KAELYN WOJTYLKO
STAFF WRITER
Recently, Alma has made a lot of changes, one of the changes being the registration system. While the new system had many new features that students liked quite a bit, many students found themselves confused and frustrated when it came time to actually register for their classes.
It was announced that the registration and advising system would be changing on Thursday, Sept. 26, to students through an email. If students were confused with any of the new features, then they had access to the guide for the new system which was attached to the email. Students now have to go through Inside Alma and plan their semester out through the course catalog. In order to register for classes, students must have a meeting with their advisor and get their schedule approved prior to their registration date.
Students now have access to view their progress on their degree and on distributive requirements, along with planning their whole degree out unlike before when you had to wait until it was closer to registration.
With this new software, you can now easily plan out your degree over your four years. Many students really liked this feature because then they could plan out what classes they wanted to take or need to take before graduating.
Breawna Ritter (’22) said, “This is probably the best feature because then I can plan all of my future classes out.”
With the planning feature, students were also able to see a schedule which lays out the day and time they will be in classes. Some students it took some time to figure out and get used to the new feature, some are even still learning how to work the new system.
Carrielynn LaFranchie (’22) said, “I didn’t like the new systems at first, but after I got used to it and learned everything, I found that I actually really like it. It’s really helpful and cool that it plans out your schedule and shows you what your schedule would be like and if any of your class schedules clash together.”
Some students even found the benefits that can follow them to jobs on and off campus.
Emmett Kelly (’22) said, “I really like that I can see what my exact schedule will look like and be able to make sure that everything will work. It’s also handy for my job, because I can just print my schedule out and give it to them for my availability.”
Students with 90 or more credits were first up to test the new system for their registration date on Monday, Nov. 4, starting at 9 a.m. Some students had troubles getting their planned courses to load and had to learn that in order to register, you had to log out and reload the page before actually being able to register.
It was still a learning experience when students with 56 credits or more registered on Wednesday, Nov. 6. Students were still trying to get around registering for courses you had to have special permission for or had to have you advisor approve.
Katie Bailey (’22) said, “My only complaint is that there were a few classes that said you needed special permission to take them when I already had permission, but for some reason it let me into them right away and I had to talk to the registrar for like ten minutes in order to register for my spring term because it said I needed ‘instructor permission’ when I already had it.”
Students were still learning while registering on Nov. 11, students with 25 credits or more were quick to jump on and realize that certain thing like lessons. “I think it’s pretty convenient for the general population, but for anyone that wants/needs to take private lessons in the music department, it’s still not ideal. We are still having to waste paper and time by filling out a drop/add form,” said Kelly.
Anyone else who had not registered had a slim picking of classes and had virtually no problem except for the occasional loading error. Overall, the system had its ups and downs, but so does any new system.
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