Unofficial guide to class registration

A LITTLE HELP FROM YOUR FRIENDS — Check your inbox for a helpful email from the Registrar’s Office on course registration. (Sarah Downing)

Halloween is over at Hope College, but the next big scare is quickly approaching. It’s not the 2016 Election — it’s class registration. Registration for Spring 2017 classes will take place Mon. Nov. 7 through Thurs. Nov. 10. If this is your first time registering online, the process can look daunting. If you’re haunted by this process, never fear! As always, the Office of the Registrar is available to help students out. Here is a guide with a few tips to get started:

1. Know when you are registering — Checking your registration time on KnowHope Plus is key! After you’ve logged in, select ‘Registrar and Student Accounts’ and then ‘Registration’. There will be many options but the one you want to click is ‘Registration Status’. Here you can find the time and day when you can begin registering for classes. The times are organizes by credits. The more credits you have, the sooner you register!

2. Meet with your advisor — Get in contact with your advisor to go over your degree and course choices. Not only can this meeting be super helpful, but your advisor gives you a PIN number which you need to have for registration. So email them as soon as possible.

3. Have a plan — It’s a good idea to make a list of all your courses as well as the CRNs (5-digit course registration numbers) to avoid mistakes. You can also search for your classes once you get online to register, but this does take some more time. It’s always a good idea to have some backups (and a box of tissues) in case the class you wanted is full when you finally go to register.

4. Does it work? — Class times conflict. It just happens. Instead of trying to figure out your scheduled in your head, go to slatepermutate.org. Select the classes you want and SlatePermutate will create multiple schedules for you based on those choices. This is useful to see if your class times conflict and is a clean, visual way to see your possible schedule.

5. REGISTER — This process depends on your registration time. Get up early and make some coffee so you can be wide-awake for your morning registration. If you’re scheduled to register during a class, plan afterwards when you can register. If you have signed instructor permission or prerequisite override forms, you need to bring those to the Registrar’s Office to be registered for those classes after your assigned time.

6. Possibly change classes — If you’re truly indecisive (it happens to the best of us) you can go back and make changes until your PIN expires at 7 a.m. on Thursday Nov. 10.

7. Rock the Wait List — Popular classes and General Education requirements often have wait lists. If you place yourself on the wait list, you will be notified on the status of the wait listed course on Fri., Nov. 18. If given permission to join a class from the list, you lucked out! Go visit the Registrar’s Office on Nov. 21 or 22 to accept the registration.

8. Drop/Add — If you want to make schedule changes or add yourself to a wait list, you can do so using the drop/add process beginning Wed. Nov. 23.