Office of the Registrar                                                                               New Student Registration
John Chrystal Center                                                                                 Information - FALL 2008-09


Welcome to Grinnell! We want your first semester to be a positive experience. These tips will help get you off to a great start.

1. Obtain your New Student Enrollment Confirmation form from your post office box. Please do not lose this form because you cannot register without this form!

2. Clear any holds - Holds may be placed by the Cashier's Office, Health Center, Financial Aid or Registrar. These holds are noted on your New Student Enrollment Confirmation form and must be cleared before you will be allowed to register for classes. If your form indicates "none" on all lines, you do not need to do anything. If you have a hold, please visit that office immediately. If you lose your form, please visit our office immediately, so a duplicate can be made. Clear your holds early! The lines to the cashier and financial offices can be long. You can visit these two offices on Saturday from 10am to 4pm or on Monday or Tuesday.

3. Review the New Student Registration Card (sample attached). When you meet with your adviser you will work together to complete the actual card that you will submit as your final registration.

THE REGISTRATION PROCESS:

With your adviser, you will fill out the New Student Registration Card. On the FIRST line of EACH round, you should put the courses you MOST want to take in order of priority or likely availability. (Do not use the fourth round unless you are not assigned a tutorial.) Then on the next lines of each round you should put courses that you would be willing to take as alternatives to your first choice in that round. (Try to ensure that your alternatives in round #1 do not create schedule conflicts with your first choice in round #2 or #3.)

One of your selections for each "round" will be one of your three courses (in addition to the tutorial). Therefore, the courses you list in each round should be ones that you would be willing to have as alternatives or back-ups to your first choice in that round. This enables you to select alternative courses that contribute similar breadth to your liberal arts program (for example, a natural science or a foreign language) or allow you to pursue a similar schedule of courses.

Before you meet with your adviser, consider your goals, priorities, and criteria for each "round". You have the best chance of getting your first choice listed in round one. Your adviser will help you weigh your interest in the subject, your overall educational goals, and availability of positions in the course.

After you turn in the card, the Registrar's office will enter all selections from the cards using the following process:

Beginning on the morning of August 27th according to a random selection, every student will be placed in a single course before any student is registered for a second course. In the interest of fairness, the placement order will be reversed for the second round and reshuffled for subsequent rounds. Registration will continue until every student has been registered for 3 or 4 courses.

This will be accomplished by submitting a registration card of a priority list of courses for 3 to 4 rounds of registrations. Registration begins with round 1 and course number 1. Once a student is placed in a course for round 1, other choices in that round will be ignored.** Course preferences for the next round will be selected from courses identified in the round 2 section of the card followed by those listed in the round 3 section of the card. For students without a tutorial, an additional course will be entered from round 4 so that every student who wishes may have four courses.

**Please note that if nothing is available in a round, we will put in your first available choice for the next round. Remember courses can be changed during the drop/add period.

Please be aware of the following when filling out your registration card:

a.   Each student will be registered for a maximum of 4 courses (including tutorial). You do not need
      to register for the tutorial as you have already been pre-registered. For students without a
      tutorial a course will be entered from round 4 so that every student who wishes may have
      four courses.
b.   A registration number (REG #) is required for each course requested.
c.   Be sure to include (in the same round) the lab section for courses that have a separate lab
      enrollment from the lecture. List the lab directly below the course. Enrollment for the lecture and
      lab combination will only count as one round.
d.   You may list alternate sections in the column labeled "Other Sections". For example if there are
      four sections of a class, check the box "Any Sect" to indicate that you are fine enrolling in any of
      them should you not get your first choice section. However if you are only okay with taking
      section 1 or section 3, list the preferred section under Reg# and list the alternate Reg#(s) under
      the "Other Section" column.
e.   You may place the same course in more than one round. Don't worry, the computer system will
      not allow us to enroll you in the same course twice or in two sections of the same course.
f.    You are not required to fill out every line of your registration card. Note that the number of lines
      on the card increases with each round as the number of seats remaining in classes decreases
      with each round.
g.   The Adviser's signature will serve as the prerequisite/placement approval for Language, Math,
      and Computer Science.
h.   Extra classes such as Music Lessons, Reading Lab, Foreign Language Conversation, etc. should
      be listed on the bottom of the card under "Extras". None of these will count as a round and will
      be entered after the last round.
i.    Each student will be registered for a maximum of 18 credits. Credits after 18 are "overload"
      credits and will be billed accordingly. The credits for varsity sports and music lessons do not
      count as "overload" credits.

REGISTRATION DAYS - Monday and Tuesday: After you have met with your tutorial adviser, and your adviser has signed your card, bring the Registration Card and your New Student Enrollment Confirmation form to the Registrar's Office in the John Chrystal Center. The card must be turned in no later than 4:00 pm, Tuesday, August 26. Any student who fails to submit a card by 4pm will have to add classes when the drop/add process begins on Wednesday afternoon, August 27, 3:00 pm in Harris Concert Hall.

YOUR SCHEDULE: As soon as registration is completed on Wednesday August 27th at 2:00 pm, your schedule will be released and you may view your schedule via your Pioneer Web account. Your schedule will reflect only the courses that were open to you at the time we entered your data. If there are any errors, you should visit the Registrar's Office immediately. Please remember that as of 2pm on Wednesday, all classes are under the direct control of instructors and the instructor's or department representative's signature will be required to add any course.

POST REGISTRATION FORUM: Wednesday 8/27, 3:00 pm - The tutorial instructors will be available in the Harris Concert Hall between 3 and 4 pm so that registered students can make any necessary adjustments in their schedule. Drop/Add slips will be available in Harris, in the Registrar's Office and on-line. The last day to add or drop a class will be Friday, September 19.