We’ve nearly made it through midterm season, Halloween is rapidly approaching, and Missoula is in full fall color. As we feel the first breezes of winter’s chill and long for the sweet, sweet release of November (Election Day, Veterans Day, and Thanksgiving—the inspirational thought of the amount of time spent not in school next month is what’s getting me through October), there’s one major consideration (pun very much intended) that has students lifting their heads from this semester’s textbooks and considering their lives’ big pictures—at least, as far as those pictures extend to next spring. New classes mean new adventures, and figuring out what those new adventures might be begins now
Yes, priority registration starts this week, which can only mean one thing: Advising! I’ll admit that as a Peer Adviser in the Undergraduate Advising Center, I have a bit of a soft spot for a process I believe exposes students to new opportunities, new considerations, and informed perspectives that can help them determine a tentative course for their lives during and after college. This also means that if you tell me that the most important thing about your advising appointment is getting your PIN number, you have essentially volunteered to listen to me lecture on all the ways in which you are incorrect on this matter. Consider yourself warned.
While getting your PIN is an essential part of your advising, there are several other aspects of your appointment that can help you make sure you’re on track to graduate, ensure you’re fulfilling general education and major requirements at a reasonable pace, and provide ideas for new opportunities like studying abroad, finding an internship, or getting involved in research. Your adviser is also an important asset for you when it comes to career planning. So, how can you make the most of your appointment? Let me count the ways:
1. Play with Academic Planner. Academic Planner is the online program that helps you schedule classes for the next semester and start planning for courses you may want to take in future semesters. If you’re unfamiliar with how to access or use Academic Planner, take a minute to watch this short video created by the Peer Connection Network. An already-crafted schedule for next semester will save you and your adviser some time and provide a great foundation for discussion about what your next and subsequent semesters will look like.
2. Bring an unofficial transcript and a GER checklist. Your adviser should have access to this information online, but bringing these not only makes a good impression—it also helps you to be aware of what general education requirements you’ve completed, and what you still need to get knocked out. You can print an unofficial transcript via the Student Records menu under the Student Services tab in Cyberbear, and you should be able to pick up a GER checklist at any advising office around campus, or in Griz Central. The letter at the end of a course code for courses that fulfill GERs indicates which category it satisfies on the GER checklist. For example, Intro to Public Speaking, COMM 111A, satisfies the “A” requirement—Expressive Arts.
3. Be open to new ideas. One of the most important things to bring to your advising appointment is flexibility. Your adviser can help you in so many ways if you’re willing to let him or her provide you with new ideas for your schedule and your eventual career. And if you’re still undeclared, please, please, please let your adviser help you consider which fields you might be best suited to. The sooner you pick a major, the sooner you can get on a definitive path to graduation and career planning.
Once you’ve completed your advising appointment and have your PIN number in hand, you’ll want to determine your registration window here. These are the two hours that your are allowed for priority registration, and the sooner you take care of registration within the allotted time frame, the more likely you are to get into the classes you need and want before they fill up. If you don’t know how to register, ask your adviser. The short version is that you’ll go to the Registration menu under the Student Services tab in Cyberbear, select Spring Semester 2013 as the term you’re registering for, enter your advising PIN in the text bar provided, and finally, enter the CRNs for the courses you’d like to register for (see Academic Planner to determine CRNs). Best of luck to all you grizzly gals in getting into your courses, and don’t get so caught up in all the due dates for this semester that you forget to step back occasionally and consider how each semester fits into the bigger picture of your time here at UM. Stay classy, ladies.