Anna Thompson, the administrative support specialist in WCU’s Advising Center, helps student Amarillis Harper look for classes on Advising Day. Photo by Shelby LeQuire, Oct. 27, 2015.
The author is a student worker in WCU’s Advising Center.
For students at Western Carolina University, fall 2015 Advising Day was not only a break from classes, it was a chance to organize schedules and get to know advisers before registration begins.
All day on Oct. 27, students met with advisers and department staffs at various times on campus for advising appointments. These sessions were essential for students to obtain alternative pin numbers for registration and to pick out classes for the upcoming Spring 2016 semester.
Students with a declared major met with their faculty adviser within their department, and undeclared students went to WCU’s Advising Center for a meeting with their academic adviser. Some departments, like Communications and Marketing, held group sessions for all their students at one time.
For Grace Hnizdil, an academic adviser for student athletes, Advising Day is a crucial part of registration season each semester.
“Advising Day is probably one of the most important days of the semester. If students miss out on Advising Day they will not be as prepared for registration as they could be,” Hnizdil said.
The Advising Center has been hosting “Registration Ready” workshops until the first week of November. These sessions are designed to help students run a Degree Audit through MyCat, search for classes, find out who their adviser is and give important registration tips. According to the Advising Center page, the last two workshops will be on Nov. 3 and Nov. 4 at 5 p.m. in Coulter 105.
Student registration dates have been sent to students via email from the Registrar’s Office. According to an email from Larry Hammer of the Registrar, the method for assigning registration times has changed this semester. “Registration time-tickets are now set based on the minimum number of hours required to complete your degree program rather than the number of hours you have earned. Students with fewer hours remaining receive earlier time-tickets for registration,” he said. Before this semester, registration times were assigned based on class – seniors registered before juniors and juniors registered before sophomores, etc.
While Advising Day is helpful to take care of most registration woes, pesky issues still occur every semester.
“The number one problem for students during registration is holds on their accounts. Holds prevent students from registering for classes, because of things like unpaid fees,” said Hnizdil. “Some other issues pop up when there’s only one section of a class being offered and students can’t get into that class because of time conflicts.”
Academic Advisor, Kristian Blanton, suggests students start at the Advising Center if they have any registration issues.
See a photo slideshow on a day in Advising Center on Advising day.
