<p>After going through the process of picking classes/doing placement tests, i've decided that this is one of the most convoluted, arbitrary, disorganized websites i've had the pleasure to use. You'd think that such a large university would have come up with an easier way to do this...Even just getting to istart, unless i missed something, im tired of going thru so many clicks for such an important page (admissions-future-admitted-checklist-scroll down to link in middle of paragraph to istart, etc)....Any thoughts/experiences?</p>
<p>type in "istart" into the search bar on the uiuc.edu page, takes you right there.....</p>
<p>oh, i remember doing all that....turns out it was all for nothing cause my program of study specifies which courses to take for which gen eds. really, don't get too worked up over the istart thing, your advisor is pretty much going to tell you which classes you should be taking/which classes are typically taken freshmen year depending on your major.</p>
<p>searching for something that every student needs, yea, intuitive</p>
<p>uhhhh i don't remember really using i-start at all last year except to schedule registration.</p>
<p>as for registering for classes, I use
<a href="https://apps.uillinois.edu/selfservice/%5B/url%5D">https://apps.uillinois.edu/selfservice/</a></p>
<p>its not that complicated at all....</p>
<p>it's complicated if you're new to it and don't have a clue on how the crappy system works. </p>
<p>It is a pretty crappy system in my opinion anyways. </p>
<p>There could always be ways to improve it.</p>
<p>maybe they should hire a personal assistant for each and every student to help them on there way....wait--we're in college, if you can't navigate a website with a high school diploma...You can even google "Istart" if you don't remember uiuc.edu is the college website and still get to the page. It is really not that difficult to use. Everything can be improved of course, I'm not suggesting the material provided is useful, but it is nonetheless easy to access.</p>
<p>they send you guys to summer registration and teach you how to use the registration site. I didn't go and figured it out easily on my own... you view your schedule, view classes, add classes, i don't see the complication.</p>
<p>i figured it out and all, im just complaining about how much better it could/should be for an institution of this magnitude</p>
<p>taffy, it's a sucky system in general. Especially the way how they didn't allow me to sign up and locked me out for one class I needed b/c I had to wait for freshman? Hell no, I'm about to be a sophomore and now freshman get priority over me? No way that's happening and it took a lot of arguing and calling but it finally worked out a couple weeks ago and they made room for me. </p>
<p>And that sucky system of how certain people get to register before others do and you get stuck with not bein able to take classes you planned on taking or get stuck with having to argue to the various departments about opening up a spot for you. Now that's some annoying garbage right there. </p>
<p>And then you've got 5-10 open seats in each class(for discussions that is) and they still don't want to make room for you b/c of all this political bullcrap they make up to justify their pointless arguements. </p>
<p>That's the sucky system I dealt with my first yr. </p>
<p>The process itself for registering is fine now that I have experience with it but there's some unfairness in the registering process as well.</p>
<p>bears- which class are you trying to get in to? are you sure its not just restricted for freshmen exclusively?</p>
<p>yea the registration system is so-so but it's not that terrible. it basically goes off of seniority because upper classmen have less time to complete their degrees than fresh and sophs. i guess you're talking about how like oh I dunno a certain engineering class or business class is exclusively for only those majors, its kind of understandable because those majors are for students who paid "extra" to be in their major, it would be a little unfair to have ppl who paid normal tuition be able to take say a 400 level finance course just for kicks.</p>
<p>I think he means unfair as in being a history major (all of whom are required to take HIST 100, and there's no way to get transfer credit for it) blocked out of HIST 100 every fall semester because it is reserved for freshmen, and then all the juniors and seniors fill it up every spring looking for an "easy" gen. ed. The only way I got into that class was by getting a junior friend of mine to hold a seat in the class for me til my registration time ticket.</p>
<p>So, it's not really a complex system, but a b*tch system with which to work. Undoubtedly, all new students with low registration priority will take their turn screaming and cursing and damning the system when they realize three of the courses they planned to take no longer have open seats. And if they're not filled with seats, then the days or the times are conflicting, and any other class you could possibly take doesn't fit....</p>
<p>for sophomores and 2nd semester freshmen *****ing about how terrible their time slot is to register, in my opinion too bad. work harder and become a james scholar, get more credit hours, you should have taken more ap classes if you wanted a good time. the time in which you can start registering is determined on how many hours you have completed which is why i got to register with the juniors.</p>
<p>yes, way back in 2003, when I was deciding which classes to take my junior year of high school, I was soooooo thinking, "gee, I wonder how many AP classes I need to take to have a good registration time at college in 2006!"</p>
<p>So, Naperville boy, allow me to enlighten you to the inequality of the education system in America. There are many schools that offer MAYBE one or two AP classes. Not every public school has the resources to provide the same level of education...the beauty of school funding based on property taxes. I'm so glad you live in a nice town, with lots of prosperous people, that allowed you to go to a well-funded school where they offered lots of AP classes so you could be an oh-so-special James Scholar. True, many people, including myself, could 'work harder' to join the..."elite"...James Scholar program...but I have better things to do than lower myself to that level of bull*****, especially when it has no long-term benefits.</p>
<p>I'm happy with my straight A's just the way they are, and if there's not an extra gold star on my diploma to tell me and the world what a good little hard-working student I've been...I'm ok with that. In the meantime, let those of us who want to b*tch to our hearts' content do so, and if you don't want to listen, sit in a corner, cover your ears, and hum to yourself. I'm sure you'll be able to comfort yourself with the fact that you'll one day (probably within the next 3 or 4 years) be making more money than me.</p>
<p>lol i went to a high school in aurora.....and if you know aurora that is basically like the south side of chicago.....so dont' say my high school was well funded because it sure as heck wasnt... and im not a james scholar. what i said was that if you're complaining about how you have to register last and want something done than become a james scholar <em>bam</em> u have first priority then. and yes this may sound cheesy but you can put it on your resume. when it comes to job time and a recruiter sees two apps with similar credentials and gpa but one has "james scholar" they'll probably pick the one with james scholar because they know what that is because they've probably been recuriting at our school for a bit and konw that you actually have to work hard a little harder to be a james scholar.</p>
<p>and if you guys dont like the registration system then how would you like them to do it instead? (non rhetorical)</p>
<p>i meant for ECON 103, but yea, I eventually got a spot but it took a lot of arguin and a lot of problem solving. But the ECON Department were a-holes through the whole process. And then they try to say "oh we understand but we're too much of pussies to do anything about it." I don't even know who helped me, but around May 15th or so, mid-May, we got a call from someone from the Chancellor's Office and some woman finally helped me.</p>
<p>That's how far u gotta go apparently to get something done when it comes to tryin to sign up for a class in the ECON Dept. </p>
<p>Let that be a warning for those with future issues with that crappy Dept.</p>
<p>James Scholar award? Those are for the over-over-over achievers. I consider myself somewhat of an overachiever but not to the extreme extent some are. </p>
<p>It should be fair process no matter what. NO DISCRIMINATION SHOULD BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT, BUT UNFORTUNATELY IT IS. </p>
<p>I understand if we're talkin between juniors and freshman.</p>
<p>BUT I'M SAYIN HOW CERTAIN FRESHMAN HAVE MORE PRIORITY OVER OTHER FRESHMAN OR HOW FRESHMAN IN SOME CASES HAVE MORE PRIORITY THAN SOPHOMORES.</p>
<p>tennisfan:</p>
<p>Who knows how it should be changed. That's not my job to come up with a solution. But it is kind of disorganized, how u think u got a class and then it comes up as error saying you can't register b/c you don't fall into the requirement for that class. And you weren't warned ahead of time about that certain class.</p>
<p>I don't know, it's just too much of a mess. For a school this big, it's understandable, but I have not taken a liking to it ever since registering last summer orientation. But you gotta live with things you don't like sometimes.</p>
<p>hahahaha...james scholar....work harder....that's funny. well, I at least know the Business College understands that "hard work" one puts into the "honors" classes is actually nothing, and they are changing the James Scholar program in the College of Business into something that is really noteworthy.</p>