Online Registration

Back in my day it was known as “In-Person Registration”, and I was always told to do everything possible to avoid having to go to it.  I actually had to go a few times when I was going to UWM, though not my freshman year.  It may be a little easier now since you can do it online from the comfort of your home and don’t have to stand in long lines of people in the Student Union waiting to get your little computer card, but it is still basically the same, crappy, BS that you need to go thru in order to get your classes.

Sarah was able to log into the system right away when registration opened at 7:00 AM and was able to grab one of the classes she needed right away (I think it was biology with a lab section?).  But when it was time to confirm the class and add it, she got an error because adding it would have meant she was over the maximum credit load.  At her orientation, they emphasized, “swap, don’t drop”, because if you dropped a class and then didn’t end up getting the class you really wanted, you might not be able to get the original class back.  She tried for about 15 or 20 minutes and I even tried helping her before I left for work, but we couldn’t figure out how to swap out the classes.  Finally, after all the playing around, all the sections were full and she wasn’t able to get the class.  The same was true for the chemistry class she needs to take.  Needless to say that at this point I was VERY angry.  This is something that they should have gone over when she did her START program, to avoid just such a situation.  I think I’ll add that to my comments/review of the whole START program.