Episode 7 – Registering for Success

[0:00:11 Speaker 1] Hello and welcome to the Sounds of success. My name is Phil Butler and

[0:00:15 Speaker 0] I’m Christina buoy. We are so excited to be back and recording another episode for you all we know it’s been a while with winter storm and then what was it? The

[0:00:26 Speaker 1] hail break? The hailstorm.

[0:00:29 Speaker 0] Well, but

[0:00:30 Speaker 1] the universe is trying to keep us away from the podcasting. But today we have lots of internet problems too. Yeah,

[0:00:37 Speaker 0] so overall took us a while to get here but nonetheless we are here.

[0:00:41 Speaker 1] We have overcome lots of things to get into your ears today. Yeah, we’re really

[0:00:46 Speaker 0] excited today for the very, I don’t want to say dreaded topic but a touchy

[0:00:54 Speaker 1] topic, anxiety inducing anxiety

[0:00:56 Speaker 0] inducing topic. So I’m going to say it, take a deep breath after I say, but today we are going to be talking about registration.

[0:01:04 Speaker 1] Yes,

[0:01:06 Speaker 0] really scary, really scary. It’s actually not. And the reason why registration should be scary is Phil and I have a couple of really amazing people here today to talk to you all about how you can have a better registration and also just share kind of anecdotal stories about their registration and how that experience has changed over the years. So with us today we have Emma and Jamie, they are both lead mentors for a pace and FSP in the office of student success and they are the perfect panelists for this episode

[0:01:38 Speaker 1] pros at registration. So without further ado let’s get into the interview. Well we’re very excited to have two very special guests with us here today on the sounds of Success. We have two of our lead mentors from two of our wonderful office of student success programs. Ladies don’t you go and introduce yourselves, Emma go first.

[0:02:00 Speaker 0] Yes, my name is Emma Moneghetti and I am a junior studying human dimensions of organization with a minor in business and I am the Liebman tour for the base program. Yeah. Thanks for being with

[0:02:14 Speaker 1] us. Yeah. How much you Jamie?

[0:02:17 Speaker 0] Yeah. So hey everyone. My name is Jamie Villareal. I’m a 30 year psychology and sociology double major with the forensic science certificate and I’m a lead mentor for the foundation scholars program.

[0:02:28 Speaker 1] Amazing. You are doing so much. I know it’s always impressive.

[0:02:34 Speaker 0] It always, it’s just so wild thinking about how much you do in college and how after college it’s just work and go home and sleep.

[0:02:46 Speaker 1] So today we’re talking about almost even want to say the word because I know it’s like a trigger word and anxiety just seems to follow it wherever it goes. But we’re talking about registration excited right? Also known as the Hunger Games for some folks, truly,

[0:03:04 Speaker 0] truly so so you know, kind of reassure people is that your summer orientation registration is the worst registration. It only gets better after that.

[0:03:18 Speaker 1] It’s true. It’s true. It’s also the only registration where you’re like in the same room with other people while you’re horrible. I think that’s what makes

[0:03:26 Speaker 0] because you’re just like feeding off of each other horrible energy.

[0:03:31 Speaker 1] You get nightmares about summer orientation registration.

[0:03:35 Speaker 0] I literally still remember what the room looked like it was next to me. I remember everything about. I remember everything.

[0:03:42 Speaker 1] Um, yeah, well hopefully we can talk about how to make that less scary for our listeners and students in the future. Right? So once you get over that initial anxiety of like, okay, registrations coming, where does your brain start to go after that?

[0:04:03 Speaker 0] I honestly get excited just because I’m like, yeah, I get to learn something new and just explore different, various topics amongst my degrees. So while it can be overwhelming. it is a very exciting thing just because you are moving forward in your education career and your path to graduation spoken like

[0:04:22 Speaker 1] A scholar like, yeah, you’re excited to learn. For me. It was like I’m ready to get out of this class that I’m clearly like 800 pages behind in and ready to start fresh.

[0:04:31 Speaker 0] Jamie says that like somebody who checks there um degree audit very often I do. What about you, Emma? Yeah. For me, it kind of was a little more scary like when I look at the course schedule, I’m like, okay, there’s so many classes that she’s from, I don’t even know where to begin and something that I really found that was helpful for me was one, I reached out to a lot of the pace mentors and other people in my degree. So for example, I’m a part of the human dimensions of organizations. Club also had a lot of friends who are in my major and so I reached out to them, let them know what professors they liked, what they didn’t like, what classes were really like S a heavy or test heavy. And so that was really nice to be able to hear like personally from another student who is in my position, what classes they really liked. And in addition to that I found really helpful for like planning on my first schedule was a UTI chrome extension called UT registration plus, which I, which I just started using like last year and basically it is the end all be all like the best thing you can use for me at least. And like you can put all these courses kind of in your back pocket, you can save them and they all have their unique, unique numbers. And also like it will cross out courses that conflict with each other. So for example, if you like to classes and through the exact same times, one of them will cross out to show like you already have a course during this time. And so it really, it helps you plan. Like if you’re a planner and you like to see everything visually, it is so helpful. And it also sometimes for some courses, it will show the great distributions show other students have done. So it really kind of lays everything out in front of you. And I like it to really plan out

[0:06:17 Speaker 1] the course schedules coming okay, the course schedules out now, you’ve started doing whatever your processes for trying to choose what you want to to do. So, tell me, tell me a little bit about that.

[0:06:27 Speaker 0] Yeah. So, as Christina mentioned earlier, it seems like if I check my degree audit a lot and I do and that’s the whole registration process

[0:06:39 Speaker 1] just

[0:06:42 Speaker 0] because I do have two majors in the certificate. There’s a lot of classes that go into those and a lot of things to balance a lot of things. You need to check off your list in order to graduate. So by going first to my degree audit, I look at, okay, these are the sections that I need to fill out, whether it’s a flag, whether it’s a major requirement, whether it’s a certificate requirement and I’ll look at the requirements. I need to fill before I even go into the course registration. Um, so once I do get to course registration, I go ahead and look at the various classes piques my interest and I’ll go ahead and look at rate. My professor, I’ll go ahead

[0:07:23 Speaker 1] with the help of professors. It

[0:07:25 Speaker 0] really is. I didn’t think of it that way. I’ve never thought about it that way. That is so true. Take just like Emma, I use Youtube registration plus to look at great distributions and there’s even a little link we can look at past scylla base. So I go ahead and I look at that just I can get a structure of the course to see if it’s my, like my learning style.

[0:07:50 Speaker 1] Yeah, the course syllabi database I feel like is one of the most underutilized tools in course registration For a lot of reasons. Right? Like what are some of the reasons you’ll look at old silly by Emma?

[0:08:03 Speaker 0] I mean I, for for me, I do not like writing essays. I love tests. I’m like, I’ll study for it. I’ll get them done and essays. I just procrastinate. So any classes that are s a heavy or have essays that are worth like a high percentage of your grade or kind of classes that I find myself straying away from and if they study or quiz heavy, I’m like, okay, let me, I’ll take this one. Yeah. And I think that’s really important, you know, knowing your strengths and knowing how you learn best and how um you prefer to learn is something that’s really, really helpful. And so if we’re saying that rate my professor is the yelp of registration, then the course syllabi is you looking at the menu on the way to the restaurant, you know, like you can learn about how good that restaurant is, but if you don’t know what they actually serve, what’s the point?

[0:08:54 Speaker 1] Right. Right. Yeah. Or like the instruction manual for something. Yeah.

[0:08:59 Speaker 0] Yeah. And they just gave like the course description of what you’re going to be learning and like what you’re gonna be learning about. And even just finding if that’s something I even interest you. Like even just reading that your sentence description that the professor says might stray you away or my interest you immediately. Yeah. And a lot of them even say which text books or novels you’re going to need for the class. So we want to develop into that and really want to read a lot for the course that you are learning. You will be able to see how much exactly goes into that class

[0:09:31 Speaker 1] or how much reading is in a given class. Right. I think that’s a lot of um what we do in the advertising world sometimes as having an idea of like okay these classes are really reading heavy, You don’t want to take five classes that are reading heavy all in the same semester because there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get through all the reading. Um So that’s you know and same for writing right? Like writing can be a process. So um unless you’re an english major, rhetoric and writing major, you’re kind of stuck with that, but not everybody is a bona fide writer and sure there’s the writing flags, but there’s no reason why you have to do all of your writing heavy classes in one semester. There’s no reason why you need to do all of your reading heavy classes and once

[0:10:18 Speaker 0] yeah, they’re done that experience.

[0:10:25 Speaker 1] Um um So uh you know, you both have kind of talked about getting advice from friends. Um What some of the best advice you’ve gotten from friends about taking or not taking a class,

[0:10:39 Speaker 0] definitely the professors like I have. I mean I think it’s a it’s a little biased to say if you like a professor or not before you’ve even met them, but definitely hearing about their learning styles, like the teaching styles and the way that you learn compared to the way they teach or like how close like or like how like how it was like sympathetic they are to their students. Like a lot of professors I’ve learned during the pandemic weren’t sympathetic. I was lucky to have a lot that were. And so just like kind of hearing about how the professor was to their students, how they talk to their students was definitely something that either like led me to take a course or definitely led me to cross that one off the list. Yeah. Yeah. And for me, I just really like learning if they’re more lecture based professors or more discussion based because those are two different things when you’re in a and I personally do prefer lectures, so if I hear that a class is more discussion based, I might tend to stray away from that during the personal teaching experience of like that professor really determines if I take a class or not,

[0:11:47 Speaker 1] that’s a good point. Um one of the ways, and it may not be evident in the syllabus, but the size of the room might dictate whether or not it’s a lecture based course or a discussion based course. And so you can look on the syllabus, You can look on the registrar, there’s like a list of general purpose classrooms and it tells you how big an individual room is. And so, you know, if it’s a room that fits 30 people, chances are there’s nowhere to hide in that class, right? You’re

[0:12:12 Speaker 0] going to be discussing.

[0:12:13 Speaker 1] If it’s 300 like, okay, you can probably get away with sitting in the back of the room, right though. I don’t recommend doing that. That’s not good for your academic success. Absolutely not. Uh let’s see what, are there any other tools that utilize and trying to figure out what classes might be good for you?

[0:12:29 Speaker 0] Yeah, I have another one. Um if you’re really focused on like great distributions of really seeing how other peers have done, there is also a website called UT catalyst and they don’t have every class and I’ve I’ve only found my great distributions for two of my classes in the past year, But you are able to see how some students have done. And sometimes it’s hard to base it off of because like the graphs might be from 2015 and so who knows how classes were back then, but it isn’t a good tool if you can find your class. So, another tool that I’ve used also to kind of see the graphs and all the grades

[0:13:04 Speaker 1] and then there’s those surveys you all fill out at the end of every class, right? Like where does that data go? It goes to the course, instructor survey website, you can look at what people said about, you know, and again, those are kind of voluntary and I know that not everybody is taking them unless they’re like forcing you to do the paper versions in class, but you can access that data on the course instructor survey website. Um, so it’s a little bit like a cross between uh, rate my professor and yourself. I think that people are a little bit more honest on the course, instructor evaluations and they might be uh flaming. They’re bad experience in a particular course. On rate. My

[0:13:43 Speaker 0] professor really agree. Yeah, I think another tool that I really liked using was course iCAL course and then the iCAL an icicle and I thought it was really, really cool because it kind of sinks up all of the classes that are in the course schedule and then you can pick and choose them and it builds like a sample schedule for you. It’s color coded, it tells you which classes are in what rooms or if they’re online, it tells you the professor, it’s just really organized because I remember before cortical came out every semester I would sit down and I would choose my classes and then I would like draw a weekly calendar on a sheet of paper, like a crazy person and fill it in with like time blocks. But you don’t need to do that anymore. You don’t need to make

[0:14:28 Speaker 1] a calendar

[0:14:29 Speaker 0] crazy organized. Yes, exactly what you would just use cortical and it would just tell you where on the calendar your classes would be and if things conflict, I’m a very visual person. So that helps a lot. I’m jake Christina.

[0:14:44 Speaker 1] So we’ve talked a lot about like kind of the initial, you know, shopping for courses and you know, I think that it’s important to look at it like this. You are shopping for courses. You know, you’re spending roughly 5 to $6000 on these, these courses and you know, if you’re going to spend $6000 on a laptop, you, you, you think about that, you know, it wouldn’t be about like how soon could it get here? It be about like I wanted to work, how I wanted to work. And I think that’s a big trap that a lot of students fall into is they focus more on having a schedule of convenience and less so on a course that’s going to work for them and is designed in a way that they’re oriented to learn that is kind of just like the best option for them. So the next phase is kind of like the mechanics of registration, right? So stop number one the registration information sheet. Right? Uh So have you ever logged in to look at your R. I. S. And seen some some surprises there?

[0:15:42 Speaker 0] Oh, I mean they’re all right. She, it just even gives me the jitters just thinking about it. I really like the night for registration. Like I’m literally searching at 10 times like do I have a bar like have I put all my information in there? Like winds my time? Like triple checking the dates. Like you want to make sure everything’s right and it’s like it’s gonna be okay like your advisors are going to make sure it’s okay. I had like a little scary experience freshman year like I have all my classes planned out. I was ready to like register and I was like I didn’t get any of my classes and jr immediately put me into a class, figured it out like it is going to be okay. Like your advisors are you’re going to be a student at U. T. Yes and just like seeing a bar and just seeing the word bar when you scroll down. Not even really reading all the other words around it. Just

[0:16:32 Speaker 1] anxiety.

[0:16:35 Speaker 0] Then I’m like oh I just need to fill out my emergency contact again, let me go verify. And that’s something as all it may be or whether so there is like ways to fix it all of these bars, they always tell you exactly what type of bar it is and they tell you how to clear the bar. They even give you a phone number for who to contact if you have questions about that bar. But y’all need to clear your bars. And I think something that’s interesting that I found is like freshman students for some reason these bars do not scare them as much as they scare older students and that’s because older students know how it feels when they forget to clear a bar and then they can’t register. And so I am constantly telling my pay students and you’re like you register in three weeks, you better go clear bar now and then the day of registration at 11 01 there like I can’t register, why is that? And I go and I look and I’m like you got three bars you have to get on top of that, you have to get on top of that,

[0:17:37 Speaker 1] that’s not a lesson you want to learn the hard way. But once you learn it, oh yes,

[0:17:42 Speaker 0] you only have to look absolutely I learned this one. Yeah and you know something else that you should absolutely do besides checking your registration information sheet and clearing all of your bars is make sure you find out whether or not you need to meet with an advisor because most majors require you to meet with your advisor before you register and in fact they will put an advising bar on you and so please please please, if you are looking on your registration information sheet and it says you need to make an appointment with your advisor or if you have an advising bar contact your advisor and make an appointment for a SAP because they will absolutely absolutely bar you from registering, even if you don’t meet with them, even if you know exactly what it is, you’re going to take your advisor is the only person who can clear that bar not you.

[0:18:36 Speaker 1] So the more we talk about this, like I’m starting to see a lot of similarities between test anxiety and registration anxiety and the more prepared you are for registration, maybe the less anxious you might be about registering and you know that preparation is all the things we’ve talked about so far right? Like making sure you have classes that fit in your degree and classes that are already open. That’s like another thing too is, you know, if you’re a first year student, you’re probably registering towards the end of the registration period and if you know, you got your selections all picked out before registration open for everybody, chances are some things have closed. Uh, you know, since you first look at the course schedules. So it’s important to continually look at the course schedule throughout this process from, from when registration opens until you actually have your registration time. But you know, the more prepared you are, I feel like the less anxiety you’re going to have.

[0:19:30 Speaker 0] Yeah, this is what I tell the younger students, not just my students, but like any younger student, if your registration time is anywhere within the last three days of registration, um, I don’t even bother looking at the core schedule until a week before I actually register because things change a lot. Thousands and thousands of people registered before you do. And even if you’re just taking, you know, like core classes, like they’re going to be seniors who need that. Core classes who registered like two weeks before you do. So I would um for people who register a little bit later I would just wait and then the morning of your registration wake up a little early to see what is still available. You need to have backups to your backups, to your backups. Your backups and those backups need to constantly be updated because the registration course schedule is a ever changing product. Ever changing. Actually give the opposite advice. I say continuously be checking so don’t last minute to check but check every couple of days leading up to your registration time that we continuously update and swap out classes that are getting filled. That’s Smart Jamie smart. You

[0:20:42 Speaker 1] have two options

[0:20:42 Speaker 0] there. You always be checking either way. Either way you need to wake up the morning of your registration and see what is still there because what was there last night at 11 p.m. Might not be there at eight a.m. And by backups like you’re talking like 3-4 classes like like in a schedule like you have to have sometimes for me like I’ll have like two completely different schedules because you actually don’t know what classes you’re going to be able to get into until you’re actually registering right then and there.

[0:21:12 Speaker 1] I think that’s a good segue to kind of like the next piece. So let’s assume we’ve done all of our homework. We’ve talked to our advisor, we’ve looked at our degree plan, we’ve looked at what classes are available were not paying attention to what time classes are. We’re paying attention to great distribution and rate my professor and Cilla by what what what what are your what do you do on the day of registration? What’s your ritual or

[0:21:39 Speaker 0] your morning

[0:21:40 Speaker 1] exactly? For registration day though? Right? Like it’s a little bit different. It’s almost like game day.

[0:21:47 Speaker 0] Well I wake up I’m kidding. I’m not gonna but basically I have all of my unique numbers on a sticky note on my computer. And so I’m ready to copy and paste quick. Like I am like a ninja on the computer. I’m ready to go place them in in actually my freshman year. I remember I had three backups and I was registering for U. G. S and I didn’t get my three and I remember I was so sad I was like it was like the sleep one where you could sleep on Fridays or something. It was like it was such a fun class. And I remember I was like these are the class I want to take. An these have to be like the ones I take. Like I refuse to take anything else. And I remember I actually got put in a different class and it ended up being not only my favorite class but my bus class. Like I got my best grade. So it’s also important to remember like yes you have this idea for this perfect schedule in your head. But with 50,000 students at U.T. It’s highly unlike likely that you’re not going to get that perfect schedule. And so you have to remember that your backups are still going to be great classes. My backup, my fourth backup ended up being my favorite professor, my favorite class, My best class. Like your backup might turn out to be this great thing. So like try to keep an open mind with your backups and like keep like a long list of them. Because it’s highly likely that you might need them. Yes.

[0:23:05 Speaker 1] Everything happens for a reason.

[0:23:07 Speaker 0] Everything you are not going to end up in a ditch because you didn’t get your top three choices for a sophomore core class. I promise you, you will, you’re not going to end up under a bridge. Everything will be OK because you didn’t get the two o’clock class but got stuck with the 10 o’clock class. Right. Right. It was over. It’s done. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like I, my freshman year, I was supposed to take a class that was absolutely necessary and I was only able to take that class in the fall. Like it’s not offered in the spring. Couldn’t get into it freshman year fall. Couldn’t get into it sophomore year fall. And I’m not under a bridge. I’m okay. I had to take the class two years later. I still graduated. Everything’s fine. Yes. Uh, not getting an important thing to remember. Everything will be OK. Registration equals. It’s going to be okay. Yes. You have other requirements that you can check off. You don’t need to get the specific set of classes this semester, especially when you’re younger students because you still have so many classes to knock out. Really. Um, if you’re like a graduating senior and there’s only one class left, that’s a different story. But even then you go to your advisors and they will find a way, you know? So either way it will get solved. It will get solved. And that’s why you have those bathtubs. I mean literally keeping those unique numbers, Like I think I have 10 unique numbers on like ready to copy and paste on registration day. Honestly, I think it’s at least 10 like I have, I make sure I have so many options because it’s the worst feeling is like running out of options and then you’re like, oh well now it’s my registration time. But now I got to look through the course schedule and figure out what I want to take. So it’s important to really have those backup ready to copy and paste when during your registration like timeframe. Yeah. And something else that I feel like it seems very small but makes a ton of a difference is knowing the prioritization of the classes you want to register for. So if you have a class that there are only 50 seats in this class, it’s extremely popular and it’s only offered in one specific semester each year. That is the class you will register for first. That is a unique number that you copy and paste first because that 200 person chemistry class that is offered with eight different sections. Put that at the bottom of your list. Really think about like the supply and demand. I know economics is fake but the supply and demand of these classes are real. I think it’s also important to note that there’s also a high chance your website’s gonna crash. It’s happened for me every year and every time even as a junior my heart is like, no, like what’s going on it, You have to remember it’s crashing for everyone else. There’s just so many people trying to register at once. You’re going to be able to register. Like it’s not going to crash for five hours at a time. Like you’re going to be able to do it. But it’s okay because don’t freak out because it’s probably most likely going to happen. But you’re going to be able to do it. You just refresh the screen and it’s back up. Just a what

[0:26:20 Speaker 1] are some other things that go into consideration for how you prioritize, which classes you’re going to try registering for first?

[0:26:27 Speaker 0] Definitely bouncing off what Christina said. I mean I made the mistake registering for my big ones first and then I remember I talked to J. R. I was like I didn’t get into this class and she’s like well why did you choose the 13 person class to register for less, what are you doing? And I was like oh I know I know. And so I definitely think that’s also something that’s important and then also like really planning out what classes you actually need now. Like Christina said she needed that class that certain class that one semester. So for example if you can take This specific class all four years it’s okay if you need to take it senior year. But if this is a specific class that you need to take kind of in a time frame like that, then I definitely think that’s something that needs to be at the top of your list first copy and paste into that registration. Yeah. So like classes that are a prerequisite for another class or classes that are part of a sequence, those should be at the top of your list to register for four for first agreed. What about you jimmy in order of importance and the classes that are most important to you? The class most important to your degree plan. Go ahead and list that in the order. Have backups ready. And then of course if Oz Fells, everything in the world is going wrong, don’t work. Have course schedule popped up so you can just go ahead, look up stuff really quick. Have your mentors number on standby because they will help calm you down, walk you through it are your advisor as well. And remember, Yes, we are hurrying to register as soon as your registration time to opens, but it’s not saying oh, you only have 10 minutes to do. So it’s

[0:28:15 Speaker 1] open for hours and hours and on multiple days, right?

[0:28:19 Speaker 0] Multiple days for weeks and then the first week of classes. Yes, I drop is your friend. So just remember you have time so it’s okay to be calm and go through it. Try not to work yourself up too much. That’s when your fingers start fumbling on the keys. You’re messing up unique numbers. So just go ahead and try to relax and everything will be okay for sure.

[0:28:48 Speaker 1] So, uh, you know, everyone’s worst registration is their first one I think during summer orientation. Um, how is your feeling about registration evolved during your time in college? Mhm.

[0:29:04 Speaker 0] Yeah I felt like throughout my time I’ve definitely got in calmer when it comes to registration. Just because I generally do feel that your first registration experience is going to be your worst just because you have so many people like speaking in your ear, the room full of people, everyone logging onto the same website. So of course it’s going to crash in that

[0:29:28 Speaker 1] moment.

[0:29:29 Speaker 0] Um but as time goes on within your time at U. T. Your registration time gets put closer to the beginning when registration opens, which makes it easier for classes uh to be open and easier to register for them. So yeah, I feel like as time goes on you will get the hang of it, especially you got your tips done, you know how to create backups, you know how to create mock schedules, you know how to separate your unique numbers and it’s really just by developing those skills, you get registering and it doesn’t seem as hard. Yeah, I completely agree. Like coming into it as a junior, I was so like less nervous. I was like, I’ve done this, but honestly I’ve done this like five times. Like I can do this again. And I think freshman year, you just have a fear of the unknown and especially even for like the pay students in other, like students who are registering for a full schedule now. I think that is also another time, but they’re going to have a feeling of the unknown. It’s your starting from one class to five. And I remember I felt or four or five and I remember I felt so nervous, I was like what is this going to be like, how how do I plan a schedule like this? Like it’s different and I think that you have to recognize like you’re not used to it, but use the same tools, ask your mentors for tools that they’ve used. Do not be afraid to ask for help because registration does seem scary, but it really shouldn’t be at all. Yeah,

[0:30:54 Speaker 1] it seems like a solo sport, but it’s really a team sport, right?

[0:30:58 Speaker 0] Exactly. You have your advisors, your mentors, friends, suggestions like you should be having like a team of people knowing what classes you’re going to take. No one is trying to hurt you in any way and to stop you moving forward through your education. We all want you to get the classes you need, get the requirements you need and be excited to

[0:31:20 Speaker 1] learn at the end of the day. Remember you’re the one that has to take the classes, Not mom and dad, not your friend. You’re not or not your advisor, you’re the one getting the grade doing the work. Well. Is there any other pro tips? Sage advice you feel like you haven’t had a chance to share with us about registration?

[0:31:39 Speaker 0] I think we’ve really covered it. I think it’s just important to remember to stay calm. Don’t wait till the last minute to figure everything out. Make sure to ask your advisors and mentors for advice. Make sure you plan, do not wait till the night before or the day of to see if you have a bar, but you need to figure out like really get ahead of it because if you get ahead of it, it’s, You’ll figure it out. But if you kind of wait till the last minute, that’s when, that’s why registration gets scary is for the people who wait last minute they have to tackle some obstacles. So I think that if you get ahead, you use your resources. It really is not bad. Yeah. And I will say that especially in the world we are now we are looking forward to and planning for an in person for 2021 but things change and we don’t, the course schedule for the fall hasn’t come out yet. So we don’t know the modes of the classes that are going to be, so make sure to look whether they’re going to be hybrid in person

[0:32:40 Speaker 1] that big

[0:32:41 Speaker 0] fully online, make sure to look at that when you’re looking at registering for classes.

[0:32:46 Speaker 1] Yeah, it’s a new dimension of registration for sure. The only thing that I feel like we’ve missed is, you know, we’ve done all this work, right? We’ve done this preparation, we’ve gotten up on time, we got the classes. We want. The last thing you want to do is to forget to pay your tuition on time. Because if you forget to pay your tuition on time, all of that is for nothing and you lose your whole schedule. So knowing when the tuition payment deadline is is high key important

[0:33:20 Speaker 0] and if you’re a student who has financial aid, all you gotta do is you click a button that says pay with financially, that’s all you have to do, click that button because they will take all of your classes away. They will do that. And I mean the process of getting them back. Um it’s not too difficult of a process, but there’s zero guarantee that you will get back. The classes that you originally had, your advisors in your department will help you get into classes. But they’re not going to promise getting you into the dream schedule that you had beforehand. So please pay your tuition or click the paper with financial aid button. Don’t let all of that be dropped from your schedule.

[0:34:02 Speaker 1] Yeah. Yeah. You don’t want to be a horror story of being zapped and it sounds like you had some friends as that’s happened to.

[0:34:08 Speaker 0] I’ve had some friends and Bill literally text me and be like, I just woke up and I have no classes and we’re all like you for what? So it’s important to just stay like literally my one advice with registration and just classes that you’re registering for is just stay on top of it, stay on top of your advising bars. So on top of the classes you want to take, have a unique members ready to copy and paste pay your tuition and like things will run smoothly. I will give you my word, check your emails, check your emails because that’s when they send you the tuition bill. It’s through your email. You give you enough time to pay it, especially if you are paying with financial aid, you will know months in advance. You don’t have to wait to the day of or even the week of as soon as you get that email, just go ahead and click pay with tuition and you all get to go, you have nothing to worry about, nothing to forget about and you’ll be able to take the classes you want. Really.

[0:35:07 Speaker 1] You’ve been living the good life with the vote on the 43:00

[0:35:13 Speaker 0] studio

[0:35:15 Speaker 1] again. Yeah,

[0:35:17 Speaker 0] well you all were

[0:35:18 Speaker 1] fantastic.

[0:35:20 Speaker 0] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And I know that your mentees are really, really excited to hear from you as well. They love hearing the mentors speaking on the podcast and we will certainly be posting about this on both of the pace and Fsp social media accounts. Yeah, well thank you for having us. I mean also like do not, I’m saying this now like do not hesitate to reach out to me or

[0:35:44 Speaker 1] Jamie or anybody if you have any

[0:35:46 Speaker 0] questions like we have gone through this many times and we know the ropes and we definitely would love sharing our advice and just telling everyone about how not scary it should be. Thanks so much for having me on. I really enjoyed it. Like I was said feel free to reach out. The Foundation scholars program does have an instagram and twitter like you can follow us along on its U. T. Underscore FSP on both platforms. Go ahead and send a D. M. If you have any questions leading up to registration or any questions about U. T. Overall we’ll be happy to answer. Yeah. Well that was really really awesome and I feel like if I was a student I would have used so many of those tips. I learned a lot especially from Jamie when she was like I actually would do the complete opposite of what you

[0:36:37 Speaker 1] do. Yeah she has her stuff together. She was like

[0:36:42 Speaker 0] really does I mean if

[0:36:44 Speaker 1] you’re double majoring with a certificate you kind of need to you can be playing answering registration and

[0:36:50 Speaker 0] you’re trying to graduate in four years. Uh You got to be organized.

[0:36:55 Speaker 1] Yeah I hope this really for those of you listening does kind of like convince you or inspire you to spend a little more time trying to pick out your classes. You know this is an expensive endeavor college and you should get things that are good and things that you like and things that you want to go to and learn

[0:37:15 Speaker 0] from. Yeah, I think that’s spending a little bit of extra time sitting at your computer and going through all of the available courses and reading all of the syllabi and looking at the reviews and talking to older students. All of that is really worth it because you’re in this class for anywhere between, I don’t know, 3-6 hours a week, depending on what class it is that you’re taking every single week for four months. And that is a lot including all of the time that you spend outside of class studying or doing homework or breaking on projects. It’s a lot of commitment and you deserve to have a good experience because you know, you’re taking this class and it’s for your degree plan. It’s something that you pay a ton of money for. Why would you not want to research that and make sure that you get a good experience out of it?

[0:38:03 Speaker 1] Yeah, it never fails. You know, I kind of think they would make an interesting side study is like okay on a scale of 1 to 10, how happy are you with your schedule and then at the end of the semester like ask again like okay for those of you that said like nines and tens. Like how did that actually work out for you? Because honestly like I think that that that is the biggest trap for registration that that folks fall into is like wanting all Tuesday thursday classes are all, you know, I want to have friday open and there’s certainly benefits to that. But a lot of times I feel like it comes at the cost of being in classes that you just don’t really like.

[0:38:41 Speaker 0] Yeah, I think I would rather be in classes that I really enjoy with professors that I love being taught by five days a week than cram all of my classes into just Tuesday and thursday and be miserable with the classes that I do have. And I know for a fact that I would not enjoy that because I have friends who did that and they were absolutely miserable and I was like, okay, so you get a four day weekend, but I love my professors and I have fun in my classes and I learned a time,

[0:39:10 Speaker 1] here’s where Phil shows his age a little bit and puts on his his grandpa pants. But you know, there’s so many tools available now right? Like back in my day, like there weren’t, you didn’t have access to the course instructor surveys like you didn’t have a silly by database. There wasn’t rate my professor, like there was just word of mouth and you know, we even registered over the phone with touchtone dials. It wasn’t even online until my software year of college. So uh, you know, not to be like, oh, students have it so much better now. I think that there’s just more tools at your disposal and um, they’re there to be utilized. And the folks that don’t utilize the tools are the ones that tend to not have a good time the next semester.

[0:39:58 Speaker 0] And I think something that Emma talked about that I really admired is understanding how you learn. So Emma said that she doesn’t choose classes if she can, she tries to stray away from classes that include heavier writing components because she’s not a strong writer and she doesn’t want to write too much in a semester. So she really enjoys things like tests and quizzes because those are how she learns the best and, and as a junior. And I think that that is around where students start to figure out how they learn around, I don’t know, late sophomore year to junior year is when you really figure out what kind of style it is that you do best with. And you should start reading the syllabi to find out if the classes that you need to take a line with those styles. Because if you can choose a really good class with an awesome professor and it sounds interesting and it is taught in a way that is most beneficial to you. You’re going to have an amazing time.

[0:40:51 Speaker 1] Yeah. Especially like core classes, right? Like government, there’s probably, I don’t have it looked at the schedule yet, but there’s probably like eight or 10 different intro government options. Right? And so you know, it helps to be an informed consumer. Go look at the syllabi for those professors and see what’s the textbook, How many essays am I going to have to do? Are the tests more multiple choice or are they more essay based? Is the class more discussion based or lecture based? I know Jamie talked about that and you know, uh, picking the classes that worked well with you is just smart.

[0:41:25 Speaker 0] Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Overall I think that there’s a reason we hired Emma and Jamie to be mentors and there’s a reason why they are leave mentors as well.

[0:41:37 Speaker 1] I love that she was like have your mentors phone number on, on, on the go on the ready. You know, in case

[0:41:43 Speaker 0] for registration we have them all sit on a zoom call with me or JR and any mentors who are available and we just troubleshoot on the spot right there because I think that if the mentors were to give their students phone numbers for registration, they would have to skip class

[0:42:01 Speaker 1] for like three days straight, they’d be blowing them up. Yeah. Yeah. Well I think that’s why FSP does their registration parties, you know, and that’s a really cool opportunity. So for those of you who are listening who are in foundation scholars program, take advantage of those things. Um they really do help make the experience better.

[0:42:19 Speaker 0] Yeah, for sure.

[0:42:21 Speaker 1] Well hopefully this podcast has helped you all feel like um that registration is a little less like the hunger games and more like an exam that you’re prepared to ace. You don’t have to worry about the odds being in your favor because you’ve taken care of business to be there and succeed.

[0:42:42 Speaker 0] Uh it really is like an exam, so please take your time and study and collaborate with your peers.

[0:42:48 Speaker 1] Well, I think that’s about all the time we have for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Phil Butler. I’m

[0:42:56 Speaker 0] Christina buoy

[0:42:57 Speaker 1] and we hope that all of your endeavors are a success