Priority registration is not necessary

Registering for classes is one of those things that causes me unreasonable stress; it’s just a reminder of the upcoming semester while I’m barely surviving the current semester.

It’s a little more stressful if you’re some of the students that do not receive priority registration. Athletes and honor students are allowed to register for classes earlier than others regardless of their year. Upperclassmen also register for classes before underclassmen.

Mercer is a small school, so the amount of classes offered is already small compared to bigger schools. This makes the availability of classes limited when different groups of students have access to these classes before the rest of the student population.

This becomes a bigger issue when the classes you need for your major are already filled up by the time you’re allowed to register. I am currently a journalism sophomore and need to take digital storytelling for my major. Unfortunately, this is one of the classes that fulfills the arts general education requirement, so it gets filled up rather quickly.

This does not mean you will not be able to register for the classes you need to graduate; it’s just a setback. Seniors receive priority if they are waitlisted for a course they need to graduate. However, seniors are pre-occupied planning for their post-graduate plans, so it is a hassle having to take their general education requirements. Science courses for non-science majors are scarce and are usually the first to fill up. These are the kind of courses you want to take early on in your college career in case you have trouble with it, rather than having to take it your senior year.

Even students that receive priority have trouble registering for the classes they want because there are so many people that receive priority registration. This only shows how difficult it actually is for underclassmen that do not have priority.

I think the best solution would be to get rid of the registration priority since it’s not really a priority. As I described above, even people with priority have trouble getting in the classes they want. Students should be able to register based on their year and have some sort of priority to get off the waitlist if that class is needed for their major. This solution would make the process smoother and guarantee that people get in the classes they need.