6 Things I Wish I Knew Sooner About Course Enrollment
Course enrollment time comes around every year, and with it, even the most dedicated students can’t help but feel a bit anxious, confused, or unsure about planning for the future.
With so many different courses to choose from and a laundry list of degree requirements to cross-reference we really can’t blame anyone for feeling a bit discouraged, but luckily, we’re here to hook you up with some tips and resources we wish we knew sooner about course enrollment!
1. Plan out your whole term before hitting “enroll”.
There’s nothing worse than enrolling in one or two courses that you originally felt confident about and then realizing that they conflict directly with one of your 400-level, degree requirement, absolutely essential courses… ouch. Save yourself lots of time and headaches from having to formally withdraw from courses by using the Shopping Cart tool in Bear Tracks.
Add all of your potential courses to your cart, see how they all fit together, use the Verify function to make sure there are no obvious barriers to you enrolling in any of them, and when you’re ready you can enroll in all of your courses at the same time.
The best part about this feature? You can chart yourself a course for any upcoming Terms well in advance of your Enrollment Dates and have all of your courses waiting for you when that time does finally come. Feel free to add more courses than you can even reasonably take to see multiple potential versions of your upcoming terms, explore potential options outside of your program, and figure out what classes your friends are planning to take too! This is an especially good approach if you happen to want certain weekdays and time slots available for work, volunteering, or other commitments.
2. If you’ve taken a class before, don’t enroll in it again!
Okay, we know what you’re thinking… why would you ever want to do this in the first place? You’d honestly be shocked how often this kind of issue comes up with our Arts Student Advisors, though.
There are very few warnings and alerts about retaking courses that you’d run into on Bear Tracks during the enrollment process, so keep in mind that you can’t gain any credits or updated grades for a course that you’ve already successfully completed or received transfer credits from another school. If you’re hoping to upgrade that one pesky (BUT PASSING!) Film Studies 100 grade that’s been a blight on your official transcript, don’t retake the course!
Note that some courses can be taken more than once if they cover special topics that shift from year to year (MLCS 199 or HIST 300 for example) as long as the special topic is different each time it's taken. If you feel like you have a valid reason to retake a course that you’ve fully completed and received credit for in the past, talk about your options with your Department Advisors.
3. Know how to spot course restrictions.
Depending on what kind of student you are, there are a few restrictions that might keep you from immediately enrolling in some courses and course sessions. If you’re an exchange student, in a specialized program, haven’t completed some key program prerequisites, or depending on your University of Alberta campus of choice, you’re almost guaranteed to run into restrictions.
Exchange students can review a list of common restrictions relevant to their situation here.
Some restrictions can be appealed depending on the department offering the course in question, although restrictions such as prerequisite requirements will be difficult to appeal outside of very specific academic circumstances. You can find the contact information of Arts Department Advisors using our Faculty of Arts website and get in touch with their team about getting department approval, but don’t go in expecting to get it.
Most of the time we find that students run into course restrictions that have to do with their progress in their program of study. If you’re in your first year of study and are trying to register for 300 or 400-level courses, take a step back and make sure you’re getting the foundational knowledge that you’ll need to succeed in those courses from the 100 and 200-level options available. Course prerequisites aren’t implemented arbitrarily either, a ton of important skills required to thrive in the Arts like research, report writing, drafting, and collaboration take time to master.
4. Don’t pass the 5-course maximum… most of the time.
By default, undergraduate students at the University of Alberta cannot enroll in more than 5 courses at any given time. This rule was put in place to ensure that students can properly engage with their enrolled courses, participate in extracurricular activities and the general University of Alberta community, and make enough space for others to take the courses that they need to complete their degrees.
When you try and register for classes, you’ll get an error if you’ve already reached your 5-course maximum. In cases like this, you’ll really need to narrow down exactly what courses you need to set yourself up for success, also taking into account which courses are offered in the Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter Terms respectively. Unless you’re willing to go the extra mile, just plan initially for a 5-course maximum and figure out what you need to set yourself up for convocation from there.
Speaking of the extra mile though, if for whatever reason you’re interested in taking more than 5 courses at once, you can bypass this limit. We don’t recommend it though unless you’re REALLY dedicated to your studies. If this warning still hasn’t deterred you, fill out the Course Overload Application Form through our Faculty of Arts website and plan for at least 10 business days for your academic record to be updated.
5. The almighty Academic Requirements Report.
Although we offer tons of degree requirement tip sheets and program guides on our Faculty of Arts website, we definitely understand that it can get really complicated trying to keep track of what you’ve already completed (and more importantly, what you’re missing) the further you progress in your studies.
That’s where the wonderful Academic Requirements Report comes in, giving you insights into which degree requirements you’ve already met, are currently completing, or need to complete before you can complete your program.
A few helpful things to remember that the Academic Requirements Report will also tell you:
1. You can’t take more than 6 credits (2 courses) of junior English courses (WRS still counts, though).
2. If you took an IB/AP or dual-credit course in high school and got transfer credit towards your UofA degree, don’t take the same/equivalent course at the U of A.
3. You can take a maximum of 48 credits in 100-level courses, and a maximum of 18 credits in courses outside of the Arts and Sciences.
Also, consider using the What-If Report tool if you’ve recently changed your program. In rare circumstances, the regular Academic Requirements Report will show duplicate requirements if you’ve just transferred from a different program, faculty, or have been admitted to more than one new program.
6. When in doubt, Watch List it.
We’ve all been there. You found the perfect course to slot into your schedule and it matches your degree requirements, but you find out that this dream class is already full when you finally go to enroll. Although this is a massive bummer, just take a deep breath and add the course to your course Watch List. Although it doesn’t feel super reassuring, it still provides you a path forward when other students inevitably drop some courses near the Add/Drop deadline.
In situations where a course is absolutely necessary for you to graduate on time as part of your degree requirements, you can take things one step further while waiting for slots to open up in that class. Contacting the Department Advisors responsible for providing any full courses would be your immediate next step in this case, and if you’re able to provide proof that it is an outstanding academic requirement they may be able to make some room for you so that you can remain on course to complete your degree on time.
If you’ve read through these tips and still find yourself feeling lost, definitely reach out to your Faculty of Arts Advisors! They’re always around to help and can help you through any kind of roadblock you’ll hit during your degree, and are equipped with the tools and contacts needed to figure out the best path forward for your specific situation.
This article was written by Logan Bourdon, who serves as the Student Engagement and Outreach Specialist for the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Arts Undergraduate Student Services. Logan graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Alberta in 2020 and has spent the past 4 years working in student services, community engagement, and communications.
Logan totally screwed up his course enrollments more times than he will admit during his degree and can verify the authenticity of this article’s title. 💚💛
