Students started to register for Fall 2025 classes this week under a new registration system. While some students were able to register without a problem, some expressed frustrations over prerequisite blocks that prevented them from signing up for classes they needed and different course names and numbers that did not correspond with their degree audit.

The new registration process is part of the recently launched Columbia student portal, a replacement of the old student information system. It will eventually consolidate class registration, financial aid awards and other self-service tools and is being rolled out in stages.  

Valeria Fernandez, a junior film and television major, has three classes left before she graduates, but hasn’t been able to register for two of them due to prerequisite blocks, although she has already taken the classes.

Fernandez wasn’t able to get help through the Advising Center’s Zoom Drop-Ins or a RegLab set up at the Student Center this week. RegLab runs through 2 p.m. on Thursday, May 1.

“I understand that it’s a new system and there’s going to be errors, but I believe that there’s a lot of errors that shouldn’t be happening,” she said. “It’s just a little overwhelming.”

Lali Molina, a junior illustration major, was also frustrated that the system was not allowing her to register without prerequisites met. In her case, the prerequisites had been waived. Now she needs to wait for another year to take the course she needs.

“They majorly fucked up,” she said.

Other than the prerequisite issue, Molina said the system “is a little easier to navigate” and “looks better.” But she said she was disappointed by certain features not being available, like not being able to look at an unofficial transcript.

“I had an early registration time, but it meant nothing, so that was awesome,” Molina said, her voice sarcastic. “I don’t know why it took them so long to update it to look like this in the first place.”

Rachel Horton, director of Student Persistence, said that as of Friday, April 25, ahead of registration this week, nearly 1,500 students, or about a quarter of Columbia’s student body, had “made a plan” in the new registration system. When the Chronicle talked to her on Monday, April 28, at RegLab, Horton said she had not heard anything negative about the new system.

“I think one, it’s more user-friendly, easier to navigate,” she said. “There’s some great videos online of how to register that are really short and easy to look at.”

Greg Foster-Rice, associate provost for Student Retention Initiatives, who was also at the RegLab this week, acknowledged that there were some “known issues” regarding the prerequisite blocks.

Some course names and numbers also were changed as part of the overhaul of academic programs, which are going into effect next school year. 

The program arrays include phasing out or combining and integrating different programs at the college, which now will offer 33 undergraduate degrees and seven graduate degrees. 

“Since we are putting into the schedule courses that would be in the new program array, some of those changes are coming through and confusing students a little bit,” Foster-Rice told the Chronicle.

Horton encouraged students to work with their schools and reference their degree audit to “see what’s listed on there and see what you can find in the new system.”

Academic managers in the schools have been working closely with students this week to help them resolve any issues.

Junior fashion design major Lizzy Fowlkes said the registration process was really easy to navigate and super efficient.  

“I think being able to plan out our classes and visually see our schedules was super informative, and just easier to not make those mistakes that you would have to email your advisor about,” Fowlkes said.

When asked about his experience with registering, junior music major Mal Freyvogel said that “it was a bit complicated” and that one of the classes that he needed to take took a while to appear in the catalog. He did say, however, that the built-in pre-planner was a nice addition. 

Angely Bautista, a junior sound design major, said that she used a similar registration system in her previous college and found it easy to use. However, with the degree audit not yet connected to it, Columbia shouldn’t “have come out with a system that wasn’t completely ready for the students.”

Bautista had to use the old system to check her audit and see which classes she needed.

“They only have the catalog, so we’re going back and forth with the old system and the new system,” Bautista said.

Sa’Nai Burgess, a junior fashion studies major, had taken only five minutes to register for classes the first day of registration. Burgess said the process was “pretty simple” since she had already planned out her schedule beforehand with the new system. 

“I wish it was like this for all the years,” Burgess said. “I thought this new system was going to be a headache, but I’m glad it’s actually much simpler.”

Additional reporting by Dustin Janicki, Kate Larroder, Ali Brenneman, Samantha Ho, Gavin Lipinski, Lily Thomas, Uriel Reyes and Marina Bradley

Copy edited by Patience Hurston