today we talk about first-year student course registration

I got a great question today from an incoming first-year family. They have been looking at all the information on our New Students website about academic planning and preparing for registration, but their student still had the question “what courses should I take?” and wanted a little Inside Baseball on this before they set up their official academic advising call.

Knowing there are likely other new families out there whose students have the same question, today I am putting on my academic adviser hat and sharing how I would approach this question if a student asked me.

What Does a Typical Schedule Look Like?

At it’s most basic level, a typical first-semester schedule is 12-15 credits and includes:

• FYS or WRI 111 (or 109) but not both in the same semester*
• Foreign language
• Divisional requirement (in a subject you like or are good at, or is a prerequisite for a potential major)** (See divisionals here)
• Divisional requirement (in a subject you like or are good at, or is a prerequisite for a potential major)**
• Bonus class(es) — this could be another divisional, an elective, or a combination of 1- & 1.5-credit classes such as HES 100, LIB 100, EDU 120

*You can use the information you get from our First Year Writing Decision Tool to make a decision about which course to register for in July. We do not recommend that you take FYS (the first-year seminar) at the same time that you take WRI 111, since it is 4 credits, but it would be fine to take FYS at the same time you take WRI 109 or WRI 110 since they are each just 2 credit hours.

**Pre-business majors and students interested in health careers should see the Pre-Professional Advising website.

For students with a major in mind already

If your student has a major in mind already, they would want to look at the Departmental Course Guides to get a sense of what the recommended courses are. I was an English major at Wake, so when I look at the English DCG, it gives me a lot of options of potential classes that would work towards major credit and would fill a Divisional requirement. ​

From that point, it is a matter of preference: am I more interested in British lit? American? Global? In a perfect world, when it comes time to register, if I like Brit lit and that class is open, I would register for it.

But it may not be that my first choice Brit Lit class has seats. In that case, I then ask myself “what is more important to me: take an American lit class (because seats are available and it will move me towards my major/fulfill a Divisional requirement), or am I so set on Brit Lit that I want to wait until next semester and hope I get it then, and for now I’ll pick some other course in a department other than English?”

Real story: during my time at Wake, there was one lit class that I was dead set that I wanted to take it with a specific professor (who was very popular). It took me 3 semesters to get into his class, just because everyone else also wanted that class. I could have taken another class and fulfilled my literature Divisional requirement with a different professor, but I wanted that one professor. There is no right or wrong, just what is right for your student.

A couple other things I tell my students as they think about registration 

• As an adviser, I can tell you what the requirements are, but I can’t tell you what you are interested in, or whether you would like X or Y class. That is internal work you need to do. So right now, during the summer, students should be thinking about “what kinds of classes did I like in high school? Do I love literature, or chemistry, or art? Did I prefer classes where I write a lot of papers? Or do I like factual classes like math, where there is a clear right or wrong answer?” And then use that knowledge to think about which classes you might want to take at Wake. 
• Do not try to ‘eat your broccoli first’ and take all the Divisional requirements you don’t like just to get them out of the way (I did that myself – BIG mistake). Start with Divisional classes you like, are good at, and/or are really interested in. College level work is harder than high school, so being in a subject matter you like is helpful. (The one caveat here is if there is a specific recommended class you need for your major, you’d want to take it at the recommended time, even if that is first semester. But I’d also argue if this is a class you need for your major, but you don’t like the topic, do you really want it? That’s a question for another day.)
• Note that some classes, particularly in the sciences, have sequential courses, where you have to take course 111 only in the fall and course 112 only in the spring, so you need to be aware of those.
• Be open to early classes. Many times, students don’t want to take classes at 8 and 9 am, but those might be ones with openings. And I remind students that they were likely in 8 or 9 a.m. classes in high school and survived 🙂
• Don’t put a lot of stock in professor rating sites or student chatter. One of my best professors at Wake had a terrible reputation as a “hard grader” (which is typically why students don’t like professors), but he was an amazing teacher and super interesting. I would have missed out on a great experience if I had listened to the whisper network. I also deeply believe that those rating sites are fundamentally flawed: it is likely only people who really loved (or really disliked) that faculty member added a rating, so the validity is sketchy.
• Have an A list, B list, C list, and D list schedule. For first-year students, because they are picking last, some of the classes your student might want could have filled by the time it is their chance to register. Better to plan ahead and have lots of backups, so you are not scrambling at the last minute to think of options (while other students are selecting those). 
• I often made my B/C/D list schedule based on times – for example, if my A list class was an English class on MWF at 10 am, I would find other classes that were also at MWF 10 am and prioritized those as B, C, or D list, and then I’d try each one. If I got the A list class, great, if it was full, try B, then C, etc. I liked that method because I never liked searching for options during registration and finding a class that looked interesting, only to find out it was a time conflict with something I’d already registered for, but other people have different methods of prioritizing.
• ​Remember that every single class you take will get you towards your degree, and you have 8 semesters to fill all requirements. So it’s OK to take a class you are interested in (even if it doesn’t fulfill a requirement!) You have room for electives and they advance you towards your degree.
• Trust the process. I know registration feels like a huge deal, but it really does tend to work out. 
• Over the course of your 4 years at Wake, there will be some classes you’ll love, some that you are neutral about, and probably a couple that you don’t like as much. But on balance, most of my classes were ones I liked (particularly once I got into my major).

FWIW, I just went through my son’s registration (he will be a first-year at another school this fall) and while it was nerve wracking in the moment, and at times felt like the Oklahoma land rush, his registration worked out OK for him. His schedule was not all his A-lists, but it is livable, and that’s ok :).