So this time last year I was working my ass off to get into UBC. Going into my independent study teacher everyday and taking test after test, just to get where I am today, and where I am, right now, is not a happy place.
My registration date for next year is this coming Friday, which happens to be my 19th birthday, so Max and I were sitting around, making our Work Lists together. We were having a decent time, I was getting a bit caught up on what classes to choose, but I was excited to be finally specializing in my courses a little bit. Until I hit this roadblock: I think I am still considered a first year student. Yep, seeing as I only registered for 24 credits last year, the SSC still thinks I am a first year, and thus I am unable to take second year english or psychology, though I have all the requirements beyond a “second year standing”. This drives me completely mad.
First of all, no where I could find does it say that we are required to take 30 credits a year. It says 120 to graduate, and if you want to do that in 4 years, than you need to do 30 per year. In fact, the only limit I found listed on the Arts website was a MAXIMUM of 30 per year. Last year I interpreted this as, “well, I don’t want to push myself too hard and take the maximum, so I’ll go for 24 credits instead” and I did well. But that leaves me lost now.
I sent an email about the issue to the woman in charge of second year courses before I discovered my “first year” standing, but now I regret that. I am not sure if anyone can help me with this.
On top of that, Max is now bound by the 30 credit limit, which will make it harder for him to catch up as he finished last year with 15 credits in total. We’re both stuck.
Anyone know how to help?
2 replies on “Buh. Registration Issues.”
Ohhh dear.
You need at least 27 credits to be promoted to second year: http://www.arts.ubc.ca/students/degree-planning-advising/advising/academicperformance/continuation-requirements.html
I’m not sure what you can do besides take a summer course to make up for the last 3 credits, if you want to be at second-year standing by September. You will probably need to contact Arts Advising through email for that, and see if you can still register for a course. There may be a distance one you can take.
https://www.directory.ubc.ca/index.cfm?page=whitepagestaff&whitePage=W1705
However, it won’t help your summer registration problem. (The good news is that you have an earlier registration date than if you were second-year! Those begin in July.)
I’m not sure about Psychology, but perhaps you can contact someone about getting into a second-year course. If you have completed the first-year prereqs, the department may not care overly much about the actual standing. There may also be some courses that don’t require a particular year standing. I don’t know for sure.
For English, you can contact Judy Brown to get into second-year courses and she will help you register for them. She’s really very nice indeed and helped me out a lot last year when I was registering for them. As long as you provide evidence of completing 1st-year English (i.e. Arts One), then it’s OK on that front.
Good luck, Sam! I’m sorry that this happened.
I don’t think this is usually a problem. You have a better registration time than normal, and can just make up the credits this year. The only issue that I might see is a course that might not let people with first year standing to register.