Take a breath. If you’ve scheduled a registration preparation meeting with your advisor, you’re going to be prepared to do this! You can successfully do this!
While you can see courses that are being offered for spring semester, that doesn’t mean you should begin looking at them more than 24 hours prior to your registration window opening. Students with more priority than you, like seniors, will be taking seats in courses, and you have no control over the situation as everything is constantly changing. You have no idea what will still remain open when your registration window opens. You will get classes, though, and you’re going to get classes that work towards your graduation requirements.
Before You Register
Besides scheduling and meeting with your advisor, here are the productive things to do for registration:
1. Clear holds placed on your registration ability.
If you look in your Student Center on MyMadison and see "No Enrollment Activity" or "Withhold All Services", then you will not be able to register for classes until you take care of the hold. Click "details" and then "No Enrollment Activity" to learn who has placed the hold on you and how you contact them to learn what you need to do to get the hold lifted. Some of you may have more than one hold.
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2. Look for your registration date and time on MyMadison.
It will be in the right-hand column within your Student Center. You need to click on "details" to see exactly what time your window opens. The time your window opens is not assigned while looking at your course schedule; therefore, you may be in class when your window opens. It's alright! Just get to a computer with internet access as soon as you can after class to register on MyMadison.
You don't want to be making decisions about which classes you prefer when you're in the middle of registering. For example, if you still need to complete a Cluster IV - American Experience, then preference which class in Cluster IV - American Experience you would want to take first, then second, and third. This will make registration much easier to balance your course preferences with the availability of classes and fit with your schedule.
4. View MyMadison Video Tutorials.
You’ll register for classes by yourself on MyMadison. Information Systems provides a support page with videos about how to add, drop, and swap a class on MyMadison. Watch these before your registration window opens and review them as much as you need. Below, I’ve embedded some of these videos with extra tips for your convenience:
Adding Classes
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Here are some common error messages you can get when trying to add a class:
You cannot add this class due to a time conflict.
This means that you have another course you're registered for that conflicts with the time of the class you're trying to add.
Class #### is full.
This means there are no more available seats in this section.
Requisites not met.
This can mean that (1) you must be declared in a certain major to take this course, (2) you must be a certain class standing (i.e. sophomore), (3) there is a co-requisite you need to enroll in simultaneously with the Shopping Cart feature [watch next video], or (4) there is a pre-requisite that you have not completed.
To view restrictions placed on a specific section, click "View Details" and read the "Enrollment Requirements" and "Class Notes" sections. The example shown tells you that this section of CHEM 131 is only for the specific academic programs listed and CHEM 131L is a co-requisite. You’ll notice, “View Details” also shows you: how many students can enroll in a class (a.k.a. class capacity), how many students are enrolled (a.k.a. enrollment total), and how many seats are still available, a course description, and the number of credit hours (a.k.a. units).
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Utilizing the Shopping Cart
Understanding the "Shopping Cart" is extremely important when you're registering for classes that are co-requisistes, like the CHEM 131 and CHEM 131L example above.
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Swapping Classes
Now, you can swap any course for any other course - not just the same course for a different class section. Swapping courses doesn't drop you out of a class unless you're guaranteed to add the other class.
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Search for All Courses Open within a GenEd Requirement
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When You Register
Here’s a list of items to have in front of you:
1. Advising notes we completed during our individual registration preparation meeting.
2. General Education Checklist and Preferences, which will make it easier to pick the best course option for you within a GenEd requirement that you can take any of the courses.
3. Daily Schedule Planner so that you can keep track of classes that you've scheduled so that you don't try to add a class when you have another one. Don't forget to keep track of what building your classes are in so that you can determine if you can make the commute from one class to the next if courses are close together. Remember to balance the days and times of your schedule as best you can!
4. Campus Map so you can find where buildings are on campus to determine if you can make it to your classes on time. You can view and print the campus map online. You can utilize the Can I Get There on Time? developed by the Madison Advising Peers.