Students to plan ahead for second semester
On Monday, Nov. 2, students may begin building their trial schedules for the spring semester.
With the use of StudentCentral, the convenience of preregistration has improved dramatically. “It’s a very convenient process,” said Fernande Pierre-Louis, a junior pre-physical therapy major. In the past, all the checksheets and forms were on paper. Students had to leave the comfort of their rooms and wait in line to receive their checksheets, schedule their classes and visit their advisers. “It was like a circus,” said Mrs. Linda Abrams, a member of the social science faculty and adviser for political science majors.
Students like StudentCentral because all the necessary information is on the computer screen, and building a schedule requires no more than a few clicks of the mouse. If there is a conflict in the way the student has created his or her schedule, a red box will show up in the schedule planner. Omar Maldonado, a freshman speech pedagogy major, described StudentCentral as “overall very good, very useful [and] very helpful.”
StudentCentral has made the job of the BJU registrar Dr. Jeff Heath and those in the Records Office much easier. Rather than dealing with all of the students’ schedules, Dr. Heath sees only the students who have unique situations or problems in their schedules that could not be resolved by the student’s adviser.
An adviser’s job during preregistration includes reviewing students’ checksheets, making sure students are taking the necessary classes to graduate on time, approving students’ schedules and offering extra guidance when needed.
Even now, students can begin planning and talking to their advisers. “I ask [my adviser] questions constantly,” Rebecca Tomlinson, a sophomore culinary arts student, said. Like many advisers, Dr. Steven Cruice, a biblical counseling adviser, wants to be personable with his 44 advisees. He keeps a list of their names and pictures on his desk so he can be familiar with them when they visit his office.
Dr. Cruice encourages students to go to their advisers prepared—prepare questions, know work schedules and take the required placement tests and music auditions. Such preparation makes the best use of both the student’s and the adviser’s time.
Also with proper planning, students can strategically build their schedules to avoid paying the extra fee to drop and add classes and, more importantly, to avoid scrambling their senior year to take required classes.
After students’ schedules have been approved, they still have the option to drop and add classes. “In the end though, it’s the student himself [who] should be the most concerned about his schedule and the most concerned about his progress,” Dr. Abrams said.
Dr. Heath encourages students to consider major changes before preregistration in order to avoid extra work and getting behind schedule.
The Records Office reviews seniors’ schedules during Christmas break, so seniors should take preregistration even more seriously to ensure they’re registered for the correct classes for their final semester. Reviewing schedules avoids miscommunication with students who plan to graduate in the spring but do not have enough credits to do so.
Students submit their trial schedules between Dec. 2 and Dec. 11, and after returning from Christmas break and checking in, they will submit their final schedules.
“I love preregistration!” Rebecca said. However, some students feel differently. “Don’t talk about preregistration. It makes me nervous,” Rachel Willard, a senior molecular biology and biochemistry major, said. But either way, preregistration is an important process that is worth the time.
“Students should preregister at their first opportunity,” Dr. Heath said. The most important aspect of preregistering is for students to take initiative. The BJU Registration Guide offers a great deal of information on the preregistration process.
