The first day of class registration for the spring semester was problem-free for seniors yesterday as they registered for classes with the new InsideND system, officials said.
"Everything is going incredibly smoothly," Assistant Registrar Doug McKenna said. "We're so far in a good position."
Under the new registration system, students become eligible to register for classes every 15 minutes, McKenna said. Each student is randomly assigned a "registration time ticket," and once his or her designated time begins, he or she may begin registering for classes.
insideND debuted in the spring of 2005 and replaced the former IrishLink system. It provides students with the opportunity to log in and add or drop classes continuously from the start of their registration periods until the seventh day of classes in the spring. Under the old IrishLink system, students were only able to log in during their designated 15-minute registration period and were only able to log in to make changes at specific times outside that time period.
Students have complained about the differences in the registration format between insideND and the old IrishLink.
Although only seniors are currently eligible to register, some students still face problems with class availability because of limitations in class sizes.
Some students, however, have found ways to work around such restrictions. By having friends who have earlier registration times register for classes that are filling up quickly, students with later registration times can essentially reserve a spot in a class.
"I am monitoring the number of seats left in classes I want throughout the day," senior marketing management major Patrick Kane said. "And in classes where it looks like it might be full before I get my chance to DART, I am utilizing friends who are only taking twelve credits and are able to add classes before I am."
"It's really just a strategy to get the classes and schedule you want," he said. "A lot of students do this."
Also, despite the switch to five digit course numbers, fourth-year architecture major Jenn Block said registration was not difficult.
"I couldn't DART into my architecture classes yet, but those don't really matter because they're set already, so DARTing doesn't matter too much," Block, said. "It only took two seconds to register for my other classes."
Block did note one difficulty, however, with regard to the new format of InsideND.
"The only part that was annoying was adjusting to the new format because it keeps changing," she said.
