Face palm. Oh my God that was needlessly frustrating! And now I feel like an idiot.
Breathe. It's okay now. It's all over. You have the courses you need so far, it's fine.
Why do I still feel all uptight and
frustrated? Oh right, because registering for courses is stressful at the best of times! Add in the fact that it's grad school and therefore super important and there are only 12 spots available in any one class and you have the perfect conditions for a minor anxiety attack.
Admittedly most of my problems today were my own fault. I didn't read the email correctly and I could have easily have saved myself a whole lot of anxiety. But really, what school in their right mind does registration for the fall semester separately from the winter semester after telling their students to pick their courses for fall AND winter? I'm sure you can see where someone (like me, who agonized over course selection for BOTH semesters) could get confused.
So here's what happened:
I've been waiting for registration, knowing that it was going to be today, for about a month now. It's been marked on my calendar, burned in my brain and a constant source of mild anxiety since I received the email asking me to pick out my classes and make sure that I have a second and third choice lined up because there would only be 12 spots in each class available. (Yay small class sizes - a comfort for someone coming from such a small university, but what if I didn't get into the classes I wanted? What then?)
Like a good student, I dutifully picked my courses ahead of time:
Fall Semester: Renaissance Literature won out over a course entirely on Jane Austen (as much as I would have loved that class, it didn't fit into my schedule), Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and the requisite French Language Requirement test.
Winter Semester: Victorian Women Poets (inner feminist rejoices!), Medieval and Renaissance Studies and my thesis proposal.
Okay, so I was ready to go. Everything is all written out in my trusty notebook, I had familiarized myself with the registration software, it was all good. Then I get an email asking for my first choice English course for the fall semester so that they could save a spot for me since I was one of the people who had chosen the thesis route and they wanted to make sure that I got into a class in my subject area. So I sent my choice in, it was confirmed and I was told that I wouldn't need to register for that class on the 27th (today). Great! Check that one off of the list of things to worry about.
So all is well and good, I was confirmed in my Renaissance lit class, but I still wanted to make sure that I got into the Victorian class because the alternatives weren't all that interesting to me. As usual, as the date got closer I got more and more nervous about the whole process until last night I get an email from the English department saying that the French requirement for which I was registered (I haven't registered for anything yet!) would be holding the 1 hour test on July 11th at such and such a time in such and such a place. WHAT?! Now, for anyone who knows me well enough, you'd know that finding out on short notice about a test/exam that I haven't studied for, in a class that I hadn't realized I was registered in is quite literally MY WORST NIGHTMARE! No really, I've had this dream before and it ALWAYS involves me waking up in a panic, covered in sweat. Add in the fact that I can't physically make it to the exam because I won't be in the same province and I may as well loose my mind with anxiety. Of course my mind immediately jumps to the worst case scenario: I haven't even started grad school and have failed already!
Urging myself not to panic yet, I sent an email to the department letting them know that because I am not living in the province I would not be able to make it to the French test and asked what my options would be to successfully complete that requirement. Now successfully wound as tight as a top, and with registration looming before me tomorrow could hardly sleep at all. I planned to get up super early and log into the registration system just before 9 am my time (8:00 am Ottawa time). On top of everything so far, not one of the numerous emails about registration indicated what time I could start attempting to register.
As expected, 9am (8am) arrived and the system wasn't ready yet so I waited another half hour and tried again. It worked! So I quickly selected my remaining classes for first semester: Medieval and Renaissance Studies and the French requirement, and the Medieval and Renaissance class for second semester. Success! Then I attempted to select the Victorian class for second semester and it didn't work. Disappointed, and assuming it was already full (man, those Ontario students are fast!) I tried my second choice. And then my third. And then every other English class for second semester, to no avail. Then I tried registering for my thesis proposal (a requirement, for sure) and it told me that I didn't have the prerequisites. FRUSTRATION!
I attempted to confirm my registration for the courses that I had chosen so that I would at least be able to be sure of my spot in the classes that I was able to select while I contacted the English department to let them know that I was having problems getting into the other classes. Fall semester: done! Second semester, not so much. It told me that I needed to have at least two classes in second semester selected or I would not be able to register for any. Well that's dumb. Fine. That wouldn't be so bad if I was actually ABLE to select the other classes. BAHH!
Ok, what to do? Time is ticking away and it's getting close to 10am (9am Ottawa time) and anyone who assumed that most things open at 9 would be logging into the system and my slight (if any) advantage would be lost. So I emailed my contact in the English department letting her know the problems that I was having and listing the courses that I would like to be registered for if possible.
I went back to the program and back to my most pressing dilemma: If I couldn't register for any English classes in second semester, and I needed another class to register for any at all, how was I going to confirm my registration in the Medieval and Renaissance studies class that was sitting in the "Shopping Cart" all alone? Fortunately, I remembered that the French requirement said that I would need to register for it every semester until it was completed. Problem solved, I selected the second semester section and confirmed my registration for both classes. Thank goodness!
I switched windows to check my email again and I had received a reply. Apparently, registration for today was only for fall classes and that the reason why I couldn't register for second semester was because those classes were blocked. Face palm - I'm an idiot, and now the department knows it, too. But I stand by the reason for my confusion - I was told to pick my classes for fall AND winter and I could register for ONE of my winter classes - if I couldn't register for any, then I probably would have figured it out on my own. Ugh. Well, at least registration for fall classes is done, and I get another crack at it in October ... yay! :S Ask me if I'm looking forward to that one!
So now all that's left to do is wait for a reply telling me what I should do about the French requirement, and try not to have any more nightmares.
