Registration season is upon us, and with it comes old and new frustrations. 

Building an enjoyable schedule that keeps you on track for graduation has always been a challenge; but this year CPOS complicates things. CPOS is a newly-enforced federal law that requires students to have at least 12 credits per semester counting toward their major in order to maintain eligibility for federal financial aid. It is a law that can have massive effects on you and your schedule depending on your specific situation.  

Pace’s unpredictable course-building software adds friction to the registration process as well. This system can break or make mistakes at the most inopportune times (such as during your short registration window). In the past, bugs have caused students to panic over whether or not they would get into their preferred classes. 

To prevent confusion, panic, and mayhem, Bill Offutt recently offered an in-person guide to Honors registration. Below is an edited transcription of Bill’s instruction on how to have a smooth registration process. 

The meeting kicked off with several professors pitching their upcoming Honors courses. This spring’s Honors courses include but are not limited to the following: 

• Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels taught by Paul Levitz, former president of DC Comics 

• Gender in Politics taught by Meghana Nayak  

• Hong Kong and Bollywood: The Globalization of Asian Cinema taught by Joseph Lee  

• Education 1: Understanding Schools taught by Sharon Meadow  

• Introduction to Peace and Justice Studies taught by Dr. Garrett FitzGerald  

• The Artist as Activist taught by Dr. Emily Welty  

• Ocean Politics taught by Matthew Bolton 

• Ancient Egypt from the Old Kingdom through Ptolemaic Period taught by Dr. Jaclyn Kopel 

• Business Law 1 taught by Jessica Magaldi (Business majors need this course) 

• Intro to Psych taught by Mohini Gobin 

• American Reacting to the Past: Gender, Race, Class taught by Bill Offutt  

After the pitches were finished, Bill began the registration-specific portion of the presentation. 

His first “rule of registration” is simple: talk with your advisor. Get their opinion on what you’re planning to do, need to do, and want to do.  

You should also know how to use Schedule Planner. Schedule Planner is found under your student profile on the left-hand bar toward the bottom of the page. It is a way to create schedules after you put in your preferred courses. 

Bill then warned of the famously glitchy prerequisite checkers being reactivated this registration season.  

“Prerequisites are those things you see in the small type on the description of courses. You may or may not notice them, but if you don’t have them, the system will block you.” In the past, these checkers have slowed down the system to “impossible speeds” because of the volume of prerequisites the system is attempting to check. Be aware of this possibility come registration day.  

These prerequisite checkers are frequently wrong as well. 

“For instance, I don’t know if this is still true, but last time I checked, certain marketing classes listed a class that no longer exists as a prerequisite. So no one gets to take any marketing classes!” 

Obviously, marketing majors still need to be able to register for their marketing classes. If you are in a position where you think you are eligible for a class, but the prerequisite checker is blocking you, you should consult your advisor. Bill emphasized his second rule of registration here: if you run into a problem, “Let us know immediately!”  

Moving past the prerequisite checkers, Bill began talking about the waitlist process. 

All classes will have a waitlist. You do not need to leave space in your registration to hold a spot on the waitlist, meaning you can still sign up for a backup course. If you get off the waitlist and into the course you want, you will have to drop the extra course within 24 hours in order to get enrolled in the course.  

Waitlists will work slightly differently for Non-Exclusive Honors Courses however; these are courses that have a group of seats set aside for Honors students only, along with a set of seats for everybody else. It is possible that the Honors seats will fill up completely before you register. This does not mean you cannot still get into the class. If all the Honors seats are filled up, “do not scream and wail over the injustice of the universe!” Simply register for the regular course and then email Bill. “We will switch you. We will expand the Honors number to cover you and subtract from the other one so you are in fact registered for the Honors course you want.” 

Next up on the agenda was CPOS.  

As mentioned before, CPOS is a federal law requiring students to have at least 12 credits per semester counting toward their major in order to maintain eligibility for federal financial aid. This is mainly a problem for seniors, since a typical senior might only take two major-related classes in their final semester. Under new CPOS rules, those seniors would no longer qualify for their current federal aid; they would be forced to pay for all of their classes out-of-pocket. New CPOS rules can also affect students who have a lot of credits transferred in. 

It is crucial that you and your advisor make sure you have at least 12 credits that ar counted toward your degree by Degreeworks. Right now, this does not include minors. “CPOS is a little thing that can have big implications depending on your individual circumstance for your federal aid. This is all about money, and whether you can get loans and grants from the feds and the state government. Talk with your advisor to make sure you’re safe.”  

Bill then shifted gears and gave advice on what he believes your thinking should be when selecting classes. “I want you to sort of think creatively. What is it you want to take? You should not come in and say, ‘I want to get all my requirements out of the way—check, check, check!’ No, in February you will hate getting out of bed to go to any of those classes.” He suggested that you build your schedule around your wants. Put in what you need to take for your major. Presumably you like your major, so there should be some classes in your major that are attractive to you. If there are no classes that are attractive to you, Bill suggests you switch your major. On top of that, he would “like you to like to have an honors course every term.”  Add fun electives if you have room for it. Then add your core requirements: your English 120s, your public speaking, foreign language, etc. “Word of advice: don’t take more than two of these. They’re usually going to be your least engaging classes since they’re core requirements you won’t necessarily care about.”  

When selecting your courses, it is supposed to be that you can put things into Schedule Planner, then dump them into the Registration Cart, and then the Registration Cart dumps them into the system, completing your registration. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t. This means you should always have a separate file or piece of paper that lists your preferred courses and their CRNs. CRNs are those 5-digit numbers that accompany a course. If the Registration Cart does not work, you will have to enter your classes’ CRNs in order to register. 

Before registering you must also check you have no holds. Freshmen all have an Honors hold to start with, but this hold should be removed before registration day. If you have other holds, such as an unpaid balance, the university will stop you from registering for the spring.  

To find out if you have a hold, click on the upper right hand bar of your student profile. There will be a set of messages, one of which lists your holds. You must have 0 holds in order to register. There will also be a time ticket. This ticket will tell you the exact moment your window to register opens. For most freshmen, it will either be 11am on Tuesday the 19th or 1pm on Tuesday the 19th.  

At that time you may be in a class. If this is the case, ask your professor if you can be excused from class for five minutes; if it works, that is as long as it should take to register. You should be ready to go with a good connection several minutes beforehand. Use Chrome or Firefox. If, when registering, the Registration Cart does not work, you will have to type your CRNs manually (and quickly).  

When you’re done, click the lower right hand corner. It will tell you what you’ve been able to register for and if there are any problems. You must click a second time. This will finalize your schedule. 

If during this process you encounter an issue, you must note the problem message, along with the name of the course (meaning “CS121,” not Intro to Computer Science) and its CRN. Complete your registration for everything else. Confirm the registration. Then log off. “Log off of everything. Don’t just click the X. Click log off the first screen, then the second screen, then the third screen. Do this for every tab. You need to do this. Logging off is crucial so we can begin to solve the issue you’re having on the backend. If you don’t do this, the system will say, “Someone else is trying to use this, why are you interfering?” Email your advisor about the problem right away. Provide your name, your UID number (with the U in it), the name of the course, its CRN, and the problem message. Also write in if the system is acting funny, if it’s slower, or if you suspect the prerequisite checker is messing something up. Advisors will only be responding to email.