Is Course Registration The Same At College?

The short answer is no. There are many differences between college course selection and the high school process. There are a few similarities, but the college experience is truly a "pick your own" schedule process.

Academic Advisors

In college, you will not have a school counselor that helps you with course selection as much as your Liberty Counselor has helped you. While in college, you will be assigned an academic advisor, who is normally a professor within your major, who will help guide you along the way. You will have a sheet, generally called, an Advisor Check List. I will put some examples below of what these look like.

What Classes are NEEDED for my Major?

As talked about above, there will likely be an "Advisory Sheet" that every major will have. It lists all the classes you need to successfully complete for your major. You will notice that the first year or so (2-3 semesters) will look similar and include many of your general education classes (also called Gen eds). If you would like to look at examples, please see the links provided below.

Other Degree Program Maps

Example Schedule: FIRST SEMESTER (FALL)

This is based off of the Psychology Program Map provided above from Bloomsburg University. The first semester you will take a basic general education schedule. These gen eds typically include:

Psych 101

Foundations of Writing or English 101

A Math Course (Stats, Algebra)

Communication/Arts Course

First year Seminar (At some colleges/universities)

Example Schedule: SECOND SEMESTER (SPRING)

This is based off of the Psychology Program Map provided above from Bloomsburg University. The second semester you will get into related classes for your major a bit more. There are still gen eds to take, or classes you need to take from other disciplines to meet the degree requirement.

In this example, the student is taking an Anthropology and Environmental Science course to meet those requirements.

How do I pick them?

There are class registration windows that you will follow to register for classes. You can register for classes through your university or college's student portal. They will be listed on your college or university's Registrar Office. They will have a posted schedule of this.

What times and days are classes?

Classes in college run on a different schedule than in high school. They are scheduled certain days of the week, time slots, and intervals. I will describe these in a GENERAL way below, as this will vary depending on the college/university.

Monday/Wednesday/Friday Classes

Usually 50 min-1 hour classes, meeting 3 times a week

Tuesday/Thursday Classes

Usually 75 minute to 90 minute classes

3 Hour Classes (Usually in the evenings, 5p-8p or 6p-9p)

Usually meet on a Monday,Tuesday, or Wednesday (this is a nice way to have one meeting a week for a class)

To sum it up, you can have/build any sort of schdule you would like. There are options out there for you to, for the most part, create an ideal schedule that fits around the other things going on for you in college.

Again this is an example of how college/university scheduling can work. Once you select your college/university, please get in touch with their Registrar Office for more information.

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