Ok everyone, by now you’ve received the course catalog, researched your class options, and prepared yourself for the most intense five minutes of your life: registration. If you haven’t done one of these three things, you should do so immediately because freshman registration begins at 9:00 AM on Monday, July 28. If you are a scholar or an athlete you have registration on Friday, July 25. Please mark these dates on your calendar because they are very, very important!!
I thought I’d just clarify a few things people always wonder about prior to registration to make your registration go a bit more smoothly. Firstly, everyone should be registering for four classes or units. One of these classes MUST be Core 101 as all freshman take this year long class. You must also register for Library 100 and URAWARE, however, both of these classes only meet once or twice a semester and do not count towards your GPA so you should not count them as two of the four classes you must register for. Thus, you have a total of three classes you can choose for yourself.
Choosing those three classes is one of the most confusing and frustrating parts of the registration process because (if I remember my own feelings correctly!) you feel as though you have no idea or guidance regarding what you should take. Some of you might already know what you want to major and minor in (which is great!), some of you might have an idea (like I did), and others might not know at all (which is perfectly fine, too!). My suggestion is that even if you know what you want to major and minor in you should only take one or two classes in those subject areas and then take another class or two that takes care of your general requirements. This kind of schedule will allow you to 1) decide if you like the major you selected and if you do want to take more classes in that subject area or, conversely, if you really don’t like the major you selected (in which case you will have time to change your major and explore other subject areas) and 2) explore other subject matters that you might find interesting while at the same time as taking care of your general requirements (all of which you must complete to graduate).
If you don’t know what you want to major in at all, take classes that will satisfy your general requirements. This will not only work you towards one graduation requirement, but will also allow you to explore subjects that might interest you which will then help you decide what you might want to major in.
These general requirement classes are:
- Historical studies
- Literary Studies
- Natural Science
- Social Analysis
- Symbolic Reasoning
- Visual and Performing Arts
You should also note that some of you will have to take Expository Writing your freshman year and, if you don’t know what classes to take, this is a great one to get out of the way. In addition, Richmond does have a foreign language requirement and, if you’re not a fan of foreign languages, this is also a good one to take first semester to get out of the way before you forget everything from high school!
Finally, I though I’d include my schedule from my first semester and my reasoning behind the classes I took to give you a better idea of what you should think about when selecting your classes!
My First Semester Schedule:
- Spanish 221- I’m not a big fan of foreign languages and I didn’t take a language my senior year of high school so I wanted to take this class before I forgot everything. Also, I wanted to get it out of the way so I didn’t have it hanging over my head any longer! Finally, this level of the language was an intensive course so it counted for double the credit (and double the work! We had class everyday at 8:15 and had drills twice a week in addition!) and balanced out some of my less intense classes.
- Core 101- required for all first-year students
- Intro to Archaeology- I have always loved archaeology and was actually looking to major in it so this class was more of an interest or elective class for me.
- Intro to Modern Dance- I didn’t want to overload myself the first semester with tough classes so I decide to take a dance class and get my arts requirement out of the way. This class turned out to be a lot of fun and a nice break from my regular classes. Also, it wasn’t just dancing- we had to write a research paper and then present it to the class, memorize and choreographer dances, and attend several performances which we then had to critique in a written assignment!
So that was my first semester schedule! It is a good idea to not take too many intense classes because first semester is an adjustment period in more ways than one and you will really appreciate not being overloaded with work when you’re trying to make friends, keep up with school work, get used to living on your own, and adjust to dorm life all at the same time! However, on the other hand, it’s not good to take filler classes that won’t help you towards finishing your general requirements or your major/minor requirements!
I know this is a lot to think about and probably sounds really stressful, confusing, and frustrating, but I hope my explanations help a bit! Please let me know if you have any questions at all!! And good luck with registration!!
