Your academic success depends largely on your choice of courses.
Work with your adviser! Best practice: Use resources, draft a plan, share ideas with your adviser, refine your plan, then enroll. Attend classes and further refine plans during drop/add.
If you can’t get an appointment with an adviser before your first day to schedule, use resources below, enroll in classes, and then meet with an adviser before the semester begins to go over your selections and discuss alternatives.
CREATE YOUR PLAN: In addition to your interests and the requirements of the majors you’re considering, create a plan based on:
- Entrance-to-major requirements
- Your course placements and academic preparation, strengths/weaknesses
- General Education requirements
- Information about minors, education abroad, certificates, long-range plans, etc.
- Variables such as lifestyle, co-curricular demands, disabilities, time management skills (use the Weekly Time Tracker to plan)
- Characteristics of classes (even the same course may differ by section). Consider:
- Reading, writing, computing, memorizing, projects, and papers
- Size
- Lecture, lab, studio, or discussion
- Online work
- Evaluation (quizzes, type and frequency of exams) and grading
Tip: Learn more about a course by contacting the instructor or department. Ask for a syllabus.
- A manageable workload. (Learn about Credits and Credit Load; a full-time student schedules at least 12 credits; a typical credit load is 14–18 credits.)
- Other ways to meet requirements, e.g., transfer credits, AP, IB
The checklist below can help you prepare for your advising appointment. It can also help you plan your schedule if you cannot meet with your adviser before your first day to register.
1. Find your first day to enroll in classes for next semester
In Registration Information, determine the first date you can schedule classes for an upcoming semester.
2. Identify courses for the upcoming semester
- Use MajorQuest to learn about majors.
- Get a degree audit. Identify requirements you have not completed and make a list of these courses. TIP: If you can choose from several courses to meet a requirement, use the Undergraduate Bulletin to help you select ones that interest you.
- Look at the Recommended Academic Plan (RAP) for the major. Find the courses you should have completed by now based on your semester standing. Star these courses on your list.
- Use links in the RAP or use the Undergraduate Bulletin to determine if the courses you starred have prerequisites. Note these prerequisites next to the courses on your list.
- Use the Semester-by-Semester Planning Worksheet to create a customized plan to complete your degree.
- Check entrance-to-major (ETM) requirements and make sure they are incorporated in your plan.
- Learn about course availability (limitations, prerequisites/concurrent courses, and controls). Recommended preparation and prerequisite, concurrent, co-requisite courses may be enforced or overridden as detailed in Academic Administrative Policies and Procedures Manual C-5.
- Know your options: Auditing/Visiting a Course; Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory Grading System; 500- and 800-Level Courses (graduate level)
3. Enroll in classes
Use LionPATH to identify available courses and enroll. The Registrar's website provides instructions and LionPATH help offers tutorials.
Remember: Your first day to enroll is not the last day to work on your plan, but it is an important step in accessing appropriate courses. You can continue to refine your schedule through the semester drop/add period.