My Experience Booking an Online College Registrar’s Appointment 

Now that course registration is coming up, I’ve been looking over my degree requirements for next year and trying to figure out what courses I need to graduate. Needless to say, I’ve definitely had a few freak-out moments when I realized I didn’t understand or know about a requirement. What should you do if you’re in a situation like this during course planning? Apart from providing many other useful services to students (like career counselling, financial planning, and learning strategies), your college or facuty registrar is a great place to go if you have questions about degree planning or courses. 

College or Faculty registrars provide support to students, point them in the direction of services, and counsel students who are having academic or personal problems. With the COVID-19 situation, college registrar appointments are online and easier than ever to access. I’ve never been to an in-person registrar's appointment because I never had an issue that seemed big enough to justify going. But, with appointments being online and super easy to schedule, it made a lot of sense to have an appointment when I ran into an issue with Degree Explorer.  Right before course-planning happens, I like to make sure I understand all the logistical requirements of course planning. Degree Explorer is a great tool which measures your progress through your various programs of study and shows you which requirements you have fulfilled and which ones you haven’t. I always like to start my course-planning by looking at Degree Explorer to figure out which courses I absolutely need to take. This time, I noticed a difference between the program requirements listed on Degree Explorer, versus the department’s website. So, I decided to book a quick appointment with my college registrar to clarify everything! 

I found booking the appointment super easy. I just logged onto my college registrar's office webpage and found an email which I contacted in order to book the appointment. I contacted the office on a Friday and was able to schedule the appointment for Monday morning, so it was super easy and quick. Though this may vary between colleges, my appointment happened on Microsoft Teams, so make sure to download Teams before the appointment in order to avoid any last-minute scrambling (I had to download it last-minute and was a few minutes late!).  At the appointment, I went over the issues I was having with Degree Explorer with my registrar. He was super helpful, as he instantly answered my questions and also gave me some additional information about post-grad applications that I wasn’t even planning to ask about.  If you’re having trouble planning your degree, figuring out your courses, or any other academic stress, I definitely recommend booking an online registrar’s appointment! They're a lot quicker and easier to access than in-person appointments, but allow you to get the same invaluable information.