Freshmen have the hardest task of registering as seniors get to go first
Don’t sweat it if you’re a freshman and you can’t get into the classes you need — you could always get on the seven-year degree plan if all else fails.
COMMENTARY
Jeff Dennis

Isn’t registering for classes so much fun? Well, probably not if you’re a freshman or sophomore, but for (hopefully) graduating seniors such as myself, it’s not all that bad.

We can sit back and think about how we’ve paid our dues. Those freshmen deserve to have to sweat out the minutes leading up to their registration time. Watching as each and every class they intended to take fills up. Two spots left…now one…it’s full…wait list maybe?…great, now that’s filling up. Most of you have probably been there at one point or another, and if not, your time is still coming.

Besides sitting back and basking in our superior quantities of coursework hours, most seniors are very intent on enrolling in the classes they know freshmen are going to try and take. To tell the truth, it’s almost a form of initiation, maybe even psychological hazing. We like to force freshmen to rearrange their schedule 40 times because all the classes they want keep filling up.

Honestly though, what most seniors are really thinking about is trying to find the easiest classes possible to fulfill certain UCRs that we’ve neglected the last three and a half years. We’re not really out to ruin freshmen’s lives, but hey, when it comes down to snatching up an easy nutrition class, we’re not going to hesitate about being a little selfish. By the time you’re all seniors, you’ll know how to utilize networking before registration by calling up a few friends to find out which geology professor is the easiest, or which professors don’t take attendance.

For the poor freshmen though, registration is no doubt a somewhat stressful time.

Especially if you were like me and didn’t come to college already having a bunch of hours through AP courses. Why should those people get to register first? They’ve already got 62 hours after one semester at school; they don’t need to register as badly as me.

Why do they get to register with the juniors on the third day of registration when I’m not allowed to register for the spring semester until April? These are questions you can hear every year if you spend a little time in the computer lab during registration.

Don’t lose hope though, because you’ll probably get plenty of classes, and there will also be ample time to fulfill your UCRs (or whatever they’re called by the time you graduate) over the course of the next few years.

Even if you don’t get the classes you really need, it’s not that big of a deal to put yourself on the seven-year degree plan. Hey, the first three years are just there so you can get on your feet, right? No reason to get in a big hurry to get out of school, because then it’s back to the bottom of the totem pole in the “real world.”

There’s a nasty rumor going around campus that seniors are supposed to get a real job after graduation. Some of my professors, as well as my parents, are even asserting this rumor is actually true.

I’d better get over to the dean’s office and switch over to the seven-year plan.
Jeff Dennis is a senior sociology major from Gail. He can be reached at j.a.dennis@tcu.edu