Mark your calendars and let the one-week countdown to the most stressful event of the school year begin. This event many include tears, frustration and anxiety, so come prepared.
Registration at Sonoma State University can be one of the most terrifying and overwhelming experiences a college student may face. It seems that the general education classes fill up almost immediately, so if you don’t have a good registration time then good luck.
No matter how many schedule scenarios you make, something can still go wrong when registration time comes. It’s a race against the clock, since you are competing with a large majority of students from Sonoma State for a spot in that specific class you want.
Another common issue can be the incapability to create a schedule, which incorporates all the classes one needs. Registration isn’t only a problem at Sonoma State, but at numerous other universities as well.
Sonoma State is making an effort to eliminate some of the stress induced my registration by creating the Seawolf Scheduler. The program, which launched Oct. 30, allows students to input times they are unavailable to take a class, and it will automatically create multiple schedules with the classes the student selected to take, based on their availability.
Previously, students would create their own schedule scenarios. Sean Johnson, senior director of records, reporting and analytics said the seawolf scheduler “allows students to manage their time in a more efficient way.” This new scheduling system is part of the California State University’s E-Advising Initiative. The seawolf scheduler is Sonoma State’s version of the College Scheduler used at nine other CSU campuses.
Melanie Yeoman, a junior early childhood studies major dislikes the current registration system. “It’s frustrating for the most because classes are never available even if they are your major classes which is why it is unheard of for people to graduate on time. The seawolf scheduler is a good idea but in my opinion it doesn’t fix the actual problem which is the lack of classes and professors to teach these classes,” Yeoman said.
After using the seawolf scheduler, I would agree the system is useful in creating a class schedule that actually incorporates the classes I need to take, while still including my other obligations including work. It saved time from having to go and look up all the available times of the classes.
“Registration was so stressful. I didn’t understand the numbers or the abbreviations; but I’m happy that my orientation leader helped me understand and make a schedule. However, I am nervous for registration this year because I wont have the help of my orientation leader anymore,” said undelcared freshman Daisy Agers.
The program also includes the prerequisites required for the course, which was helpful to see before determining if the class was one I actually needed to take. It will be helpful when my time comes to register this week. However, this scheduler still does not eliminate the problem of the limited number of classes and faculty to teach the classes.
Registration will forever give college students headaches, and there most likely will not be any software programs that can be developed to ease them.
