One quarter of eligible students used Columbia’s new registration system within 24 hours of it being open. This system allows students to create an entire schedule ahead of their registration slot, which they can then apply during assigned time. For any classes not available at the time of registration, students will be put on a wait list. This system aims to both help ease frustrations caused on registration day, as well as hoping to create long term solutions to issues like class sizes being too small and too few sessions of important classes.
Transcript:
0:04: This semester, Columbia introduced a new system for registration that aims to resolve many of the issues that students had with the previous method of registration.
0:13: So when I’ve used the registration system in the past, it’s been really frustrating because the course catalogs don’t match up with the classes on my audit or they’re not offered for the semester that I’m registering for.
0:26: They’re only offered in the spring or in the fall, which is pretty frustrating.
0:32: We’re really excited about this opportunity to make the act of registration easier for our students.
0:37: We’ve heard from students in the past that sometimes it can be a frustrating experience.
0:41: This is one stage towards making it easier.
0:44: It allows you to plan your schedule in advance and then save it.
0:48: So that you can hold on to it until your registration date, at which point you can hit register now or select individual classes to register for.
0:54: Because of experiences with the old registration system, some students may be hesitant about the new system, but many students have already found success using it.
1:03: It’s a new system, so we have to familiarize ourselves with it, and I’m just worried if it’s user friendly and intuitive in that sense compared to the old one which wasn’t really user friendly.
1:16: So far we’ve had 920 students plan their schedule for fall already in the system, and it’s only been open for 24 hours.
1:24: That’s about a quarter of our student population that’s able to register for fall.
1:28: For help with the new system, there are booths in most Columbia buildings throughout this week from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
1:34 You may not always get the classes you want because that happens sometimes.
1:38: However, the beauty of this system long term is that it will allow us to use a degree of predictive analytics because students will get their four year plan loaded in starting in the fall, which will allow us to be more able to predict in future semesters how many sections of important courses we need to offer and we’re very excited.
1:58: This is just the first phase of a long roll out that’s going to happen over the course of the summer and into the fall semester.
2:05: The course schedule for Summer and Fall 2025 is live now, with the first registration slots opening next week.
2:12: This is Ali Brenneman for Chronicle TV.
Copy edited by Trinity Balboa
