Helpful tips for spring registration

By JONATHAN GIBSON, Ranger Reporter:

This may shock you, but Christmas break is in less than a month. Many students are about to start preparing for the holiday season, but there may be one thing they’re forgetting–to register for spring classes.

Spring registration opened on Nov. 7 and academic advisers have been busy helping walk students through the process.

Associate Director of Advising, Ernesto Olmos, wants students to be prepared and had some helpful tips to share.

“Talk to your adviser. Make sure that you know your plan. Know what classes you need, that way you can register for those classes.”

Many students tend to underestimate the importance of getting registered quickly. With Amarillo College’s 10,000 plus student body, classes can fill up in the blink of an eye.

According to Olmos, some students tend to wait until the last minute, and he wants students who are registering for the upcoming semester to know that not everything is as it used to be. The advising department has switched from using a payment deadline to a virtual waitlist.

“We used to have a payment deadline where people were dropped from their classes if they didn’t pay. A lot of the time the mentality of the students was, ‘If I wait, people will get dropped from their classes and I can take their spot,’ but now we have a waitlisting format,” said Olmos.

“When students go online and try to register for a class that’s full, they actually sit in a virtual waitlist,” Olmos said. “So, when people get dropped from a class you can’t just jump in there and get in front of the line, we go through the sequence.”

With this new system in place, there is no good reason to wait to register.

“Now would be the time to register,” Olmos said. “A lot of students think that if they wait until January they’re going to find more classes, and that doesn’t usually happen. There are less classes in January. If you haven’t registered, now would be the time to make an appointment and visit with your adviser. As we get closer to January it gets harder for students to see their adviser because everybody’s trying to. Also, lots of classes may be gone at that point.”

Unsurprisingly, basic courses that every student needs to take are in high demand. “A lot of our ‘gateway’ courses–English, biology, math–the classes that everybody has to take for their major, usually go the fastest. If you need biology, English, math, start getting into those classes now because they fill up really fast,” advised Olmos.

Many new AC students register at the start of every spring semester. Olmos urges all currently enrolled students to take advantage of their ability to register now before it gets too busy.

“We definitely want students to try to register before the Christmas break, especially if you’re currently enrolled. If you register before Christmas, you won’t have to worry about it. Enjoy your two or three weeks off and then you’re ready for spring, ” Olmos said.

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