Advising & enrollment information

Monday and Tuesday were the first two days for the actual virtual advising and enrollment for Summer B and Fall 2020. My daughter went through the process, so I thought I’d post a little 411 on how it went.

The first day, there was a Q&A period. I don’t know much about that, or anything else that was scheduled the first day, but maybe someone else can provide that information.

Second Day
The second day, she was scheduled for a Zoom meeting at 10 AM. That meeting had multiple attendees, but there were breakout sessions for specific questions and advising. In my daughter’s breakout, I think there were less than 5 participants and it was very personal and very specific. There was no excuse for anyone NOT getting the answers they needed. The advisors were very thorough, and kept asking for more and more questions. I think that Zoom was scheduled to end at Noon, but they made a point of telling people to come back if they hit any snags in the actual class selection/enrollment process.

After those sessions, the “Orientation Hold” was removed – but that didn’t actually happen until after 2 PM.

Prior to the sessions, my daughter had settled on her classes and had a couple of alternatives. She was registering for 2 classes in Summer B, and four classes in Fall 2020. Of those, two were on waitlist.

So before her 3 PM enrollment, there was a 2:30 PM Zoom call with an advisor. This call was 1-on-1, and again was as detailed as she needed it to be. One thing the advisor did was give her a list of English classes which had just opened up – which was one of her waitlist classes. Several good alternatives – no longer a waitlist! The advisor told her to come back to him if she encountered any problems, and told her she might have a problem with English. She did and I’ll describe that later.

When she went to enroll for Summer B, the music class she had on waitlist had opened up. She registered for that and SLS 1501 Strategies for Success, and was set for Summer B.

When she enrolled for Fall, she was not able to enroll for ENC 1102, because her AP credit for ENC 1101 had not been applied. She sent a copy of her AP Test Results report, but UCF would not accept it. Test results have to come from College Boards directly. So she had to resend the scores, paying again. Now we’re waiting for the credit to be applied, and then she’ll have to go back and enroll for ENC 1102.

**LESSONS LEARNED: **

1. CHECK YOUR AP, IB, and any other course credits you have BEFORE your day to enroll!

Don’t get blindsided like my daughter did.

2. REQUIREMENTS – these are all REQUIREMENTS for Graduation

You need to download and print the General Education Program checklist. If you are entering in the Summer, your academic life will be governed by the 2019-2020 General Education Program. If you are entering for the first time in Fall 2020 or Spring 2021, YOUR academic life will be governed by the 2020-2021 GEP. They may be different, so be sure you are using the right one – and you will use it for your entire
4 years.

There are numerous requirements, and you have to be aware of ALL of them or you’re going to sign up for the wrong courses. Worst case scenario, you might sign up for a course you don’t need and might waste your money and have to take another similar course because you were not paying attention.

First there are State of Florida requirements:

Core courses
There are 5 “Foundations:” Communications, Historical & Cultural, Math, Social, and Science. You have to have at least one Core course in each of those five areas. Please note that ENC 1101 is THE ONLY core course in Communications.

"Gordon Rule" courses – two flavors: Writing and Math

Writing – You must have 4 Gordon Rule Writing courses, indicated by (GRW) on the GEP form. Only two communications courses (ENC 1101-2) qualify, but almost all history courses also qualify.

Math – you must have 2 math courses and ALL math courses qualify.

Additional non-major requirements

Within those Five Foundations, there are subdivisions. In addition to the Core courses, you must have one course in each of the subdivisions. And just to make it more confusing, there is a GEP#6, which is an additional class from either GEP#4 or GEP#5.

HACK!

Some of the courses count for multiple requirements!

I mentioned a music course above, and it’s a three-fer – it meets THREE requirments!

The class is MUL2010, and it is a Florida CORE class for the Historical & Cultural foundation, it fulfills GEP#5…AND, it is also a Gordon Rule Writing class! 3 for 1!

There are a number of classes which meet two requirements, and a handful of three-fers. So PAY ATTENTION to which classes meet which requirements.

Also don’t forget that your major probably has numerous additional requirements!

Usually after every orientation more class times open up. They keep some locked so kids with later registration times have a chance. So if you are on a waitlist look at schedule builder often!