OnTrack online pre-registration for Fall 2007 classes begins on April 11 and ends on April 18.

Mark Albertson, registrar and assistant to the provost, said that he is “anticipating a good and smooth pre-registration.”

Albertson has been the registrar for 29 years. He said that “we are good to go” for this semester’s pre-registration scheduling.

“Pre-registration in the spring is usually far easier because there are only three classes registering as opposed to four,” Albertson said. “The seniors don’t have to register anymore.”

As usual, the pre-registration times are set up according to the number of semester hours earned. Students with more semester hours completed register sooner.

Albertson has a good deal of advice to share with students concerning pre-registration.

“Number one is to meet with your adviser as soon as you can,” Albertson said. Adviser meetings can often be hard to schedule if students wait too long.

The adviser meetings are required so that students can receive some counseling on their class choices. They also act as “safety valves,” Albertson said, to keep students on their intended course plan and keep them from wantonly signing up for classes.

The most important thing for students to do during an adviser meeting is to remind the adviser to “toggle” or check off their name so that they can register when the time comes.

Anderson also advises students to be sure not to miss class just to make their registration time. The schedule is set up so that no pre-registration group closes too many classes.

Despite this fact, Albertson does emphasize to “have a backup. It’s very important for students to have backups,” since some classes fill up faster than others.

“We’ve been very fortunate; we’ve worked out a very good schedule,” Albertson said.

Since most students sign up for classes as soon as their time slot opens, Elon allocates each new group to contain a maximum of 200 students. This system ensures that the surge of students who log on as soon as their slot opens doesn’t cause the system to crash.

One of the most important tips Albertson shared was for students to

verify that they registered correctly. To do this, students should click the “My Schedule” link in OnTrack to view their future schedule and make sure that what they signed up for appears, or else problems may arise later.

Reporter: David Knootz - 04/05/07