Do your homework before college registration!

College Registration

College advisors do not always have your best interests at heart. Did you know that many colleges and universities hope students take 5-6 years to earn their degrees, increase your college costs and thereby gain more revenue for their institution? And it's all done on the premise of helping students? If you listen to your freshman adviser about your class schedule, college could easily stretch into a 5 year endeavor. That one extra year can mean thousands of dollars in extra tuition not to mention the lost money you would have earned with your new degree.

Let me set the stage, it's your first year of college, fall registration is going on and you meet with your advisor to set up your class schedule. College, your friendly advisor tells you, is different from high school and suggests that you take only the minimum credit hour load and take only general studies classes. Your advisor may even suggest that your intended major should wait until you take some of the easier college classes first. Schedule your courses like that and your four year college program can easily become a 5 or even 6 year proposition.

Do the Math

Check your college catalog. Use it to create a degree plan. How many college credit hours are required for graduation? At first, four years sounds like a long time. For traditional students, four years only equates to 8 semesters. Take that total number of credit hours and divide it by 8. That's the number of credit hours you need to average every semester in order to graduate in only 4 years. Now check out the college schedule your adviser suggested. How many credit hours behind that average required for graduation will your fall college schedule put you?

Major Smajor

Know what you want to study in college? Fall registration for freshman often comes with warnings that you're not ready to start the courses needed for your intended field of study. After all, your advisor asks, don't you want to experience some other fields before you make up your mind?

If you know what you want to study when you enter college, fall registration that first year should factor in the courses required for that degree. With advanced classes often having prerequisites and smaller schools offering some classes only on alternate years, not planning ahead can lead to an extra year or even two in school.

Besides, if you do opt to take a different major, those courses in the other major more than likely can be applied to your general studies requirements. Wouldn't it be better to find out early that you don't like your intended major than be a sophomore or junior and hating your choice?

Sound Advice

Make it clear to your advisor that you have done the math and know what you want to study. Advisors can be a great source of information about the ins and outs of registration. College class schedules can be tricky to set up and when you are new on campus you might not realize that your perfect schedule leaves you unable to get lunch because the cafeteria closes between lunch and dinner, unprepared for registration in the spring or which classes are more likely to fill quickly. My advisors even suggested which professors might be a better match for my intended field of study and with whom I might make a better connection with.

Finding the Cheapest Online College

Affordable online college is not just about the costs you see, it's about those costs that you don't - like it taking an additional year or two to finish the program because you made mistakes in setting up your class schedule. College is a business and students need to always remember that. One of the best ways for a school to drive up your costs is at registration. College degree requirements vary from school to school and if you want to insure that you do not end up paying too much, do your homework when setting up your college class schedule.