Last year, in a fit of panic, I sprung out of bed in a nervous sweat. Obscenities flew out of my mouth as I eyeballed the red numbers on my digital desk clock. I had accidentally slept through two classes, but even worse, my future was in jeopardy. I nervously double-clicked on the Firefox logo at the bottom left of my screen, opened my Bookmarks tab and opened the portal to the netherworld: JayWeb. My registration period began at 8 a.m., and I slept through it.
Fortunately, I managed to get all of the classes I needed for the spring of my junior year, considering that none of the classes were slated to fill quickly. Eliminating the stressfulness of course registration is a lofty goal and probably isn’t even reasonable. The order in which students are permitted to register, however, has the potential for improvement. I was not luckily granted an early registration time last year, I might have missed out on a critical class. Registration time can be, in extreme situations, the difference between graduating on time and having to shell out extra money for another year’s tuition — sounds like serious business to me. Plain and simple, the system must be reworked. Several friends have told me that they have always been in one of the last groups to sign up for classes from year to year. The randomly-generated order of signing up based on last name doesn’t work as it is now.
Originally, I bounced around the idea of having course registration order grouped by grade point average. Students with higher GPAs would be rewarded for their academic success by being allowed to sign up for classes earlier. Hypothetically, students who care most about their classes would reap the benefits of getting into their classes. The sign-ups would still have to be broken down by class year, obviously, but adding an incentive like this should inspire greater academic achievement from students.
This concept, however, would be too controversial and unfair to implement. When asking a peer when he or she is signing up for classes under this system, that person would also have to simultaneously reveal his or her GPA to you. Not everyone wants to share their grades with others. If someone is registering for next semester’s courses during your 8 a.m. class, you know who the brainiac in the room is. The poor guy on his laptop during your 2:00 class needs to step up his game. As a whole, the system forces people into potentially uncomfortable situations. In addition, GPA does not take into account the difficulty of one’s major — some are undoubtedly more challenging than others. First-year students would also have to work off of high school GPAs when signing up for spring semester classes, which makes little sense. While I like the idea of rewarding high-achieving students in such a way as this, the implementation will upset more people than not.
Logistically, the sign-up system in place has its merits. Grouping people by last name keeps the traffic flow on JayWeb to a relative minimum. There should be an insurance policy in place, however, that ensures that later groups to sign up in one semester should not end up with the same fate the following semester. Perhaps the random assignation of sign-up times should only occur in the fall, and the inverse will then occur in the spring. This way, a student who gets last pick in the fall will end up on top in the spring. This system has its flaws as well, though, as middle spots may become more coveted than high ones.
I can only provide so many suggestions as to how the course registration ordering system should change. The fact still remains that the system should change — answering the question of “how” may take some serious brainstorming. Regardless, our class schedules — and in some cases, our futures — should not be so largely determined by random chance. We all work too hard for that.
