New Student Registration Information for Fall 2012
Although many campuses register new students in the summer before arrival, at Grinnell we place high value on in-person advising. Thus we wait until all of our new students (from Des Moines to Timbuktu!) are here on campus in the fall. Then, together with their adviser, each student completes his or her course registration. Here is how it works.
The Registration Process
ADVISING: New student advising happens Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, August 26- 28. You will have time on two of these days to meet with your Tutorial instructor, who is your adviser, for consultation.
SUBMIT REGISTRATION CARD: After you have met with your adviser, and your adviser has signed your card, bring the Registration Card and your New Student Arrival Confirmation form to the Registrar’s Office in the John Chrystal Center. The card must be turned in no later than 4:00 p.m., Tuesday, August 28. Any student who fails to submit a card by 4:00 p.m. will have to add classes when the drop/add process begins on Wednesday afternoon, August 29, 3:00 p.m., in the Harris Center.
YOUR COURSE SCHEDULE POSTED: As soon as registration is completed on Wednesday, August 29 at 2:00 p.m., your schedule will be released and you may view your schedule via your PioneerWeb account. Your schedule will reflect the courses that were available at the time we entered your data. If there are any errors, you should visit the Registrar’s Office immediately. Please know that as of 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, all classes are under the direct control of instructors and the instructor’s or department representative’s signature will be required to add any course.
POST-REGISTRATION FORUM: On Wednesday, August 29 at 3:00 pm faculty will be available in the Harris Center so that students can make adjustments in their schedule. Drop/Add form – necessary to make changes – will be available in Harris, in the Registrar’s Office and online. The last day to add or drop a class will be Friday, September 21, but, realistically, nearly all students finalize their schedule within the first four class days.
Eligibility to Register
When you arrive on campus the Office of the Registrar will place an Arrival Confirmation form in your campus mailbox. The Arrival Confirmation form will list any holds that offices have placed on your ability to register for courses. Holds may be placed by the Cashier’s Office, Student Health and Counseling Services, Financial Aid Office or the Office of the Registrar in circumstances where you have failed to address an outstanding issue with that office (e.g., completing paperwork or providing payment). If your form indicates “none” on all lines, you do not need to do anything. However, if you have a hold, you should visit that office. Holds must be cleared before you will be allowed to register for classes.
Clearly, you should strive to not have holds on your registration upon arrival to campus, so communicate well with these offices this summer and it will streamline your registration process.
Tips for Completing the New Student Registration Card
The Office of the Registrar will provide you with a New Student Registration Card. With your adviser, you will fill out this card and submit it by 3:45 pm on Tuesday, August 28.
Although your adviser will explain how to complete this card, here are some tips. On the first line of each Round, you should put the courses you most want to take in order of priority. (Do not use the fourth round unless you are a transfer student who is not assigned a tutorial.) Then on the next lines of each Round you should put courses that you would be willing to take as alternatives to your first choice in that Round. (Try to ensure that your alternatives in round #1 do not create schedule conflicts with your first choice in round #2 or #3.)
One of your selections for each Round will be one of your three courses (in addition to the tutorial). Therefore, the courses you list together in each Round should be ones that you would be willing to have as alternatives or back-ups to your first choice in that Round. This enables you to select alternative courses that contribute similar breadth to your liberal arts program (for example, a natural science or a foreign language) or allow you to pursue a similar schedule of courses.
Before you meet with your adviser, consider your goals, priorities, and criteria for each Round. You have the best chance of getting your first choice listed in round one. Your adviser will help you weigh your interest in the subject, your overall educational goals, and availability of positions in the course.
After you turn in the card, the Registrar’s office will enter all selections from the cards using the following process:
On August 28, and according to a random selection, every new student will be placed in a single course. This is “Round 1.” In the interest of fairness, the placement order will be reversed for “Round 2” and reshuffled for subsequent rounds. Registration will continue until every student has been registered for 3 or 4 courses.
Registration begins with round 1 and course number 1. Once a student is placed in a course for round 1, other choices in that round will be ignored. If nothing is available in a round, we will put register you for your first available choice that you list for the subsequent round. Remember that courses can be changed during the drop/add period.
Course preferences for the next round will be selected from courses identified in the Round 2 section of the card, followed by those listed in the Round 3 section of the card. For those Transfer students who are not taking a tutorial, an additional course will be entered from round 4 so that every student who wishes may have four courses.
There are no guarantees with this process, but satisfaction is very high. In previous years nearly 90% of students received their first-choice course in the first round and around 85% received their first-choice course in the second round. In the third round more than 70% of students received one of their first three class choices.
If you have questions about any part of this process, please contact the Registrar’s Office at 641-269-3450 or registrar@grinnell.edu.
