Being
a freshman as an international student can be intimidating: being in a new
country on a new campus surrounded by new people is daunting. But for me, one
of the hardest aspects of being an international student freshman was
registering for classes.
As
an international student freshman, you’re allowed to register for classes (for
the fall semester) only a few days before the actual semester begins. This
means that a lot of the classes you may have decided to take are full. When I
was an incoming freshman, I remember I spent the summer looking through the
list of classes available and selecting ones I wanted to take - for my major,
to be able to register for higher level courses in the future or just because I
thought they sounded interesting. But when I got to campus and had my meeting
with my advisor, I found out that every class I’d selected was full. So, I
ended up in absolutely random classes, worried about how they would be and how
it would affect my academic progress at UM. Fortunately for me, I was lucky. My
classes ended up being extremely enjoyable, and the credits I earned went
towards a lot of the LSA college wide requirements. But for some international
students, this first semester sometimes ends up being a waste. So, below are a
few tips and bits of advice I feel might help you decide which classes to
register for, to maximize your time and minimize your stress.
TIP
#1
If
you already know what you want to major in, or at least have a vague idea, look
for classes that relate to your major. The LSA Course Guide is the perfect place to start, as it has
classes sorted by department. Chances are a lot of the classes you’d like to
take will already be full. I know I wasn’t able to get into any of the classes
I wanted to for my major. But, you never know. There might be that one class
that has an open seat. If it sounds interesting to you and if you’ve fulfilled
all the prerequisites, you’ll be able to register for that class and come one
tiny step closer to finishing your concentration requirements!
TIP
#2
If
you don’t know what you want to major in, take classes that sound interesting
or that you think you’ll enjoy. This might sound like a waste of a semester,
but at UM, no classes are a genuine waste of time. Classes such as these will
allow you to become accustomed to what classes are like at UM, while also
giving you the opportunity to learn something fascinating. I’m currently
majoring in Psychology and Sociology, but I wasn’t able to get into any class
relating to my major in my first semester as a freshman. But I also love to
paint, so as a freshman I ended up taking Printmaking for Non-majors (ARTDES
171). That class is still one of the hardest classes I’ve ever taken, but it
has also been one of the best. While the skills I learned aren’t applicable in
my majors, they’re still amazing skills that I have and can use. For me, that’s
pretty awesome. So, if you love Shakespeare, think Disney movies are awesome or
want to know if aliens are real, your freshman year (especially when you’re
unsure about your major) is really the perfect time for you to take classes to
find out.
TIP
#3
Try
taking classes to fulfill your college wide requirements, which include
first-year writing, upper-level writing, race and ethnicity, quantitative
reasoning and a language. English 124 and 125 are geared towards fulfilling
your first-year writing requirement. Each section of the class has a slightly
different overarching topic, with different readings and different writing
assignments. But overall, you’ll spend the entire semester reading articles and
writing essays. Unless you love English, it’s a pretty dull class. But, since
you have to fulfill this requirement, you might as well take it as a freshman.
Note that there are other classes that fulfill your first-year writing
requirement, such as Classical Civilization I: The Ancient Greek World (CLCIV
101). Yet, these classes can be more intensive, so you should take them if
you’re truly interested in the topic. Upper-level writing is a requirement you
should save until you know what your major is, because many departments offer
300- or 400- level classes for your major that fulfill this requirement. Last
semester, I took a sociology class that was also an upper-level writing class,
and this way, I was able to get credit from one class to complete two different
requirements. Classes that fulfill the race and ethnicity requirement range from
ones that talk about the conflict in the Middle East (AAPTIS 244) to those that
discuss the rise and fall of witchcraft (HIST 375). So, the best thing to do is
to take a class that you find interesting. Quantitative reasoning is
predominantly fulfilled by math classes. Sometimes, you can fulfill this
requirement by taking a class that you also need to take for your major. For
example, I took Statistics 250 for both psychology and sociology, but the class
also fulfills the quantitative reasoning requirement. So, if you do know your
major and you know that you need to take a math class, check to see if it
fulfills quantitative reasoning before registering for another math class.
Language requirements are hard, and take a while to complete. During the first
week of orientation, language tests are offered that show the college your
proficiency. So, if you speak a language other than English, register for one
of these tests. If you’re lucky, you’ll test out of the requirement. If not,
you’ll at least test out of some of the classes, leaving few to take. If you
graduated high school with a bilingual diploma, make sure your adviser knows. I
did, and I had my language requirement waived. This way, you’ll have one less
thing to worry about completing.
TIP
#4
100-level
classes are your friends. These classes are designed for incoming freshmen:
they move at a good pace, they cover introductory and basic material and they
give you an insight into how classes are graded at UM. Plus, higher level
classes usually have prerequisites that include a low, 100-level class. Thus,
100-level classes are the key that lets you unlock higher level classes. So,
the sooner you take these, the sooner you’ll be able to take those higher level
classes that actually matter for your major.
TIP
#5
Waitlists
are good. Sometimes. But back-up classes are better. As a freshman. When a
class has a waitlist, it doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s no way you’ll
get into the class. On the contrary, I know I’ve gotten into several classes
over the last year or so by waiting patiently on the waitlist. If you’re on the
waitlist, you should first send the professor an email. Chances are, they won’t
read it, and if they do, they won’t reply (these professors get emails from
everyone on the waitlist). But, if you have a professor that actually does read
these emails, it will show them that you genuinely care about the class, and
since they’re the ones that can let you into the class, this is a good thing.
Once the semester starts, you should attend the class for at least that first
week. Professors almost always discuss the waitlist in their first lecture.
This is when you find out if there is a possibility of you getting into the
class. If the professor makes it clear that the class is full and that no space
will open up, move on. But, if the professor says there is a possibility of
getting into the class, you can wait it out. As a sophomore, I attended a class
for two weeks before I was finally taken off the waitlist and was able to
register. It’s a gamble, because you might not end up in the class after all,
but sometimes it does pay off. Again, as a sophomore I was on the waitlist for
another class. But for this class, the waitlist exceeded 80 students, and so
the department opened a new section with a new professor, and I was able to
register for the class. So, don’t be afraid to register for a class with a
waitlist. However, ALWAYS HAVE A BACK-UP. And register for that back-up. This
way, if you don’t get into your waitlisted class, you aren’t left stranded
without a replacement class two weeks into the semester.
These
tips aren’t exhaustive. But hopefully they’ll help you when you’re registering
for classes as a new freshman at UM.
Written by: Aashana Sunderrajan, Undergraduate student studying Sociology; Biopsychology, Cognition and Neuroscience
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