When I was applying to Wake Forest last year, one of the primary aspects of the university that stood out to me was its highly-advertised small, intimate classroom settings. Coming from a small, all-girls school, I was accustomed to a limited class size and, like many of my peers, I became hooked on the idea of continuing in these close-knit academic environments. Yet what I did not realize was that in order to be in small classes, I would have to actually get into said classes.
I’m not sure if I can even label this opinion a “hot take” because I think I speak for almost all Wake Forest students when I say that course registration is the school’s ultimate vice.
For Wake Forest students, waking up at the crack of dawn to fearfully open Workday is—to say the very least—a dreaded day. After weeks of crafting perfectly curated saved schedules, students crouch over their computers with racing pulses in hopes of getting into at least some of their desired classes.
Unfortunately, for many of us, registration rarely goes according to plan.
“No matter how much I feel like I’ve gotten the hang of using Workday, registration never works out for me,” first-year Caroline Sanchez said. “No matter how prepared I am, I only manage to get three classes that I need, and that’s the best case scenario.”
The real deception lies in Wake Forest’s advertising. In the “Academics” section of the university website, the school proudly displays its 10:1 student-to-faculty ratio. I was not the only student enthused by this promise of small class sizes, and I was certainly not the only student vastly disappointed by the harsh reality of course selection.
“As impressive as it is that many of my classes have under 20 students, it was an uphill battle to get into them,” first-year Meghan Colello said. “Registration, especially for required courses, should be much less of a gamble.”
Like Colello, students across campus agree that, especially when searching for required prerequisites, course selection can be a lottery of doom.
“Registering for classes shouldn’t feel like going to war,” Emma Perdigon, another first-year, said. “We are all just trying to meet our requirements, and the registration process always turns out to be so difficult and stressful.”
Senior Academic Advisor Maggie Sheridan, who helps students plan their registration at the Office of Academic Advising, acknowledged that many find the initial week of registration “frustrating.”
“What we have come to find is that registration is a journey, not a destination,” Sheridan said. “It can take a lot of creativity…and open-mindedness.”
However, she said that “no one has not graduated from Wake Forest because of registration.” In fact, Sheridan noted that sometimes, the “random” classes students end up taking may lead them towards new passions, “such as choosing to double major or minor in a field they connected with after taking courses selected during registration fluctuations.” “There is beauty and fulfillment” in these opportunities, Sheridan said.
As college students, we all juggle multiple responsibilities at once, taking life one semester at a time. All we ask for in return is a smoother course registration process, and, to me, that does not seem like too much to ask. However, while registration does not always go as planned, approaching the process with an open mind may provide students with a little more wiggle room and a window of new opportunities.
