Saint Mary's students are meeting with their faculty advisors to plan course schedules and learn more about the advanced registration system that students will use to register for classes next semester.
Advanced registration, a system the College has used for many years, enables students who have declared a major to reserve positions in the classes they need to fulfill their requirements.
"It's an excellent system because, come their senior year, students can't say that they didn't have the opportunity to get the classes they need," said Lorraine Kitchner, college registrar.
Advanced registration begins during the first week back after the fall and spring break and is key in assuring that students are able to graduate in four years, Kitchner said. The system is particularly important in highly structured majors such as the sciences.
Organic chemistry professor and advisor Dorothy Feigl is in close contact with her students from the moment they walk onto campus their freshman year, she said. The large number of prerequisites for chemistry and physics majors, along with long lab hours, make scheduling for her students especially complex.
"The most basic thing in advising is to make sure that the program we set out for [the student] will get her to her senior year in a timely manner with every class that she needs," she said.
The advanced registration system, she added, makes it possible for the science department to accommodate all of their students' lecture and lab time needs. She and other advisors can then help students integrate general education courses into their schedules, she said.
Students with multiple majors or minors have an even more difficult challenge in fitting everything into their tight schedules.
Senior political science and economics major Anne Decesaro attributes her ability to keep on track for graduation in May to careful planning and the assistance of her advisors. She said some of her course requirements overlap, and the advisors for each major communicated with each other to formulate the most efficient four-year plan.
She is also depending on the advantage of advanced registration this year to guarantee that she completes her required courses in time for graduation.
"Without the three poly-sci classes I am taking next semester, I wouldn't have my major [completed], even though my comp is all done and turned in," she said.
All departments conclude advance registration scheduling Nov. 14.
