The most stressful point of the semester is coming up, and no it’s not finals. Registering for classes for some students, like me, can be almost as stressful as finals week. When you’re forced to choose from a variety of professors, schedule your courses, and get enough credit hours for the next semester, it can be very stressful; especially if you’re a first-time student. Luckily, registering doesn’t have to be stressful. There are many different ways in which you can help take the stress out of registering for courses. Here are five tips on registering for college courses.

1. Register Early

I cannot stress enough how important this is! You have to register as early as possible, especially if you are on a big campus! If you are taking a course that does not have that many options to choose from, then you have to register the course early otherwise you won’t be able to take the course and you’ll lose credit hours or have to take an extra semester. Plus, registering early allows you the freedom of being able to really look at the courses you are registering for and decide whether you should take the course or not.

2. Manage Time For Classes Accordingly

If you are registering for classes, you should make sure that you are giving yourself enough time in between or after class to study, complete homework, eat, or take a break. So, for example, if you have to take three classes in one day, it’s best not to schedule them right next to one another unless they’re each only an hour long. College isn’t like high school, and even if you think that you can manage taking four or five classes in one day, it’s a lot harder in college and can be more exhausting than in high school.

Also, you need to make sure that if you're driving to campus that you're giving yourself enough time before your class starts to get there. This is also important if your classes are in two separate buildings. You have to make sure that you give yourself enough time in between to walk to your class. It’s the worst feeling when you have to run from one building to another building that’s three miles away, so make sure you have enough time to get to your class on time.

3. Find The Right Professor

When you register for your classes, you don’t want to get stuck with a professor who is either too hard or ruins the entire semester. Having the right professor is one of the key ways to doing well in a hard class, especially if you are able to get a professor who is good at explaining hard concepts.

To read professor reviews and ratings, you can go on www.ratemyprofessor.com. This site will save your GPA! When you register for your classes, all you have to do is look at the professor’s first and last name, then search their name on the site. It will list the professor and the school that they teach at. It will also show the professor’s rate based on the reviews from former students in the class and it will list the students’ reviews along with which class they took with the professor. The site really helps with finding the professor for your classes!

4. Find Out If You Are A Morning Or Night Person

If you are a morning or night person, you should figure out what time you are willing to take your classes. If you’re a morning person, then you’ll probably be more willing to take your classes in the morning where if you are a night person, you’ll want to take your classes at night. Whatever the case, just make sure your willing to take your classes at the right time during the day. Otherwise, you’ll end up dreading going to class and skipping your classes more than once.

5. Don’t Take Too Many Classes Unless Necessary

This is one of the most important things to keep in mind when you are registering for courses! You don’t want to take too many courses unless you really need to! If you take too many courses, you will be under a lot of stress during the year. Taking 18 or more credit hours, for example, can be very stressful. Unless you know that you can handle it or you need to take 18 credit hours (especially if you’re an engineering major), I advise taking at least 15-17 credit hours for your first semester if you are a Freshman.

You also need to make sure you’re not taking too few credit hours. You have to have 12 credit hours in order to be considered a full-time student, and if you take less than 12 credit hours it can affect your financial aid or scholarships. It can also cause you to have to take an extra semester. I learned this the hard way during my Freshmen year when I decided to take only 12 credit hours and had to drop a class which made me have only nine credit hours. I was forced to go an extra semester because of my mistake. So please, unless you feel that you don’t need to go full-time, I suggest making sure you are taking enough credit hours so that you can graduate on time.

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If you feel stressed about registering for classes for either your first or next semester, you don’t have to! Registering for courses isn’t as stressful if you know what you’re doing. And if you are still struggling with registering for courses, you can always find a friend or someone who has registered for college courses in the past to help you out. My friend helped me schedule my courses during my Freshmen year and it really helped get me through my first semester of college! If you follow these tips, you’ll be able to get registration out of the way and focus on finishing the rest of the semester in college.