Course Registration?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Washington University in St. Louis
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<p>I'm an incoming WashU student for the Fall 2007 semester, and as I've wandering around on this forum, I've noticed that a lot of people are talking about registering for courses. I'm entering in the Engineering school, so I know that engineering students are supposed to register in the summer... but I don't know anything else about what I should be doing.</p>

<p>I went on WebSTAC and clicked around the Course Listings and Registration areas, but a text box informed me that I could not register for the Fall semester until August 1st. However, when I looked through the courses, many seats had already been filled, and some classes even had waiting lists...?</p>

<p>Also, I'm not sure what to make of the course evaluation or course listings areas. Searching the evaluation seems useless, and I barely ever get a hit, even when I type in the course's name, or the teacher's name, or the course number.</p>

<p>I also don't understand the course listings... For example, I know I have to take CSE 131. I found the listings, and I noticed that one listing cited the class as being on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, for one hour each day. Every other listing cited the class as taking one and a half hours for one day a week. Are these other classes labs of some sort? The same setup occurred when I searched for Math 133.</p>

<p>I also noticed that some classes listed online don't appear in the Undergraduate Programs 2006-2008 Course Book, even though they are described as being "Freshmen only" courses?</p>

<p>And lastly, am I alone in my course planning, or will I receive some sort of online/telephone counseling later in the summer?</p>

<p>Any help would be appreciated!</p>

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<p>So, I don't know the specifics of engineering registration or the advising system there, so someone else will have to help you there, but:</p>

<p>a. many of the seats in classes have been filled and have waiting lists because the current seniors, juniors and sophomores have already registered for classes. But don't worry about not getting into an introductory class that you need.</p>

<p>b. from course listings, click on "Listing" (under the 'by semester' drop down thing on the right). Then you can choose the semester (eg, FL 2007), and school, (eg, Engineering and Applied Science). Once these are highlighted, click on "Select semester and school". Then (following the engineering example), select the particular type of engineering class you're looking for (you can change which levels of courses come up by checking or unchecking the boxes next to the 100, 200, etc). Then push the button, and voila! a list of all the courses being offered in that dept is generated, and you can click on each class to read a description of the class, and see when it is offered! The same holds true for any of the other schools (eg, ArtSci, Art, Business, etc). You may have already discovered this, but this is the easiest way to see all the courses offered that particular semester. The Bulletin is great for looking for classes that you may want to take later that might not be offered in FL2007, but, as you noticed, it doesn't always have all of the classes that are offered a particular semester.</p>

<p>c. In terms of individual classes, for example CSE 131, there are lectures and labs. The lectures are denoted 01, 02, 03, etc. You sign up for one of these. (I think CSE 131 only has one section). In addition, you must also sign up for one lab/recitation/subsection, which are denoted by A, B, C, etc.</p>

<p>I hope this helps! And good luck with everything! Hopefully someone else can comment on the engineering advising system.</p>

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<p>Engineering students will receive a book during July that will outline the registration process. They will also receive a professor who will act as an adviser for registration and an upperclassmen peer adviser (of which I am one). Don't worry, you will have all the help you need for choosing classes :)</p>

<p>eleph is right -- a lot of classes open up more seats once freshman begin registering. You are guaranteed to get into any class you need for your major so don't worry about any of your core math, science, and engineering courses being full.</p>

<p>CSE131 does have lecture 4 times a week and lab once a week. You must register for the class and the lab. </p>

<p>If you have any more question about the engineering school, feel free to ask.</p>

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<p>Thank you eleph & BuffyAngel299! That's just the information I needed. =D</p>

<p>The only other question I have at the moment is: Do any of you have course/professor recommendations? I'm planning on majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Visual Communications (and hoping to eventually take 3D modeling and animation classes), so course reviews on related courses would be great! I'm also hoping to dabble in Italian, writing courses, drama and dance.</p>

<p>Edit: I just realized that I typed Math 133 instead of Math 132 in my first post.</p>