#courseregistration

Course Registration, especially as a freshman, can be really intimidating. Aside from the fact that this is your first step into college, it is also your first step towards figuring out what you want to do with your life. So here’s my guide to choosing the perfect class schedule:

Step 1: Go through the course catalog and note down any and all courses that sound interesting. College is a time for exploration, so don’t be scared to go out of your comfort zone and look into classes that you would not normally take. This is just a brainstorming session, you may not end up taking these classes this semester or ever.

Step 2: If you have an idea of what you want to pursue, look into the course requirements. If you don’t have a clue, don’t worry and proceed to step 3. If you do have an idea or ideas on what you want to major in, be sure to check online what courses that major requires. Usually, there will be an introductory course that you will want to take or (in the case of many economics and STEM majors) a math course requirement. Add the appropriate level courses to your list if you have not already.

Step 3: (For Smithies) Make sure there is at least a few Writing Intensive Courses on your list The only distributional requirement Smith has is that you take a writing intensive course. Note: this does not mean you have to take a Freshman Seminar, you can choose to take any other course listed as Writing Intensive (will be listed in Attributes). Therefore, take care to make sure you have a few on your list (you may not get your first choice.)

Step 4: Start Narrowing. Reflect on which courses really excite you and which courses you need to take in order to succeed at Smith (course requirements and writing intensive). Any courses that don’t fall in this category, set them aside for future semesters.

Step 5: Start building your schedule. Start figuring out how your schedule will come together. Unfortunately, you will probably find that many of the courses you want to take will have overlapping times. 

The way I solve this problem is through an online schedule maker, like this one: https://freecollegeschedulemaker.com/  . What I do is I place the courses that I absolutely must take, due to interest or course requirements on the schedule first. Don’t forget to put any corresponding labs or discussion sections on the schedule as well. From there, I build my ideal schedule out of the courses I most want to take. Example below:

Step 6: Prepare for the Worst. There is a chance that you won’t get your ideal schedule. Some courses are harder to get into than others, like CS111, CHM111, and FYS Reacting to the Past. If this happens and you do not get a course you really wanted, you need to have a backup ready. Have a few backup courses/schedules in case this does happen.

Note: You can get off the Waitlist, either by talking to the professor or if someone drops the course, so make sure to show up to the first class if you can.

Step 7: Reality Check. Make sure your final resulting schedule(s) are realistic. As an incoming freshman, it is not a good idea to take more than about 18 credits maximum as you are adjusting to college life. Also, don’t strain yourself by taking a super challenging schedule, even if you were able to in high school. As an individual, think about your living habits. If you can’t wake up in the morning, it’s probably not a good idea to go for 8 AM courses every day. Similarly, if you like doing your homework in the afternoon, don’t take a ton of afternoon courses. If you need help with this step, talk to your friends, family, liberal arts advisor, and Student Academic Advisors (SAAs).

Step 8: Get Ready for Battle. Make sure the day before Course Registration that you have everything ready to go:

~Alarm Set

~Laptop/Device Charged/Arranged

~Registration Code (given by Liberal Arts Advisor)

~All the Course Registration Codes (CRNs) for Ideal Schedule and Backup Courses

~No Holds on Account

Last Minute Tips:

1. Have REG code already typed into the box for when the registration period opens. It will not let you register before the time but doing this allows you to hit the ground running. 

2. Have a document opened with the CRNs in big font ready to copy and paste.

3.Use recommended browser (Firefox?) and make sure there aren’t processes running in the background.

4.If you have the option, do your first registration with an upperclassman (especially SAAs) so that if something goes wrong, they can help.

5. Don’t stress out, you aren’t bound to this schedule. There’s an entire period open to Add and Drop Classes if you find that your schedule doesn’t work for you.

How to Register for University Courses in Germany

Collegiate Course registration has come and gone and now it is time to register for the Exploration Series! They can be a bit more popular, and here’s why!

1.     The classes tend to be shorter. With only 8 Week and 4 Week options available, they’re shorter than classes in both the quarter system and semester system. They’re truly crash courses in these subjects, giving participants a chance to take a class from Disney experts without committing too much time.

2.     The classes tend to be easier. Collegiate Courses require much more work because you are earning units for your university (in theory anyway). They include homework, exams, papers, textbooks, etc. The Exploration Series courses, again, allows participants to take courses from Disney experts without the stress of the workload.

3.     They’re free! Collegiate Courses cost money. The price goes up depending on demand. On top of this, you typically have to buy a textbook. The Exploration Courses have no additional fees. You can think of this as free tuition or you can think of it as your tuition included in your weekly housing payment. Whatever the case, no extra fees means it’s a more affordable way to still enjoy the course experience.

4.     General interest in course topics. Disney gets to explore with various topics in this series (hence the name “Exploration Series”) because it is not for specific credits. Therefore, classes such as Disney Heritage exist. With a class title like this, who wouldn’t want to enroll?

With that being said, this semester’s registration was a bit stressful. Here are the ins and outs of the Exploration Series Course Registration!

While in Shanghai we will be studying courses corresponding to the ones we would've studied at our home university. When school starts on September 9th we'll begin our third year at university, and this also means that our bachelors are just "around the corner"! Hehe..

So, what have we studied so far and what will we be studying at Fudan?

We have been studying business and economics at the School of Business, Economics and Law in Gothenburg. The Bachelor Program in Business and Economics we are studying have two different tracks, analytical- and language, all three of us chose the language track. While Ida and Linn chose Chinese, I chose French. Fortunately, which track you choose doesn't decide which country you can go on exchange.

In February this year, at the same time as we were applying for our exchange semester, we also needed to decide whether to study business or economics. Ida and Linn chose business and I chose economics.

The corresponding courses I mentioned at the beginning of this post is something we need to register to, of course, but when we tried to register to our courses through Fudan's course registration system earlier this summer it didn't go well. After emailing back and forth with our contact at Fudan we got recommended to register to the courses when we've arrived at school. The thing is that there are limited available vacancies to each course so I really hope we get the courses we must take in agreement with our home university.

The courses I need, and want, to take are:

Economics of Development 

Calculus 1

International Finance