As students returned to Villanova after a week of Fall Break fun and rest, they had something to dread in the near future: class registration.
Having a successful class registration process is largely dependent on what registration time a student receives. As registration for the Spring 2025 semester will run from Nov. 4 to Nov. 14, there is a range of possibilities for students’ outcomes. While those who have an early registration time can easily pick the classes they need, those who have to wait until the later days will likely have to watch their intended classes fill up and the schedules that they so carefully prepared in Nova Schedule Builder be destroyed.
Of course, registration times are not picked and assigned randomly. As irritating and anxiety-inducing as the process may be, there is a mostly effective system in place to keep things organized. The first few days of class registration are reserved for seniors and eventually, we reach the last few days, which are meant for the freshmen registering for the first time.
This system clearly makes sense. Seniors, who have already suffered the terrible registration times, and who have the least amount of time before they have to graduate get priority pick over newer students who have more time to get the many curriculum requirements out of the way.
Freshman Araceli Basaldua, who will be registering on the very last day at 8:30 p.m., said that the registration process is “fine in itself,” but she is also aware that she will “probably end up having to remake schedules multiple times over the course of the registration period.”
Freshman Abigail Dinsmoor echoed the same sentiment.
“It’s stressful because I’ve made a few schedules already that will be impossible to get by the time I register,” Dinsmoor said.
Both Basaldua and Dinsmoor spoke about the importance of the assigned faculty advisors in the registration process, highlighting two contrasting experiences.
“The advisors are helpful because they work with students’ individual needs to create a schedule that meets their goals,” Basaldua said.
Dinsmoor also saw the value of the advisors, but was less optimistic because her advisor “never responded” to her emails.
Within the grade levels, registration times are based on how many credits students have completed already. As many students start out their first semester here completing about 15 credits, AP credits often help to differentiate students to spread the schedule out evenly. While the core requirements that need to be completed for graduation usually cannot be replaced by AP credits earned in high school, these credits can go a long way in helping students get ahead during registration. For instance, if a student took AP Biology in high school, that provides them with eight credits here, which is equivalent to two courses, potentially getting them an earlier time.
“Even though a lot of Villanova students took AP courses and exams in high school, not all students had the same kind of opportunities to take those classes,” sophomore Emma Cote said.
College Board reports that the percentage of students taking these courses has increased, with 34.9% of public high school graduates taking at least one AP class in 2021, compared to 28.6% of public high school graduates in 2011. Additionally, AP courses have made their way into nearly 23,000 high schools across the country. But even with these promising numbers, the success of AP’s expansion has not been equal. Less funded schools in lower income districts tend to offer fewer AP courses than those in wealthier districts, and some offer none at all.
And between schools that do offer AP exams, College Board data illustrates that there are huge variations in what AP courses get offered where. So some students, who were previously unaware of how credits help in the registration process, may not have taken more APs in high school if their school mostly offered those that were unrelated to what they were planning on pursuing in college.
The AP credits system makes sense as a way to organize students into registration times, but until AP courses are offered more equally across the country, there may be a number of students who will automatically be at a disadvantage in the registration process through no fault of their own.
Unfortunately, the class registration process is never a fun or easy one, no matter what one’s registration time is. And that is by no means a Villanova-specific problem. While the period of class registration may be one of the most stressful times of the semester, maybe even rivaling midterms week, the system in place seems to be the most practical way to handle the chaos.
