<p>D 's college gives each student a time slot of about an hour to register online for one course for next semester, then another slot for the next course,etc. </p>
<p>First come, first served. Her first slot will begin while she is still in a (pretty big) lecture course, where she always brings her laptop for note-taking. </p>
<p>She asked me --do you think it would be OK to register for high priority course#1 during class?</p>
<p>What would you all say?</p>
<p>Sounds like she has no choice. Yes.</p>
<p>Yes, she will probably not be the only one doing it in class.</p>
<p>I'm sure half the class will be doing the same thing; I've excused myself from small seminar classes to go register online for a few minutes (I don't bring my laptop to class but there's a computer in the lobby of the building). You've got to do what you've got to do--especially if you can do it from your seat in class.</p>
<p>Yes. The school should not schedule registering when classes are being held. It's the school's fault, not the student. BTW, at another school, my S tried to register for classes the first second he was allowed to (not during class). By then, alas, some of the classes he wanted were already filled up. There must be a fairer way of doing this.</p>
<p>It would be stupid not to. I'm curious about why she's asking the question. Is this a result of the convenience of IMing and cell phones?</p>
<p>Since when have most college students attended most classes anyway?</p>
<p>At the school my son attends, apparently they schedule registration times that may coincide with classes. His advisor sent an email specifically stating that one should not miss classtime to register! Yet, the process is first come first served, but seniors register first, and then the time one is allowed to register is based upon those with the most credits. The more credits one has, the better the registration time.</p>
<p>You could "helicopter in", cyber-style. And register for her. :D So politically incorrect :p.</p>
<p>At D2's school, each student is given a registration time slot to register for ALL of their courses, not just one. Also, as a rising soph, she was low on the totem pole as it was. She has classes from 9-6 straight through in a program that will NOT allow you to miss class (very very strict program). These are not large lectures and there are no laptops present. Registration is entirely online. The time she was given was in the morning. She gave me passwords to her account, a list of all her first, second, third, fourth choices etc. etc. for me to do it. We agreed that on a break, she'd call in so if I couldn't get anything she wanted, she'd be discussing it and so I would act according to her wishes, as she would not be home until midnight with her schedule (that is what her schedule is like just about 7 days per week). If she waited ten hours until she could have been online, she'd miss out even more than she already did on many courses due to where she was "in line" credit wise. I suppose other friends whose parents didn't do this, had to wait ten hours or some such. I believe her roomie's (who is in same program as she is and is a friend from our state)'s dad also did this for her. Normally, my child handles everything on her own at school. Because she would have no access to the internet all day and night, we came up with this solution.</p>
<p>I cross posted with JmMom....yes, I helicoptered in cyber style this one time, with her calling me for two seconds to find out what happened and to tell me what to do when I couldn't get choices 1-6, etc. !</p>
<p>I, too, don't see the flaw in this type of help, soozie. We did a hybrid where I stood by with my PC while DS did his registering, so that I could be his assistant in quickly helping him identify available second/third choice options if his first choices were filled up. Because it gets pretty complicated pretty fast if one change to the preferred schedule conflicts with other choices and so on down the line.</p>
<p>Made it a little less crazy for him and I was glad to help. PCs and cell phones can really be a help this way and I think teaming up when it's "us against the bureaucracy", even if we love the particular bureaucracy involved, is an ok thing. :)</p>
<p>Northeastmom:</p>
<p>What an advisor! </p>
<p>My S--as did everyone else in his major--was asked to come for an advising session and was told that it was so important that he not miss it that he should skip classes if they coincided with the scheduled meeting. Not all advisors are as eager to have their students attend all classes.</p>
<p>The advising session, by the way, was very helpful (and did not coincide with any class).</p>
<p>I personally would not have intervened. If enough students registered during class, the administration might come up with a better solution for registering. Parents running interference in that way make the administration think that its system is okay. And then, turns around and complains about helicopter parents!</p>
<p>Marite, I don't want to give the wrong impression about my son's advisor. His advisor is wonderful! I wonder if he was told by administration to send this out, but I do not know if that is the case. I would like to tell you about what this advisor has done for his students. He gave the students that he advises his home phone number and invited them to call anytime between 6:00am and 11:00pm :eek:, if needed. He overrode a class my son was closed out of, and requires b/c of his major. He sends out regular reminders on what the students have not done, and need to do, and deadline reminders. These emails are extremely helpful on keeping everyone on track. He sends emails with suggestions of classes that his students should entertain taking (all of the students he advises have similar majors, and he is one of the instructors for this department). He has recently sent out an email about a group time to advise before registration, and invited anyone who needs an individual appointment, or changing majors to come and see him. He seems to be extremely helpful! I am sorry that I gave the wrong impression, but advising to go to class during registration time sounds like it is not good advice. I wonder if administration asks advisors to send out emails about that, though, I have no idea. Fortunately, this does not effect my son this semester. </p>
<p>As far as registering my kid if he needed me to, well, I have no problem in doing that, but it does create problems for students who do not have parents that can pitch in. As far as ever being perceived as a "helicopter parent", truthfully, I could care less. I won't say more about that, b/c it is off topic. I must say, that the school invites parents to come in, and even sit in on classes, participate on campus at any time. Although, we have never done any of those things, it was nice to be made to feel welcome, and I have never been made to feel like a "helicopter parent".</p>
<p>The thing is, my child is not allowed to miss her classes, so missing them wasn't an option. </p>
<p>As it were, just late yesterday afternoon, she made this very quick call to me, must have stepped out or been between two classes, because she had symtoms of a medical problem and wasn't sure what to do because the weekend was looming and she would not be able to get help if the problem worsened and she has a 12 hour rehearsal Sat. and another one on Sunday in which she is the musical director and plays piano for the show and it is in its final week of rehearsals and she must be there. She didn't know what to do as she is not allowed to miss classes and the classes go all day until 6 PM.The Health Center closes at 6 PM. She then had rehearsal last night beginning at 7 PM. I felt she needed to go to the Health Center and I think she realized that but almost wanted someone to say "that's OK, do it!" and so she stayed for one more class and missed the last one. She has a note from the Health Center to present when she returns to the class on Monday. Already she will also have to miss to go to the Brazilian Consulate to apply for a Visa during very specific narrow hours all of which coincide with her classes. She has to do this anyway because she needs the Visa to go with her Scholars group to Brazil in January. Her program is extremely strict about absences and your grade will go down if you are absent so she surely wasn't going to miss to register. She could not.</p>
<p>pyewacket </p>
<p>Your child seems like a very lovely young person! </p>
<p>I hate to sound dishonest, but I think that your child should give you all of the information needed for registration and that you should just register on her behalf. No one will know any different! Or, please tell your child to sit further in the back of the big old class so they can register on the quick! It is up to you guys. One can register on the quick if they already know exactly what to take and have familiarised themselves with the registration system.</p>
<p>It all sounds so whack. Why should promptness in asking for a class determine success in registration? Even back in the Dawn of Time, we filled out a desired class schedule with alternate choices, submitted the Scantron-style cards to the registrar, and then they fed them all into the computer. Gears clanked, steam shot out, and then when a cloud of white smoke came from the top of the administration building, we all had our schedules. They claimed to use some arcane points system for class registration taking into account class (sophomore, junior, etc.), major course of study, whether the class was your first or second choice, and so on. It sure seems like a kinder, more rational system than either the old everyone-stands-in-line-in-the-gym system or the new "try to log on ten seconds earlier" systems of today.</p>
<p>By the by, if so many classes fill up, why doesn't the university just schedule more sections of that class? I'm so confused. Why can't education work more like private industry?</p>
<p>Northeastmom: Your advisor sounds great. But he should not give advice that is so contrary to his advisees' interests. Faculty have lots of power. It should be directed at changing stupid administrative policies. I hope your son tell him so.</p>
<p>I agree that it's not a good idea to miss classes, but colleges bear a huge responsibility for creating helicopter parents as well as for discriminating against students who do not have parents available to play interference for them. The whole registration system really ought to be revamped so as not to create these situations.
In retrospect, I am sorry I did not even think to help S1 with his registration problems. I was a very hands-off parent. And my S ended up in some classes that really were not suitable.</p>
<p>As for not creating more sections of the same class: Some classes are capped because they are discussion classes. Some are capped because no graduate Teaching Assistants are available and profs cannot grade 100 papers in a decent amount of time (ususally a week). Most profs are hired for different specializations and cannot easily teach someone else course. Eg, an Africanist who has only 10 students cannot help out in a class in US history that is overenrolled. The same prof could presumably teach the same class over again at some other time, but then the whole course schedule, not to say teaching contract, would become unworkable.</p>
<p>Marite, I truly agree with you.</p>
<p>One, that an advisor or any faculty should not be encouraging students to miss classes. </p>
<p>Two, the way it is set up for your registration time online during the school day when classes are in session, is not a great set up. For someone like my D who has classes 9-6 far from where she lives and not near any computer, and in a program that does not allow them to miss class, creates a problem. So, the system ought to be revamped. Perhaps the registration time slots could be in the evening? Not sure the answer. This is not how it works at my other D's school. I think she signs up for classes with the paperwork by a certain day (everyone does...there are no registration time slots per person). Also, they have shopping period, and I truly think she could find a way to get into any class. </p>
<p>Back to D2's school, while I agree with all that you say, for now they DO have this system, and as long as they do, we have to do what we have to do to register as soon as she is allowed to and in order to do that, someone had to get online to do it and she could not all day. She'd have lost out even more had I not worked with the system online according to her wishes and her calls when I couldn't get what she had wanted. I know late at night, she tried to help a friend with this as he had not registered during the day when his online time was assigned, and even less was open for him by waiting. So, until someone changes the system, you gotta do what you gotta do, even though like you say, the situation isn't fair to all.</p>
<p>soozievt </p>
<p>Do you think it dishonest for the child to provide everything the parent needs and then having the parent register the child? </p>
<p>What I am asking only refers to this far out situation of the OP btw. </p>
<p>I think that a far out registration situation calls for mildly far out techniques to be utilised:)</p>