Winter Registration!

It is ninth week, everyone! Fall Term is coming to a close and Winter Term is on its way, bringing with it a whole new set of classes! While I have enjoyed my classes during my first trimester here at Carleton, I am excited to experience new topics, classmates, and professors.

How to Register

For Winter Term registration, I had the second priority time available. This meant that I had a really good chance of getting the classes I wanted (and, luckily, I did). There are nine total priority times within each class, and each term, you will alternate between high priority, medium priority, and low priority registration. For Fall Term, I had the sixth priority window, and for Spring Term, I will have the seventh.

Before you can register for classes, you must meet with your academic advisor to discuss how your term is going and what classes you want to take. My advisor, who I will have until I declare a major during sophomore year, works in the financial aid department of the Admissions Office at Carleton. I met with him last week to talk about my first term at Carleton. We went over what was going well (great professors and interesting classes!) and what wasn’t going super well (huge moments of procrastination). After that, we discussed my current workload, how I’m feeling, and what I’m interested in next term.

My advisor cleared me for registration, and while advisors can give advice for what classes you should take, in the end it is mostly your decision. I told him my general plan and he let me know if it was a good idea or not. Once I settled on the classes I wanted to take, I waited for my registration time at 7:15 PM and created my schedule for next term within a couple of minutes.

Deciding Which Classes to Take

During your time at Carleton, you will probably take a total of about 36 classes, and when there are hundreds to choose from, it can be hard to make a decision. There are so many awesome and interesting classes at Carleton, and I couldn’t help but want to take them all while looking at course offerings for the upcoming term. At one point I had 15 different classes saved that I wanted to take, and I had to narrow it down to just three.

While I got my first choices, some of my friends did not get into a class or two that they wanted. Luckily, you can always get on the waitlist to see if a spot becomes available. On top of that, there are so many great options that even if you don’t get your first choice, chances are you won’t be disappointed by your second.

While trying to choose my classes, I debated between trying something new and going after something I was interested in. I am currently working on knocking out a couple of graduation requirements here and there, while also balancing them with classes that are just for fun. Thankfully, the graduation requirements are not hard to meet because so many different courses cover a multitude of disciplines.

Final Decisions

For Fall Term, I’ve been taking Principles of Microeconomics, Elementary Latin, and my A&I on the sociology of COVID-19. Despite it being challenging for me, I’ve really enjoyed my economics class. I wanted to sign up for another class taught by the same professor because I enjoyed his teaching style and found the topic of his Winter Term class, “Economics of Cost Benefit Analysis,” intriguing. Fortunately, office hours exist if I need help, and since I’m really interested in the topic, I think it will be alright.

The second class I’m taking Winter Term is another 200s-level course (jeez, Hannah, chill out, it’s freshman year!), but the topic is so exciting that I couldn’t pass it up! As a prospective political science major, I figured it would probably be a good idea to actually take a political science class sometime during freshman year. I chose a class called “I Did My Own Research: Information and Political Division in America.” It’s about polarization in American politics (something very prevalent right now), and I can’t wait to learn more about it.

My last class, Intermediate Latin, was technically chosen by the summer version of myself because I decided to study Latin to satisfy my language requirement. This means that for the next couple of terms, Latin will be one of my three classes. I like Latin a lot, so I am excited to continue learning the language.

Overall, I can’t wait for next term! (But I will also be enjoying the much needed winter break.)

Hannah is a freshman interested in Political Science and learning as much as she can about whatever she can. Born and raised in Minnesota, she considers herself somewhat of an expert on MN winters. She can’t wait for ice skating on the Bald Spot and Nordic skiing in the Arb, along with exploring all of the other amazing opportunities and activities on campus! When Hannah isn’t in class, she can be found reading, running for the Carleton Track team, watching TikToks, and tutoring with the Northfield Read and Counts Program. Meet the other bloggers!