Registration time

You would think that during the most stressful time of the semester, the lead up to finals, that the school would do what it can to ease the stress level of its students. But no, of course it can't be that way and they have to throw in registration for next semester in on top of all of the preparations for final exams.

Why is registration so stressful you might wonder? I mean it is a LOT easier than it used to be when I was first in undergrad. I remember going into this giant gymnasium filled with tables that all had signs and lists. You had to wander around, find the list of the class that you wanted to take and hope that the list was not filled up. There were long lines, lots of waiting around, as well as just general chaos and confusion. Now of course with the internet it's a lot easier, but it's not without frustration.

Portland Community College does its registration on a seniority kind of basis, in 4 groups. The groups can sign up at 4 starting points on registration day: 8AM, 10AM, 12PM and 2PM. If you have an associates from PCC or have taken a ton of credits, you can sign up for the next semester at 8AM. The other time slots are all based on how many credits you have taken at PCC. If you have taken 9 credits or less, you get the last time slot. I have 9 credits, so I was 1 credit shy of getting into the 3rd group. So I got online right at 2PM, went to sign up for the Nutrition class and was denied for every single section. All the waiting lists were full and closed as well.

With the economy being what it is and so many people trying to get into the healthcare field, as well as many healthcare programs having the same pre-requisites, there is some competition to get into these classes. I managed to get signed up for my Anatomy and Physiology class ok, but I tried signing up for nutrition last semester and this semester with the same results.

So what to do? Well I have a couple of options. One is that I went ahead and registered for Microbiology. I don't really want to take that together with another science class, but figured it would be good to have a backup. I may try to take the nutrition class at another community college that has less enrollment. The other 2 community colleges are out in the suburbs, but the course is online, so I don't physically have to go anywhere to attend class. Or I might go and beg an advisor to see if there is anything that can be done. Perhaps I should show up to the orientation session for the online class and beg the teacher to let me in? I'm not sure what I'll do, but I've got to do something because I REALLY don't want to take Micro with A&P. I need to get A's in my pre-reqs and taking 2 intensive science classes in the same semester is not the way to reach that goal.

So we'll see what happens...I'm sure it will all work out. I just have to take a deep breath and not get frustrated by the obstacles because this journey sure is full of them. Is it worth it? Only time will tell.