Rob Hasker's Survival Guide
for Advance Registration

Quick Summary

  1. Write preliminary plans for the next term's schedule and any questions you may have. It's good to review the SWE and CSC curricula. Note also the Electives tab for both pages; this describes the various elective courses for each major.
  2. Sign up for a registration time at Bookings.
    • Note you must be logged in to MSOE email for this link to work. If you get a 404 error, try accessing MSOE email using this link. A common issue is that you may be logged in to a work email address if that workplace also uses Microsoft products. The simplest solution is to log in to MSOE email on a whole new browser (for instance, using Chrome if you normally use Firefox for work) and then accessing the above link. If that does not work, message your advisor.
  3. Show up to your meeting! If you can't, cancel it and make a new one.
  4. Take notes at the meeting! Your time is valuable, and having to get re-advised slows you down.
  5. One of the things we will do during the meeting is review transition plans and update where necessary.
  6. See the bottom of the page for a tool to identify when seats open up in classes during registration.

More Detail

Useful information for all students, especially first-year students.

  1. If you have not yet, review your curriculum, either the SE curriculum or the CS curriculum. These contain important information about the program and suggests which courses you need to take next term.
  2. Review your transition plan and come with ideas for any changes you think need to be made. If you have a choice of what to take (such as a science elective or a humanities elective), review the offerings and come with ideas of which you would like to take. Some resources for picking classes:
    3. Earlier in the term is better than later; it makes a lot of sense to be advised in week 6 or 7. Week 10 is hectic, and appointments made for that week run a high risk of being canceled and rescheduled to finals week.
  3. Make sure you are prepared for your appointment! Do you have your checklist? Do you have a list of courses for next semester? Do you have your appointment in whatever calendar manager you use on a regular basis?
  4. Come to your appointment and take notes. Being a couple minutes late is not a problem, but being very late may result in needing to reschedule.
    • If something comes up, simply delete the booking (possibly with a short explanation if there's a place to enter one) and schedule a new one. You don't need to message me about the change.
    • Taking notes is very helpful; you can see the notes I write on the advising report, but I don't try to capture everything.
  5. Once your advising and other holds are lifted, register for classes in my.msoe.edu. There are directions for this at the Registrar's website.
    6. If classes are closed: First, see if there's another section open. If there are no sections open and you cannot take an alternative class instead, see how to request entering a full section of a class. Requests to get into required courses are nearly always granted, though you may not get your preferred section.
  6. After your meeting, send me email if you had to make significant changes to your schedule. Changing sections or changing between two electives with the same prefix is not significant, but I do need to know if you replace a required course by another. The catalog is a great resource!

Information on Picking Classes

Additional Advising Notes and Resources