<p>I looked on the student checklist, and it just says to get a "student center" appointment in mid-July. What is that? Is it online?</p>
<p>I thought we were supposed to meet our advisors, and they were going to help us pick.</p>
<p>Pre-enroll for pre-frosh should be sometime in the middle of July and is done online on student center. (studentcenter.cornell.edu) However, you should begin looking at classes that you potentially may want to take, as well as classes that are required for your major/distribution requirements, beforehand so that you aren’t stuck searching while 3000 other freshmen are bogging down the server. </p>
<p>As for advisors…I don’t remember when they are assigned to you, if they haven’t already. If so, their name should be visible on your Student Center and you can try emailing them or something. But this is college, you are expected to make some choices yourself, so I wouldn’t count on the advisor being all that helpful at this point.</p>
<p>Oh wow… So we make the choices ourself, basically. I figured there would be some guidance.</p>
<p>Any way to guarantee that we get the classes we want?</p>
<p>First semester is really about exploring what you want, taking classes in what you’re interested in. Though it also helps if you look at department websites in majors your interested in, you may want to take prereqs or intro level courses there, and it doesn’t hurt to look at your college’s distribution requirements and take classes that might fulfill those. And I agree with TskDbx that you should look at courses you potentially want, so you’re not searching on student center at the same time as 3000 other students.</p>
<p>Some resources:
Courses of Study - [Cornell</a> University - Acalog ACMS?<a href=“gives%20you%20course%20descriptions”>/url</a>
Course and Time Roster - [url=<a href=“http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu/courses/roster/FA12/]Cornell”>http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu/courses/roster/FA12/]Cornell</a> University Registrar: Course and Time Roster Fall 2012<a href=“tells%20you%20what%20courses%20are%20offered%20at%20what%20times”>/url</a>
Student Center (need netID login) - <a href=“http://studentcenter.cornell.edu%5B/url%5D”>http://studentcenter.cornell.edu](<a href=“http://courses.cornell.edu/]Cornell”>http://courses.cornell.edu/)</a> (register for courses, and see how many seats are left in classes)</p>
<p>-Unfortunately, there isn’t one tool that lets you see all 3 pieces of information at once. There are some tools like Schedulizer ([Cornell</a> University - Schedulizer](<a href=“http://cornell.schedulizer.com/]Cornell”>http://cornell.schedulizer.com/)) or Chequerd ([chequerd](<a href=“HugeDomains.com”>http://cornell.chequerd.com/)</a>), that allow students to plan out the timing of their classes, but I don’t believe those sites can tell you if a course is full. </p>
<p>Student center is the website you use to register for classes. You can also search classes to see how many open spots there are in a course. You’re not really guaranteed spots - for the most part, especially your first semester, first to sign up when the enrollment period opens get in. That said, remember that you can take courses at a later semester, or if you really want the course, you can talk to the professor or some departments offer waiting lists (though you usually have to contact them directly), and people may drop the course at the start of the semester. Cornell has an add/drop period for the first 3 weeks, where you can add or drop any courses you want without any penalty(though it is hard to catch up if you miss the first 2-3 weeks of a course).</p>
<p>As for advising, yes there is some guidance when you get here…but the quality of the advice of faculty advisers can vary based on the professor. I know friends who have very helpful advisers, and ones that have considerably less helpful ones. Most colleges also have peer advisors who can help you at the start of the semester, as well as college advising deans who you can talk to. Though they’ll probably say something along the lines of don’t take too heavy a load your first semester while you adjust, and take courses you’re interested in. </p>
<p>Sorry for the long post - basically, take a little time to do research now into courses, but don’t worry too much because you can change it later on, and get some input and advice. Don’t stress out either, it’s common for freshmen to change 1 if not most of their courses when they get here!</p>
<p>Thanks! Also, I’ve been wondering for a while, what does “student opt” mean under the course description? Some of them have “graded” underneath… Aren’t all classes graded?</p>
<p>Graded means the class can only be taken for a letter grade (ABCDF), student option means you can take it either for a letter grade or pass/fail (S/U for satisfactory/unsatisfactory). If you want to take a course S/U, it could be a subject you’re weaker in but need for distribution requirements, or a subject you want to explore that’s not related to your major and you don’t think you’ll do well, or situations like those. Some courses like PE are S/U only, some courses are letter grade only, and some you can choose.</p>
<p>Oh, that’s cool. Is there a limit on the number of S/Us you can take? (Sorry, I’m sure it’s probably viewable somewhere on the website, but I don’t see it.)</p>
<p>Last thing: When I look at the AEM roster, only some courses says priority is given to CALS/AEM majors. I’m in CAS. Does this mean I can take classes like Marketing and others without having last priority?</p>
<p>[Cornell</a> University Registrar: Course and Time Roster Fall 2012](<a href=“http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu/courses/roster/FA12/AEM/]Cornell”>http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu/courses/roster/FA12/AEM/)</p>
<p>They give preference in AEM courses for AEM majors. For some courses, even a good number of AEM majors can’t enroll in them without trouble. Of course, this depends on the course you are signing up for and whether it is fall or spring semester that you are signing up for them.</p>