Did you know that in addition to educational consulting, we also offer college experience coaching to help students navigate their first year of college and beyond? Whether students are hoping to prepare for success in graduate school admissions, enter the job market with a strong resume, or simply just maximize the undergraduate experience, working with us can help make it happen!

So while our high school seniors are submitting their applications and waiting to hear from their schools, we’ve been busy helping our Class of 2021, Class of 2020, and Class of 2019 students with their spring course registration!

Can’t their advisors help with that?

At many schools, course selection and registration are notoriously difficult - especially for underclassmen. Even at ultra-selective private universities, advisors are meant to help facilitate schedules and share information about graduation requirements. So while they can certainly help, it’s not typically the kind of personalized assistance that most of our students (and their parents) expect!

Yes, there are a few exceptions, but most do not sit down with students to examine options and plot out the best possible schedule permutations. They can’t - they just don’t have time to do that for each student. It’s just like the school counselor vs. independent counselor issue we’ve discussed so many times before.

How does it work?

We do the research and leg work to help put together a personalized schedule tailored to your student’s preferences, goals, core requirements, and major/minor requirements - as well as backups (and backups to the backups!) to be covered when registration hits those inevitable snafus. Worried about getting stuck with a hard or boring professor? Not on our watch! Want to make sure no classes start before 10 a.m. and Fridays are free? We make it happen all the time!

Revealing our secrets…

Want to try to put the best possible schedule together on your own? Here’s some tips and tricks right out of our playbook:

1. Map out a four-year plan from the start. Colleges typically provide lists of various requirements (general education, major, minor, etc), but they don’t always put everything together in one place. Sketching out a general four-year plan is a necessary first step that we take with each of our students - we put all of their requirements together in one place and incorporate space for study abroad, co-ops, and any other deviations from a traditional schedule.

   This provides an easy way for students to visualize exactly which types of courses they need to take and when, and how much flexibility they have - for example, how many times they can change their major before they are at risk of graduating late! - or whether they have room to pick up a new minor, etc. It also really helps to have a baseline when it comes to planning out each individual semester. We do modify this four-year plan as things change, but we rely heavily upon it.

2. Create a master list early. As soon as course schedules are released for the upcoming semester (typically about a month in advance of registration), start planning out options. Look at the four year plan, determine which requirements are slated to be met during that particular semester, and start playing with the schedule to determine which available courses will fit the requirements. Come up with a master list of potential options.

3. Identify the top two criteria of choice and start removing courses from consideration. We recommend prioritizing the quality of the instructor more than anything else. Even the most boring material can be interesting with a great professor. We always look for those who aren’t harsh graders, but are engaging and make learning fun. Depending on the material and the student’s needs, we may also look for those who are highly effective in terms of teaching the subject matter. This is less important in some situations (i.e. an English major trying to meet a Natural Science graduation requirement)- but it’s essential in others (I.e. a nursing major who ultimately needs to pass the NCLEX exam, an accounting major who ultimately needs to pass the CPA exam, etc). In addition to instructor quality, we also prioritize aspects including time of day, day of week, difficulty of subject matter when compared to alternatives, etc.)

4. Keep careful notes for future semesters. Maybe it comes out that Prof. Smith is the most amazing in the psychology department, but he’s only teaching 9am classes this semester and that’s a deal-breaker. No problem! Write down a reminder to check out his courses during the following semester’s registration period. After we research various professors, we often put together short descriptions of their characteristics - bad and good - to make for easy reference down the line.

5. Put permutations together! Start with the classes that seem to fit the top two criteria best, and put together a whole bunch of permutations that fit the general preference guidelines. There will be pros and cons to each permutation, and we like to rank them in order of preference. We also make sure that there are options available with a wide range of classes, because we don’t know which ones will fill up immediately on the morning of registration. For example, if every single schedule permutation includes POL315 and that one fills, it would be a problem!

6. Monitor closely and adjust when needed. Freshmen typically register last, and even juniors can find that their top-choice courses have filled by the time their registration window opens. It’s important to be aware of which courses are filling, and which seem likely to fill. This way we can remove those permutations from the list and examine whether we have a sufficient number ready for registration day. Sometimes we need to go back to the drawing board to add more.

7. Be strategic on registration day. After all of this prep work, it’s vital to make sure that students don’t miss their registration windows - and these usually happen very early in the morning. Be at the computer, ready to go, at least fifteen minutes in advance. Make sure to have a list of courses (in order of importance - those with fewer spots or which are most critical to the schedule should be prioritized). Start refreshing about a minute before the window to make sure to gain access immediately, and start registering from the pre-determined list. Make sure that the backup permutations are readily available to make for an easy pivot if courses fill unexpectedly.

Money Well Spent

Does this sound incredibly time-consuming? Well - that’s because it is (now you understand why advisors could never do this!). That’s why many parents ask us to step in - we are experienced and can take care of this much more efficiently than a student or parent could.

Still, our services aren’t free, or inexpensive. But put it into perspective, the cost of college today makes our fees look like chump change in comparison! Planning out course selection this way will greatly maximize the likelihood that a student will be able to graduate on time, and with the best possible grades. Every time something goes wrong (the student misses a requirement by mistake, or signs up for a course with a difficult professor and has to drop mid-semester, or doesn’t leave enough slots to be able to take all of their major/minor coursework on time), the likelihood of graduating in four years decreases.

Just about a week ago, the National Center for Education Statistics released updated data on graduation rates, and it’s pretty bleak. Did you know that only about 40% of students graduate from four-year universities within four years, and perhaps even scarier, only 64% graduate from four-year universities within SIX years! Even at an in-state public university, an extra year can cost around $35,000 - and that’s not including the opportunity cost of the year of lost income (average starting base salary for a B.S. graduate from UVa’s Commerce School: $78,000). Even using conservative estimates, we’re talking about a six-figure loss. So the investment of professional direction can be well worth it, and often ends up saving quite a bit of money down the line.

Need some help with Spring 2022 Registration?

Reach out to Shannon today to learn more about college experience coaching, and check out our Packages and Fees page for more information on costs.