RU Registration:

Surprisingly Efficient!

by JEFF POLLARD

Each semester around this time, Everyone seems to dread the Radford University registration process. Past experiences with the whole process has taught me to fear the apparent lack of organization present. This semester, however, I was very pleasantly surprised with the whole system. I walked into my advisor's office to find him sitting there twiddling his thumbs, patiently waiting for me to arrive. Every time before, he hadn't been there during his office hours. In fact, it was a very rare occasion that he WAS there to help me with anything.

Upon entering his office, he said, "Jeff, I'm so glad you're here. I'm so excited about helping you plan out the rest of your college career that will affect the rest of your life! Are you ready?"

I nodded and sat down. As we went through my past and future classes, I began to wonder why this was fitting together so much easier than before.

"I'm scared I might not get all of my classes, " I said.

"Jeff, as your advisor, I can assure you that everything will be fine. Everything will go smoothly, I promise." He put his arm around me for reassurance.

We figured out what classes I needed to take and I was out of there in less than 15 minutes.

Next came the hours and hours of pressing numbers on my phone and shouting explicatives at the automated voice of the computer. Or so I expected. I expected to get a busy signal the first 20 or 30 times I called, but much to my delight, I got in the first time I called.

The guy answered the phone, "Welcome to the Radford University Access and Registration System". It was so nice to finally hear the computerized voice talk to me again. I swiftly navigated through the menu system, expecting to hear that all of the classes I needed were full, but they weren't. I got into every single class that I wanted. The computerized voice ended the phone conversation saying, "Jeff, I hope your registration experience has been a pleasant one. Please call again when you can talk longer."

I'd just like to take the opportunity to thank Radford University for their WONDERFUL registration process. I absolutely love the dial-in system. You know, all this new technology like computers and the Internet is way over-rated. That would just make things THAT much more complicated. I'm glad RU can still keep its old-fashioned ways of registering by phone. I can't wait until next semester when I get to do this all over again. Yippee!

Not tired of the registration computer's voice yet? Download the MP3 of the introduction!

Name:   

E-Mail: 
Year:   

Major:  

Comments:

Comments:
Funny thing happened to me while doing the registration thing. I was missing a pre-requisate for a 300 level PSYC class. Well, all of my PSYC classes this semester are 400 level, so I wondered what was up with this? Long story short, I was missing a pre-requisate for EVERY PSYC class that RU offers besides PSYC 121. I'm not sure how I was able to register for all of those other classes for the past 2 years I've been here. but oh well. Here's what we all need to do: Go straight to the department heads and lie to them. Don't bother with that advisor that doesn't know his a$$ from a hole in the ground. Go straight to Dr. Harris' office and give him a giant line of BS and have him sign the force/add slip. Easy enough. And it worked for me.

Comments:
If only it were that easy? And how long was it before you woke up from this dream????

Name: PJ
Major: Information Systems
Comments:
That MP3 is too much!

Name: Stan Bishop
Major: Toiletarian Reseach
Comments:
I've found, that when you go to actually register (made a schedual out and everything before hand) that if you register while on the toilet, you get them all first shot. I've done this everytime I've used the system and it hasn't failed yet! Plus, during those long pauses while "your request is being processed", you have something to do.