I didn’t want to have anything good to say about UR Student.
It was already a pain moving out of my dorm and starting virtual classes online — a new registration system seemed unnecessary. The old registration system didn’t seem that bad, so I didn’t see the point of implementing a new one right now, given everything else going on.
Leading up to registration, I completed the onboarding, explored my profile, and searched for prospective classes. The onboarding was simple — just follow the directions in your inbox.
Searching for classes was a bit more confusing and error-laden. In the old system there was a drop-down menu of all possible subjects, whereas in UR Student you have to know exactly what you’re looking for and type it in. I honestly couldn’t remember all the categories I had been interested in. In addition, some of the classes I did find had descriptions that didn’t match the title. So UR Student and I didn’t get off to a great start.
The one new thing I did like about UR Student was the “saved schedules” function. I actually liked it so much that I created four schedules (one primary and three alternates) since two of my classes were competitive. But I also did this for fear that come registration day, UR Student would have sorts of problems. There was already a posted list of known errors in the system and possible solutions that may or may not work, depending on the circumstance. It didn’t exactly sound promising.
The first class I tried to add to a saved schedule gave me an error saying I was ineligible. No reason why I was ineligible, just that I was… how incredibly unhelpful. Apparently, I needed to request a prerequisite override, but of course the error couldn’t explicitly tell me that — that would make too much sense. I had to look through the frequently asked questions about UR Student, and the common errors, and attend the webinar, to figure it out.
I was scared that during registration if I ran into one of these monstrosities, I would be losing time and class spots by trying to figure out how to solve it. Students just shouldn’t have to worry about that.
Registration day finally comes. I’m sitting on my couch, fingers ready to pounce on the keyboard, waiting for 9:30 a.m. to flash across my phone screen. I already have UR Student opened and have my primary saved schedule in front of me. I’m ready. I refresh my browser and see the new orange button under my schedule saying I can register. I click it, confirm the classes I had saved, and officially register for them.
It was all over in a matter of seconds. I had secured all the classes I wanted. No problems. No errors. No unexplainable UR Student mishaps. And I thought, it can’t be this easy. Maybe I only registered for half the classes. Maybe it switched out all my classes with incredibly hard engineering ones that I know nothing about.
To make sure UR Student had indeed followed through on its promise, I checked my profile and then my classes tab. Lo and behold, there were all the classes I had registered for. All five classes, no engineering thrown in. I was pleasantly surprised.
Though I know my registration day was trouble-free, according to my floor group chat, others had issues. I guess I was just lucky to be in the system’s favor that day. UR Student overall has many issues, and I may just write off my registration luck as a fluke, but for things to get better the administration must continuously revise the system and make it straightforward.
Errors should explain why they are occurring. Holds on student’s accounts shouldn’t be there for no reason. A drop-down menu for all class subjects should be included — not everything from the old system needs to be purged. Registration and keeping track of academics should be as stress-free as possible — we’re already dealing with so much.
