The Dreaded Seminar Registration

Hey everyone!

So this past Tuesday I had my first registration that didn't involve the stress of registering for seminar. As a Macaulay student, you're required to take four seminars, one each semester for two years. Since every Macaulay student MUST take these seminars, naturally there's fierce competition for the best professors (or the easiest ones). Though Macaulay students register before most of the general school population, there's a hierarchy within the students based on number of credits. If you have more credits, you could be registering 15 minutes before someone else. And let me tell you, those 15 minutes are the most important minutes of existence in this case. Those 15 minutes can be the determining factor of whether you get your preferred seminar professor or time, or whether you're stuck with a terrible time; or worse the dreaded staff. It could determine whether you even get into an honors-only class. It's so intense. Unfortunately, some people have to take a certain class based on their schedule and get shut out because of the competition.

For people who still have to deal with seminar/honors class registration, here's a couple tips:

1. Vet the professors, if you have their names. Sometimes not all the names are announced ahead of time (though they should be). Look the person up on ratemyprofessor.com and on Hunter's OWL teacher rating's system. Sometimes the professor doesn't work at Hunter at all, or isn't technically a professor (this happened to me twice; once with my seminar 1 professor who was a professional postmodern dance choreographer; again with my seminar 4 professor who was a retired journalist and writer). When this happens, just google their names. Often, you can find what their focus/interest is in academia. Determine whether you'd like that type of class. Not all seminars are the same, or focus on the same things. My seminar 3 class, though it was about Science and Technology, was actually an Environmental Philosophy class (which was perfect for me).
2. Non-professors can sometimes be better than professors. My seminar 4 professor had so many connections with people in the city, and he brought a lot of interesting people in to talk to us. Not every professor can do that.
3. Once you've decided who you like/what subject you'd be interested in most, see which seminars fit best into your schedule. Have a first choice (I call this my perfect schedule). But also have at least two other choices, because odds are your first choice is the most popular professor. Format schedules around multiple seminars, if you can. Be prepared to get shut out of your first choice.
4. Add all of your classes to your CUNYfirst shopping cart BEFORE your registration appointment. I cannot stress this enough. Last thing you want to be doing is searching for classes while people are taking the spots in your seminar. Once they're all in your shopping cart, you can just click one button and be registered, just like that.
5. If none of the seminar times work for you, there's always a cross-campus option at the Macaulay building. It's kind of a pain to get there, but it's better than having no seminar at all or having to change all of your classes around to accommodate one of them.
6. Don't choose a seminar professor based on what everyone else is doing. Although it's fun to have friends in seminar, since there are a lot of group projects, it's not as important as enjoying the subject. Choose the professor and subject that will work for you.
7. Also realize that if you can't find this perfect fit, and there's only one seminar class that fits into your jam-packed schedule, it's not the end of the world. Seminar should be an enjoyable experience. You will get something out of it. I walked into my seminar 1 class and was bombarded with tons of postmodern dance theory reading. That week, when I met up with my dad to talk about how my first week of classes was going, I determined that this class was too much work for me and that I wouldn't be able to do it. I was totally wrong. It was a lot of work, and it was hard, but I got a lot out of the class. I learned to appreciate a subject I never would have thought twice about.

That's about all the tips I have for seminar registration. I'm so glad I no longer have to go through this. Fortunately, I got all the classes I wanted for next semester: WGS 201 (Classics in Feminist Thought), PHILO 218 (Revolutions in Modern Philosophy), ENGL 320 (Multi-Cultural Literature), an honors course called Hysteria, and WGS 200.11 (Feminist Perspectives on Pornography). This will finish off my English major (except for the honors thesis), move me along in my Philosophy major, and make my WGS minor three-quarters complete. Moving along!