Registration time. Slit my wrists, please.

The BBQ Pit
1

It’s time to register for classes again. I hate this.

I am trying to double major here. In MIS and Accounting. (I’m gonna get my Master’s in Accounting.) You would think that the damn University of Iowa Tippie College of Business would say, “Hey, there’s a girl with real ambition! Not only to master in one of the toughest programs we offer (Accounting), that recently had an extra year added to appease the CPA folk, but also take a whole other major at the same time? Let’s try to make her getting into the appropriate classes, if not easier, then not a crazy-free-for-all, jump-through-the-hoop-athon!”

But nooooooooooooooo.

Rant the First. The powers that be decided that no one can major in two business programs at one time. That means that I have to finish my entire MIS degree before I can start on the Accounting. Well, that’s just dandy, except a ton of the MIS classes overlap times. If I take the most I can take this semester, 3 classes (all messed up with gaps between them, not so much that I can take other classes, though.), then the 2 offered this summer, I will have one MIS class left to take before I can start on Accounting. ONE CLASS. Three credits in a semester with 13 other credits to fill up. Well, shit on a stick. What am I gonna do with those 13 credits? Basket-weaving? Badminton? I certainly can’t take any freaking degree-oriented Accounting classes because I’m not done with my god-damn MIS degree yet!

Rant the Second. In order to get into the MIS-required Computer Science I course this semester, I had to take Trig last semester. After I had already taken Calc for Business. Ok, this makes tons of sense. Now that I’ve taken Comp Sci I, I need to take one more higher-level programming course to satisfy the degree. Cool, I’ll just take Comp Sci II, right? WRONGO. In order to take this class, I need to take one of 3 Calc classes. Calc for Business is not on the list.

No prob, right? I’ll just take another course. Wrong again. The classes under Comp Sci I don’t count for credit if you’ve already taken it. The classes over Comp Sci II, which is the next course up from I, all require having taken CS I and II. Oh goody. I hated calc. I am not taking another calc course. What do all the other MIS majors, who also must take Calc for Business, do? Beat their heads in with rocks? Sounds good to me!!

Rant the Third. Special registration codes. We need to enter these codes to get in some classes. It’s understandable, I guess. If you don’t really meet the requirements, but the prof will give you a chance and stuff…. But this is getting out of hand. Last semester I tried to register for a section of CS I. I was told I needed a special permission code. Spent the good part of a week watching the seats get snapped up while I asked around the department, “What’s this code for? How do I get it? Help me!” I finally am told to talk to this woman. I tell her my plight. She says, “Oh, it’s an all-woman section. That’s why you need the code. Since I can plainly see you have boobies, here is the code.” (Ok, not in so many words, but you get it.) Now, stop me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t it say in my computer profile at least somewhere that I have a ho-ha, not a ding-a-ling?

But it does not stop there. I have two classes in MIS (my major, it says so right at the top of my registration screen) that require special departmental codes. To make sure you are in the MIS department. Ummmmmmm, it says right at the top of my screen can’t you read you god damn piece of shit registration program eat shit and die I will learn how to code despite your aversion to letting me do so and implant a deadly virus into you unless you let me get into my classes screw you screw you screw you and your little microprocessors too why the crap must this be so hard I just want to go home and eat turkey you go to hell, you go to hell and you melt you evil evil evil thing.

2

::brews a nice cup of tea for Little Bird::

::doublechecks to ensure it’s decaf::

:smiley:

3

Whew. Nice. Good build up, clean, simple, and a catchy rhythm at the end evocative of every frustrating day ever spent struggling with a recalcitrant, badly written program. A thing of beauty.

4

One piece of advice: Student Job working for the Registrar.

Because I had to work registration, my registration was always handled first so I always got into classes. Another bonus is that I got to make friends with the registration clerks and learn the “ins and outs” of getting into classes. Heck, I knew more than my advisor did about how the college works.

Sometimes the best way to fight a bureaucracy is from the inside.

5

My cousin’s friend worked for the registrar, and I heard horrible, horrible stories about what goes on there. Like other student workers hiding the registration cards of people they didn’t like until the last minute, so their personal enemies wouldn’t get into any classes they wanted.

6

An all-woman section? WTF is all that about?

7

I can understand certain all women sections, but CS?

8

Yeah, I really didn’t get it either, but it’s the only one that fit with my schedule. And, it’s been a really fun section. :slight_smile:

9

I understand your plight. I have the honour of being a transfer student. From Quebec Cegep. To an Ontario University. God forbid that the university actually look at the courses I took previously, or even at how cegep works, because that would make way too much sense, right? I had to yell at my counsellor to tell him that I did not have to take General Biology I after having taken 2 Bio courses in cegep. They gave me credit for chem, calc and physics, but not bio, until I yelled at them. But I do have that oh-so-useful humanities credit!

We have this thing called WebAdvisor, where we get to register online. Because I “transfered”, I’m taking all my courses in a weird order, so sometimes I need to fill a prerequisite waiver. Can’t register online, then. Also, when I changed major, they waivered all the first year courses that were equivalent to the first year courses that I had credit for. Which means I need a waiver for anything that has a first year course as a waiver! Imagine the paperwork! Then there are the full labs, because it makes sense to have less section spots available than people who need the course.

For registration this year, I had chose 5 courses. I needed a prereq waiver for 4 of them. Of those 4, I had to overload 2 labs. My schedule isn’t even finalised, since they need to create new sections to accommodate all the overloads they signed for. Thats not going to be done until next term, when classes start. Then comes course selection for the next term…

My cousellor knows me by name, as does the lab coordinator, cuz I see them every damn term with the same damn issues.

AAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

10

Registration woes… gah. I wish I could take the system my University uses out to a deserted area and SHOOT IT. It’s such a crappy program, it can’t be available 24-hrs a day (unlike the system at previous Universities I’ve been to), the hours are M-F: 7:30am - 7:30pm, then Saturday 7:30am - 12 noon. And, it can’t handle the load of so many students wanting to get registration done before the Turkey-Day holiday.

“The pin number or student ID number you have entered is invalid. Please try again.” WTF? This I got, after already successfully signing into the system, and trying to add a class!

“Our records indicate you need to be advised. Please see your adivsor.” WTF? No, I don’t need to be advsied. I AM AN ADVISOR [sup]well, actually advising coordinator[/sup]. I saw my advising flag be cleared, right before my eyes! And I was able to successfully add courses earlier in the week! ARRRGH!

Oh, and just now, they put up a notice saying which browsers you should be using, and what the settings should be.

Netscape 4.78, check. Accept Cookies, check. Javascript enabled, check. Thrice-misbegotten-son-of-a-felched-goat of a registration system, check.

And don’t get me started on the on-line class listings (it uses the same backend as the registration stuff).

<< To err is human. To really foul things up takes a computer. >>

11

Gee, I picked out my classes, made sure the schedule didn’t conflict, got my advisor to sign my card, and dropped it off at the registrar.

:o

I should be getting my schedule any day soon.

12

peeks at Daowajan Wow, your registrars office puts the classes you want into the computer for you? Geeze… I must be going to lazy schools that make us students enter in the classes we’re taking into the system.

The only time I did something like that was back in High School…

Although I admit, I much prefer being the one who has control over putting the courses I want into the system. That way, it’s faster and easier to spot a mistake.

__
<< Yum. >>

13

My school has both systems, but they are trying to make everyone use the online version. The only times you can’t use it at all are when you have to have a paper signed (waiver) or if you are “Special” status, meaning your first transfer term or you had trouble in previous terms and are taking a reduced course load, etc etc.

But they do make mistakes sometimes, so it’s still good to be able to go see afterwards whats recorded for you. Thats how I saw that they had typed in a class wrong for me. I was supposed to be in Analytical Chemistry 3340 and they somehow confused it with Environmental Economics 4490. Registration was officically over, but they fixed it anyways.

14

Yep. They even called me the very next day when I’d written in the wrong section and resulted in my two most-anticipated classes conflicting.

And they gave me back my card and let me modify it when the art class I wanted to take got announced late.

Say what you will about my school, but I won’t be having registration nightmares while I’m here. Of course the fact that we only have 1100 people at my school may be influencing the system slightly.