Registration alleviation

Fourth in a series: Ask the Expert

Students want to know what UTRGV is doing to make registration easier and who they can go to for advice on what classes to choose for the upcoming Spring 2020 semester.

This week’s Ask the Expert questions are from biology freshman Rebecca Pelayo, graduate student Sandra Leal and computer science junior Henry Morales.

Registration for graduate students and students who made the President’s and Dean’s lists opened Oct. 25. Registration for seniors opened Oct. 28, junior registration opened last Tuesday, sophomore registration opened last Wednesday and freshman registration opened last Thursday.

Asked what questions she had regarding registration, Leal replied, “How often do they update the courses?”

Pelayo asked what high school credits transfer to the university.

“Prior to the fall semester, I did have some difficulty because I had a lot of holds and it was really tough for, like, registration or admissions office to take them off hold,” Pelayo said. “So, like, technically, I didn’t get my classes scheduled till … a week prior to the classes starting.”

Leal told The Rider that she has also experienced holds on her account.

“I’ve had issues with, I guess, having to go through special permissions or certain restrictions like having to email professors for permission [to join the class],” Leal said. “Or, sometimes there’s an error with my account and I have a hold on there that’s not supposed to be there and then I have to go to U Central to get that fixed.”

Recently transferring from Texas Southmost College, Morales said he had some trouble transferring his credits last semester, which interfered with his registration process, “because some classes didn’t substitute or some other classes did.”

Morales said he has had to substitute a course in the past and when asked how that experience was he replied, “So I just had to ask him if he could substitute the class from over there because some of them didn’t, they didn’t have the same number so, essentially, I had to ask him can I get a substitution for a certain class and they gave me some substitutions. It was slightly frustrating but it’s understandable.”

Expert

University Registrar Sofia Montes shared some of her expert advice for students registering for Spring 2020 classes.

Some recently asked questions pertain to early access and how students can find out if they have access to early registration.

“And the answer to that is they’ll receive an email if they have access to early registration, and they get that in their UTRGV email account within a week of early registration actually starting,” Montes said.

For students asking about special permission to join a class or exceptions as to how students can get overrides for particular registration restrictions, Montes said, “[They] have to be handled by the department teaching the class because they’re the ones with the authority to determine whether or not an exception is appropriate for the student.”

Asked how often courses at UTRGV are updated, Montes replied that different courses are offered every single semester. For example, classes that are offered in the spring may be similar to fall classes, but there also may be new ones and there may be others that aren’t being offered in the spring that were available in the fall.

“It just varies widely and sometimes the class is repeated every single semester and sometimes a class is only offered once a year and the colleges are responsible for determining what will be taught and when,” Montes said.

In regard to courses that require prerequisites, Montes suggests that the best thing for students to do is to look up the classes that they want to take ahead of time so they can understand what the requirements are and have enough time to ask questions.

Asked what she recommends students do to check their progress, Montes replied, “The best way for students to see if they’re on the right track for timely graduation is to check Degree Works. Degree Works is available for undergraduate students by logging into ASSIST, and it’s helpful because it shows what classes are remaining and what classes have already been completed.”

For students concerned about not being able to schedule advising appointments, Montes said, “The earlier you book an appointment, the more likely you are to be seen in advance of registration.”

She also recommends for transfer students to provide updated transcripts to avoid holds and issues with credits.

Montes’ final piece of advice for students registering for Spring 2020 is, “Register early, don’t wait and if there’s a class that a student wants that is not available, definitely get on the waitlist.”

For more information on frequently asked questions about registration, visit https://www.utrgv.edu/ucentral
/registration/registration-errors/index.htm.