Kelsey Guerin/The Mirror

Staring at the computer screen in a panic and frustrated beyond belief, I begin trying to register for classes. Even as a sophomore I expected it to be easier than it had been my freshman year, but I was wrong and at this point I had a feeling it would never get easier. This system that determines the kind of life I will have next semester is undoubtedly flawed.

Let me begin by saying that while I registered, I could not even get onto StagWeb. The site kept crashing, which made things even more difficult than usual. A note to whomever works on StagWeb, it would make things a lot easier if all of the kinks were worked out ahead of time. There should be no reason why I should have the spinning wheel in the middle of my computer while I am picking classes.

Secondly, out of the five classes I wanted to register for, I was waitlisted for four of them. Then when I tried to add my back up classes I was waitlisted for 2/3 of them. I planned on registering for a U.S. Diversity that would also fulfill a part of my core. This left me extremely limited. Many of them were English, history, or social science, all of which I have already fulfilled. I found this problem to be frustrating when all the other ones were closed that matched a core I hadn’t fulfilled. Fairfield should possibly think about crediting more classes as World and U.S. Diversity. Students need more options that fit their majors and their schedules.

Another problem was that a journalism course that all majors need to take only had one section with only fifteen spots.

Luckily I was able to register for it but what if I hadn’t been able to? What happens then? Even if I had asked to be written in and was allowed, why not just add more spots to begin with or create another section? If every journalism major needs to take this course at one point or another, there should be no reason why there is only one section of fifteen people.

Another problem I found while registering was that I could not register for a course in marketing because I am not a business major. I had wanted to take this course to see if I wanted to minor in it. But because no paperwork had been filed, an error occurred in registering. I ran into this problem again in trying to register for an upper level psychology course as well to fulfill my Social Science core.

Needless to say, by the end of registration I was left frazzled, upset and with a schedule I hated which did not work with my other activities.

Registration is a huge part of academics and Fairfield certainly has a running list of problems they need to work out. There must be an easier and more efficient way to sign up for classes. Fairfield, it’s time to figure that out!