@agtrio23
Currently, I’m taking 13 hours. It’s really manageable, I have a lot of time to do homework during the week and then I can spend Friday and Saturday relaxing and not have to worry about being behind.
However, I plan on taking 15 hours in the spring to make sure I graduate on time (and also, since I already have 18 credits coming into college, I’m hoping to get my ring a semester early by taking 15 hours a semester). Unless I take classes during the summer, I’m going to be trying to take 15 a semester.
A word of advice, my advisor strongly suggested not going over 15 credit hours ever and taking summer courses if I must to avoid that.
Registration was… stressful. Truthfully, I didn’t actually start trying to figure out what professors I should be shooting for until the night before. It turned out to not matter, however, since the professors weren’t listed yet and were just marked as TBD.
When I arrived, I was put into a room with around 20-30 people and 4 or 5 “advisors.” I think only one was an actual advisor, and the rest were just there to help. I had about an hour to look at classes and try to figure out what I wanted, which was enough time for me at least. A lot of people used Aggie Scheduler to come up with a schedule and I would recommend using it.
So the best to go about it is to know what classes you are taking ahead of time and to write them down (such as MATH 151, POLS 207, etc.). There’s a course list somewhere on Howdy, its exact title I forget but you’ll know it when it comes time to figure out classes. Anyways, you go on there and get the codes for each class, there’s an acronym for the codes that I forget but again, it’ll be obvious by the time you get to this point.
Look at the different class times and when they meet, etc. and use the codes for the classes you’re considering in Aggie Scheduler to make sure there is no overlap and you’ll be able to get to all your classes.
Once you’ve got a schedule that works, where all your classes are accounted for and don’t overlap, record all the codes on a piece of paper. The fastest way to get into a class is to enter all the codes in at once and then click request or whatever button is there. There is a chance that a class might fill up or not be open at your NSC, so you’ll need backup codes. Have multiple ready. The more planned out and prepared you are, the more smoothly it will go (for the most part).
Understand that even with all the planning in the world, you may not get into the classes you first wanted. I was lucky and showed up with nothing planned and got every class I wanted. Another girl there had pages and pages of codes, plans, different schedules all written out. Not one worked. She was there for at least an hour trying to get her schedule together, I left once I decided there wasn’t anything I needed to change anymore.
Prepare, but don’t freak out if you don’t get the perfect schedule. You’ll get into the classes you need, and that’s all that’s really important.
Also, I’m sorry I don’t remember more specifics about registering, that was a really busy week for me so it honestly went by quickly.
Oof okay meal plans. It just depends on how often you plan on eating and where. Sbisa is more home-style food I guess? It’s pizza and pasta and stir-fry and a couple other things that change out every day. It gets old pretty quickly, the food isn’t amazing but it’s not bad. Sbisa and the other dining halls are being meals are used.
Dining dollars are used just about everywhere else, so essentially fast-food type places. It gives you more options, but they’re still limited. I try to use meal trades when possible even though a lot of people advise against it. Essentially, you just use a meal that you’d use at a dining hall instead of at like Chick FIl A for example.
So, as I said earlier, it depends on how often you eat and where you want to eat. A friend of mine picked the smallest number of meals with the most dining dollars because she planned on eating at the dining halls very rarely. I went with the plan that is automatically assigned and so far it is working for me, I’m trying to get through all my meals first and sometimes I mix it up by using a meal trade, though Sbisa is still getting old. I do use dining dollars from time to time to get a coffee or the like though, and when I run out of meals I’ll just use my dining dollars, which I can refill at any time and will carry over to next year.
Since I don’t how often anyone else eats or where they like to eat I can’t really give any recommendations on meal plans, but I hope my experience helps others decide.
Just let me know if I need to re-explain something or go into more depth, I tryped most of this up right before a class started so I was kinda in a rush.