Transborder studies sophomore Tanner Riggs ponders which classes to choose for his 2013 spring semester. (Photo by Robin Kiyutelluk)Some students are anticipating openings in classes after struggling on their initial sign-up day to construct the optimum schedule.
Nursing sophomore Emma Maynes said she feels like she usually gets a later registration date than her friends.
“If you have a late sign-up day, there's nothing you can do about it,” she said.
She said she knows a lot of people in her major were able to choose classes before she was for the next semester.
“(It’s) a little unfair since we have to take a lot of the same classes,” she said.
This is because enrollment appointments, or registration dates, are assigned based on the number of credit hours a student has completed, said University Registrar’s office administrative assistant Beth Wade.
Dates are given out based on current academic level, not the projected academic level.
“For example, within the junior appointment period, a junior with 80 earned hours will have his appointment before a junior with 65 earned hours,” she said.
Psychology sophomore Karissa Brown signed up for her classes Monday.
Brown is graduating in three years and said she has taken more credits so far than most sophomores.
Brown said she wakes up at 6 a.m. each registration day to try to get into everything she wants. She puts all of the classes she wants into a shopping cart so all she has to do is push the button to enroll in the morning.
She said she doesn’t have a perfect spring schedule at the moment.
“I was registered by 6:01 a.m., but the class times I wanted weren’t even available the night before I could sign up,” Brown said.
She said she plans to keep an eye out for possible class openings.
“I watch to see if someone drops out of a class so I can snag it later,” she said.
Brown said she visits her adviser to make sure she keeps on track each semester.
Director of Undergraduate Planning and psychology professor Clark Presson said class planning starts early for the psychology department.
He said the department tries to let students see what will be available to them before registration days, but if a class fills up, it attempts to create a new one.
“We monitor the classes that are critical to our major very closely,” he said. “We want to make sure students can graduate and we adjust capacity as needed.”
Presson said the professors in their department are specialized in what they teach.
To provide a high level of education, the department has to be sure they don’t throw a teacher into a class just because they need to open a new one, he said.
“Our faculty is not just interchangeable,” he said.
College of Nursing and Health Innovation academic adviser Tim Weiss said the nursing school watches and maintains the upper-division classes and the whole University monitors the lower-division classes.
“Colleges work together to make sure there are enough sections to facilitate student demand,” he said.
Reach the reporter at hblawren@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @hannah_lawr
