It’s that time of the semester when advisors are booked and students are scrambling to pick out their classes for next semester. Advising and registration are two important processes that all students must go through each semester in order to continue progressing toward graduation.
Meeting with an advisor is mandatory because that is the first step in preparing to register for the upcoming semester.
“Advising is the key to student retention,” said Brad Bergeron, the senior academic advisor for freshmen in the college of arts, humanities and social sciences. “The best way to keep students enrolled is to keep them stimulated, challenged and progressing toward a meaningful goal. The best way to do that is through informed and proactive student advising. This means helping students who are stuck or no longer motivated find the help they need through available resources.”
Advisors gave many helpful tips for students going to advising meetings. These tips include knowing what classes are needed for your degree program and knowing what classes could be taken the upcoming semester.
Some advisors prefer to go through the advising process by using online advising submission on LeoNet instead of a meeting in person. Online advising consists of a form that the student fills out with the names of the courses he or she intends to take the next semester, and the advisor checks and approves these selections through the computer within a few days.
“Online advising is solely for convenience, for the student and the advisor, but I do not think it’s the best method of advising,” said Bergeron. “It reduces advising to simple course selection, and worse, it only looks at one semester at a time. If a student only shares what classes they plan on taking next semester, then they will not be able to be warned about any problems for the following semester.”
Students are encouraged to arrive at their advising meeting prepared to discuss classes and potential scheduling problems.
“Students need to be advised before they register because there will be a hold on them and they won’t be able to register until they are advised by their department,” said Debra Thompson, administrative assistant for the office of records and registration.
Many students find the process of registering for classes to be extremely stressful, but advisors are important aids that students should use to help make the process easier.
“What frustrated me the most was figuring out my concentration,” said Jeffrey Balint, a freshman majoring in computer science. “I searched LeoNet and couldn’t find anything. I needed to know before searching for classes because they differed in math. My advisor Mike Nettles helped me figure out my concentration, as well as recommended courses to make progress in it. I felt really satisfied after leaving my meeting.”
After an advising meeting, advisors should remove an advising hold from your LeoNet account, allowing the student to also remove the hold.
“You need to check your account first because any of the holds can prevent you from registering for your classes,” said Thompson. “If they have a collection hold, payment needed, they would have to go to the Controller’s Office and take care of that because that will stop them from registering.”
For students who do not know how to register, there are resources available to help with the process.
“If they are new students or they have not registered here before and they don’t know how to do it, we usually refer them to LeoNet. Go down to ‘How Do I? For Students’ and there’s a lot of information there,” said Thompson. “They can learn how to register there. Things change all the time. The system changes all the time, and that will tell them how to do it.”
The first thing a student must do to register during priority registration this week is check their enrollment appointment times. On LeoNet under Enrollment students can select Enrollment Dates and the semester they wish to register for (Spring 2013), and there they will find the date and time that priority registration will open for them. Priority registration times vary depending on classification and several other factors.
Priority registration began on Monday, Nov. 12, and will continue throughout this week.
“They call it priority because it’s involving students who are already here,” said Thompson. “They are eligible students and they can do priority registration. Starting on the 19th will be open registration for everybody to register.”
As Thompson stresses, checking for advising holds and collection holds, which means you owe money to the university, is extremely important. If the advisor and the student have not both removed holds on LeoNet, then the student will be unable to register.
“Students get frustrated when they have a hold and they wait until the last minute to check their holds,” said Thompson. “We get a lot of that. They’re missing out on priority registration, registering early, because they have holds. They need to take care of their holds before registration starts. If they take care of that before registration starts, it usually runs pretty smoothly.”
If students meet with their advisor, remove all holds and know what courses they plan to register for ahead of time, the registration process should not be difficult or frustrating. Registration should go smoothly if students go through all the necessary steps in the advising and registration process.
Categories:
How to successfully plan for the next semester
Sara Patrick
•
November 13, 2012
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