Ep. 20 - Getting Ready for Spring Registration

Welcome to Episode 19 of the CSUSB Advising Podcast! Winter and Spring 2022 registration is right around the corner! Are you ready? Here tips from academic advisor, John Noriega from Advising & Academic Services! 

In this episode, we have:

• John Noriega - Academic Advisor

Follow us on social media:

• Instagram & Tik Tok - @csusbadvising
• Facebook - CSUSB Advising and Academic Services
• Twitter - @csusb_advising

Subscribe to the CSUSB Advising Podcast on Apple, Spotify, and more!

Follow us on social media:

Instagram - @csusbadvising
Tik Tok - @csusbadvising
YouTube - @csusbadvising

https://csusbadvising.buzzsprout.com/

Transcript

Star Wildes  
Welcome to the CSUSB Advising Podcast. Join us as we bring you the latest advising updates at Cal State. San Bernardino. Each episode is specifically made for you the CSUSB students and parents. We provide you with advising tips, interviews with both CSUSB campus resources and those in academic advising. Go. Yotes.

Matt Markin  
Hey Yoties, welcome to the CSUB advising podcast. My name is Matt Markin. I'm here with Star Wildes. Star, what is up?

Star Wildes  
What is up, Matt, it's been busy. We are into our advising sessions with students. So shout out to all the students we've been meeting with. It's been quite busy here. What's been up with you?

Matt Markin  
Same thing. It's just busy, busy, busy appointments. Loving seeing the students and helping them out as much as possible. Hopefully, yodi, you're enjoying this fall semester. Maybe have a mixture of some in person and virtual classes, or maybe it's all online or all in person. But we are hoping you're loving your instructors, the classes learning a lot. And it's almost the end of October. Registration for spring is right around the corner, also something called winter intercession. And should you see your advisor? Why should you see your advisor? What kind of resources are out there? What questions should you ask your advisor? How do you prepare for that? How do you find out who your advisor is? Well, we got someone that can answer a lot of those questions, and it's a return guest, someone that we know very well, and that is John Noriega, academic advisor in advising and academic services. John, welcome to the podcast again.

John Noriega  
Thank you, Matt. Thank you sir for having me today.

Star Wildes  
Awesome. And welcome. Now I know that Matt, had you know covered that we were going to ask you about winter intersession was just a intercession that comes after this term, so after fall 2021, so we hope you're doing well in your classes, and hope you're finishing strong. So John, can you tell us a little bit more about that winter intersession and spring registration. I know we've been seeing students. We've all been seeing students. We're preparing this them for registration. What can you tell students about what's coming up for them?

John Noriega  
Yeah, great question. Well, I'll go ahead and begin with winter intersession and then dive into spring semester registration. So winter intersession does go in between the Fall and the Spring semesters. It's a four week, fast paced session that ranges between three weeks of instruction, and then there is one week of final examinations. Students can register for up to a maximum of four units for the winter intersession. So that's usually like about one course for that term. And now winter intersession does range between December 17 till January 18. Registration for winter will begin pretty soon. It's going to actually start on Monday, November 8 for all students. So if students are interested. It is going to be available through my coyote register, just like you normally would through your Student Center. And just to also keep in mind that winter intersession is completely optional, but it has the benefits, because if you do register, you get to like I mentioned earlier, you get to assist in the shorter session. You get to graduate sooner, and you get to get ahead on your academics. So lots of benefits there. I know most folks have always had questions about finances with that. So for the cost per unit for winter intersession for undergraduate students, it is 320 per unit. And please keep in mind that financial aid is not available for winter, but you also want to kind of check out and see what other support is out there. You can always inquire with the folks with the winter intersession office. As of today, the winter intersession class schedule is available on the mycoyote homepage if you go to csusb.edu, forward slash, class, hyphen, schedule, you'll be able to select winter intercession, 2022, and you'll be able to search up the classes that are available for winter. Or you can go through your mike coyote Student Center and see the classes from there. And once again, there's all this information is available on the website, but you can also find out a little bit more by visiting www.csusb.edu/winterintersession.

Matt Markin  
Yeah, so just like you're saying it's it's optional. You don't have to do it, but it could be a great way to get caught up on a class, get ahead on a class. So definitely has its benefits. And if you just want to knock the class out in three weeks and not a whole semester, that could also be something to look into. Now, aside from winter, star was also mentioning spring semester, and that is coming up throughout the month of November with registration, I know one of the questions we get asked is, well, how many units can I take? And so we know for under. Grads, you can take up to 18 units Max, without permission. But what can you tell us about spring registration?

John Noriega  
Yeah, you know Spring is coming. Spring registration is coming up pretty quickly. In as you can already see, the months are just going by fast already. So we're a few weeks away from registration. Like you mentioned, that registration will begin starting November 1 for registration appointments. And just to reiterate, you can register up to a maximum of 18 units, at least for undergraduate students. Of course, registration appointments will go into different categories depending on your academic level as it always has been, seniors and grads will register around November 2 to the fourth. Juniors will register on the week of the fifth, sophomores around the 10th, and then freshmen around the week of the 16th, and then after that, once all registration appointments have passed, open enrollment will begin, and all other students can register by that point in time. Keep in mind that spring semester will begin January, 24 so we do have a pretty nice break in between. So just get ready, but spring registration will begin next month. You definitely want to check for any holds, any registration holds that you might have pending from your advisors, especially if you haven't completed the end sexual violence training that was due on October 9, be sure to check your My coyote Student Center to see if you've already completed that training, and just any other holds in general, that way you won't be surprised With any enrollment holds that can impact your registration as well.

Matt Markin  
And just to clarify, you're talking about having a longer, like little break between fall and spring. Just to clarify the students will have nice little break. We will still be working. 

John Noriega  
Yes, we will definitely still be working. The students will have a really nice break in between,

Star Wildes  
absolutely so please rest for us. Have a break for us. Take time for yourself. Self Care is very important, especially if you decide to take a break and not do winter into session. So, John, you had mentioned, of course, the different registration dates is very important. We want to remind you, please make sure you check your My Coyote, check the enrollment day and time for your specific enrollment day and time. And as of right now, I know we're talking about we're busy. We're seeing our students specifically within our office, advising and academic services. We are seeing all first time freshmen students. So we've been busy with our first time freshman students. I know Matt and John, you oversee our two year, four year pledge program. So you're seeing those students I'm seeing we're all seeing our undeclared students and more. So for all students, why John? Should they see their advisor, especially during this time? Can you tell us a little bit more about that.

John Noriega  
Yeah, definitely, advising is crucial, just in general, to anyone's educational experience. The best way I can say is that it's a way for for you as a student to develop a meaningful relationship with your academic advisor and discuss your unique academic and personal goals. And you know, ultimately, you'll get to discuss your academic requirements. You'll get assistance with the class selections, the scheduling of your classes, but most importantly, you'll get connected with resources on campus that you might not have been aware of. So there is definitely a lot of emphasis when it comes to advising that I think any student can benefit from, and just even having that meaningful connection with their advisor will just shed so much light on a lot of help and resources that students can benefit from. It's not just a simple matter of understanding what classes to take. It's not a simple matter of what courses to register for there's a whole lot more to advising than what it appears in. As we've mentioned before, too. We always tell students that it's optional, but we highly encourage it. You're never going to be forced or obligated to speak with an advisor, but we do encourage you to still make an appointment, make some time on, you know, 30 minute appointments. You know that that's that's ideally 30 minutes that can make a huge difference to your academics. So take advantage and seek out any support from your academic advisor.

Matt Markin  
Absolutely great advice. And then if, let's say, their college advisor or advising unit offers any type of like drop in advising, we can ask quick questions. That could be another way, in case the appointments get filled up, but always try to get that appointment scheduled as soon as possible. And I guess going along with that, when students are meeting with their advisors, they might keep hearing. Us, like, take 15 units, 15 to finish, graduate in four years. Can you discuss more like, what 15 to finish means? Like, what that phrase is, and is that something that's meant for every student, you know, because some students are like, you know, I work, or I have, you know, two jobs, or I have a lot of personal responsibilities. Can you talk more about that? 

John Noriega  
Yeah, good question, Matt, and we'll often hear that a lot when you know, especially in our advising sessions, I usually like to ask students what their objectives and their goals are in terms of their timeline towards graduation. And we always ask this at orientation, and it's usually a vast majority when we ask them, How many of you want to graduate in four years? And we see hands raised up everywhere, right? So that's ideally where this phrase 15 to finish came in. Students, if they do the math, 15 minutes per semester at the end of the academic year, they'll have 30 units by the end of that year, in order to graduate with a bachelor's degree, you need 120 units, therefore four years times 30 will get you that 120 units minimum, right? So 15 units is what is recommended. It's what it's encouraged. But of course, Matt like you mentioned, every student's case is different. There's folks that have you know, family obligations, commitments. They have work on the side. They have co curricular activities, sports. So we want to be mindful of that, and that's why it's also meaningful to me with an advisor. Because when you are actually meeting with an advisor, you definitely want to be transparent and explain some of those things that you have outside of school, because the advisor will encourage 15 units, but if there is a lot still going on your plate, then you know you might want to give consideration to that amount of units and still find out ways of how you could stay on track with a timely graduation timeframe. So that is essentially what 15 units or 15 to finish means, but we always strongly encourage you to still inquire with your advisor to see if that is ideal and how you can still make it work to graduate in a timely manner.

Star Wildes  
That's awesome. And thank you so much for sharing that. And just to clarify, there are options, so please make sure you let your advisor know again, the minimum amount of units for students to take to be at full time, status is 12 units. So again, there's summer, there's winter intercession, and there's options. So thank you so much, John for sharing that with us. So John, what are resources that are available to help our students with advising? I know we share this with students all day, every day, but can you tell our students and listeners what they have available to them that can help guide them in their academics.

John Noriega  
Yeah, definitely. There's a lot of resources out there. And just to even start off, we have a whole advising page designated for all of our undergraduate students. You'll find a lot of support and a lot of resources available on that page. It is@csusb.edu for forward slash advising. That's probably the best place to start for any academic support or any resources when it comes to advising. When you do access a page, you'll actually see a tab on the bar that says students, and if you hover your mouse over that tab, you're going to find a section that says advising tools. And these are the tools that we actually use as advisors with our students to basically go ahead and, you know, select your courses and help you with the course scheduling for the upcoming semesters. So there is resources such as the paws report, that is the degree audit that that we use. In other words, it's like your graduation checklist, right? We have a whole tutorial on how to, you know, read and interpret the pause report. We have a section on road maps you might not be familiar with. You know, the the classes that you need for your major, and in what order to take them in. And there's, there's different sets of templates that the departments have created that will show you what they recommend to take per semester. And these are four year road maps. So in case, if you are a student interested in graduating four years, these are the road maps that you would definitely want to refer to for any support on that. And then you'll also find Schedule Planner on there, which is there to assist you with compiling the list of courses that you want to take for the upcoming semester. And what it does, it's a pretty neat tool. It will technically check for prerequisites, and it will check for any time conflicts too. So Schedule Planner is definitely a useful tool for that. We strongly encourage you to use these resources, these advising tools. And of course, I have to also mention that on that page, there is a tab that says, who's my advisor. So in case if you are still unsure who your. Advisor is, hover your mouse over that tab, click on it, and it will show you basically how advising works here at the university, and it will connect you with who your advisor is.

Matt Markin  
Yeah, it's great advice. And yeah, easy way, right? We have everything right there for you, the students, to kind of see where you know who your advisor is, get all that good information. Now, we had financial aid on on our last podcast. And you know, even though we're talking about spring registration, something else I really kind of think about is already next academic year, next year in fall and financial aid. Do you want to talk a little bit about why students should be thinking about next fall already regarding financial aid?

John Noriega  
Yeah, thank you for bringing that up. So every year students do want to keep in mind that their FAFSA application is only for that current academic year. So as of as of October 1, the new FAFSA form for 2022 2023 has officially began. And we want to remind students that if you are a student who is receiving financial aid and you want to continue on receiving financial aid, we encourage you to go ahead and visit the FAFSA website to submit your 2022 2023 application. Of course, you definitely want to make sure that you gather any material or information that you need to update your tax information, to update any personal information or basic information on there. But definitely do not forget that headline, as it's an important deadline, and as of October 1, that's when the application began. So please check that out as soon as possible.

Matt Markin  
And great advice as well with that, because, you know, we want to be thinking about the future as well. And if you can get the application in for financial aid and get that submitted. So, you know, get that off, you know, get that off your checklist, you know, and get get it done and submit it so financially can process. I mean, I guess one extra thing, or a couple extra things, extra things is, you know, a lot of students have questions about covid and, you know, making sure that everything is as safe as possible, and the university is doing its best job to ensure that the safety of the students is first and foremost. So if they do have questions, or, you know, they can get a lot of information from the CSUSB website on the return from the pack link. So a lot of great information there for students. Another thing for going back to the registration portion, let's say for spring. You know, you mentioned the different times that students can register. You know you have, like November 2 is when you know the seniors can start to register. And it's all really divided up within like, three day increments for the different class levels. But then November 1 is really the first day that the kind of, you know, priority groups, or whatever the term is now that that's used for those students. And so those would be student athletes, veterans, foster youth, students with disabilities, as well as note takers. So usually those that's those are the five groups that will get that first like mandatory priority group registration. But another thing that I think to ask you, John is, you have students that might be intimidated by their professors. You know, maybe they don't want to ask questions. We had Doctor Deborah Parsons on a couple episodes ago to talk about that, but maybe just to reiterate, like, what's your advice if you have a student that comes from your office and you know they're say they're struggling in the class, but you know, can they go to tutoring and or should they talk with their instructor? How should they prepare to meet with their instructor during office hours or try to get some of their their questions answered.

John Noriega  
Yeah, that's a that's a good question, man, I, I don't think there's any right or wrong way to approach, you know, the professors in any way that it's common that any student will feel a bit intimidated just to even approach anyone on campus. I had a couple of conversations with students that shared the same feelings about, you know, coming in, even for advising, and just feeling intimidated prior to, you know, our sessions, and they left off feeling very different than the way they walked in. And I always connect that back with the faculty, because, you know, they're ultimately there to see, you know students succeed, and see students pass through their classes. So the best advice that I can give a student is if you find yourself struggling and you find yourself having any difficulties with like your exams, your assignments, who better to you know, tutor to advise you on that content than the professor themselves, getting that knowledge directly from the fountain of source Who is passing that information to you? Of course, you want to be mindful that your professors are teaching probably four or five. Six sections on campus. Sometimes getting a response back from them could take, could take a while, and we definitely want to be mindful that they are there to not only assist you, but you know, hundreds of other students. So it's all a matter of timing, reaching out to them sooner rather than later. If you find yourself concerned about a certain grade on a midterm, kindly ask your professor. Hey, can we go over this midterm together and see where the areas of weaknesses were? What can I do to improve for my upcoming midterm? What advice do you give so I can be best prepared for my upcoming exam? It really a conversation like that, and those questions that I just shared with could definitely lead to a very helpful discussion, and can go a very long way to help a student succeed in the course. And like I said, it really has to be initiated by the student. The professors will not approach the student. They will be there continuing on teaching the course why. It's up to the student to take that leap of faith, to go ahead and approach the instructor and say, Hey, I need some help. What can you do? What do you recommend? And what can I do to pass this class? You shared a little bit about tutoring too, Matt. I mean, if the student feels like they can get some assistance outside of the classroom and they want to see tutoring, that is what our Tutoring Center is here for as well. They tutor on all different sorts of subjects and even supplemental instruction. I can't even emphasize that, a lot supplemental instruction is there too to help students with the most challenging courses that that we have here on campus, and there's plenty of support there in that program as well, but that is perhaps my best advice. I mean, if they can start off with the professor first. I mean, starting off with an email can go a long way, even catching the professor either before or after the class, even the office hours. I mean, if students can just refer to the syllabus and check for those days and times, definitely stop by the office or during their zoom hours and see if the professor is available to answer those concerns. In case of those office hours do conflict, I still encourage the student to reach out via email and see if there's any hours outside of those office hours that the instructor is willing to talk to them or to provide any support that's that's perhaps the best advice that I could give in regards to that. 

Star Wildes  
Thank you so much, John for sharing that information, helpful information that we truly appreciate it, so we hope that our listeners are able to take this information and utilize, become aware of what they don't know, right, and also learn more about why we're advising, what it is the resources that you have available to and also reach out to your professors or reach out for help. So thank you again for the information, and if there is nothing else that we're going to discuss, I'm going to put a plug in for our social media outlets, please make sure you follow us on our social media platforms. So Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and we also have a TikTok. And again, we thank you so much for your time and listening to everything that we had to share with you. 

Matt Markin  
And before we go, a question for star and John. So you both have listeners are going to be able to see or listen to the audio, but not see the visual. But star, you have a sign in the back that says, but first coffee. And John, you have one that says I can and I will. So can you all talk about why you had those signs, like, why those are important to you?

Star Wildes  
I guess I'll go first, because I'm still unmuted. Matty, I'm assuming that I got this from you, and as a mom and everything, you know, I need coffee in order to keep me filled up and start my day. So I my kids know before they ask anything or say, Mom, I need to sip my coffee slowly, and then I'd be awake to answer any questions and shout out to Matt. 

Matt Markin  
So that means when students meet with you, the reason you're happy is like you've had your coffee.

Star Wildes  
Had my coffee. If I didn't have my coffee, it's okay. There's Starbucks down the way.

John Noriega  
I guess I'll I'll go next. Yeah, I you know my science probably not as interesting as the coffee story start, but since mine does say I can and I will, I often, I think I've had a couple of students actually asked about that, and they're just like that. That means a lot like, just because, you know I can, it just shows that the they have that willingness to do something and. Um, and honestly, the only one that limits themselves is just the individual. Like, if you honestly have a goal that you want to, you know, achieve, you aspire to get something or to accomplish something, you definitely can, you will, but you just got to have that determination and that willingness to do it, push yourself to do it. So that's, something that I ultimately wanted to have as like a message here in the office, because whenever I do have students, I will just say, I can't I'm like, I kind of turned back and I'm like, hey, look, there's that sign right there. You can any will, you know. So it's a good reminder of just helping students understand that they can accomplish whatever they put them their goals or whatever they want to do into their hearts.

Matt Markin  
I feel like, if a student goes into John's office and like, I can't. John would just like, turn and point to the sign.

John Noriega  
I've done it already.

Matt Markin  
Well. Thank you both for sharing, but that is all the time we have. Thank you so much for listening to the CSUSB advising podcast. We will catch you on the next episode.