I might be going on vacation this summer, beginning in early July.
I plan to go see an Academic Advisor for some guidance on course selections in early June just in case I can't make the first year sessions that are held toward the start of July.
Would being on vacation affect my ability to register in the courses I wanted or would it instead result in me being placed in awkwardly timed lectures?

I know that in UTM, when my sister registers for her courses...it's like free yoghurt day at the mall. People wait for a considerable time for the course windows to open up and the popular ones tend to be filled in about 5 minutes.

How does SOLAR compare?

Thank you very very much for your time.

I'm one of those people that gets on at 11:58 PM the night before SOLAR goes live and starts spamming refresh on my browser.

But generally, what happens is SOLAR gets REALLY slow and laggy, but eventually you'll manage (after massive attempts) to get on and start picking courses. What happens the first time is that you only pick your courses that you want and the semester you want to take them in. Don't worry about times yet. Then after everyone has picked their courses by the deadline, SOLAR will deactivate for a period of time where it will section everyone. It will then come up and you can see what lectures it has given you and you have the option to change them in order to have better times for your lectures/tutorials/labs.

It's like free yoghurt day at McMaster (Haha...loving that analogy). I'd assume it's the same no matter where you go. And don't worry about missing those first year sessions, I deliberately didn't go because it was so long far out of the way for me and I turned out ok. There's really no information given in those things that you can't read in the undergraduate calendar (found here: http://registrar.mcmaster.ca /regis...lications.html).

Here's what I'd recommend doing:

Target the courses you really want to get into that are in demand. Which courses, if any, will fill up quickly? These are your primary concerns. For instance, I know Fundamentals of Rehab, a 3rd year Kinesiology course, fills up by the time the night is done. It's limited enrollment, and a very interesting course.


Then you identify, which courses will not fill up. ie. Math courses don't tend to fill up at all (with 1 or 2 exceptions). These you could even register for during the drop and add period with no trouble at all. So going on vacation will not affect registration for these courses.

Without knowing the specific courses you're going for however, no one can answer that question...not being on the night of registration may impact you a lot, or not at all.

Depending on your program and what courses you're considering taking, you may have mostly the first type, or mostly the second...so feel free to post the courses you wanna register for and we can try to help you identify those 'hotcake' courses.


EDIT: For some reason, while reading your post I was under the impression that you were entering your second year, but upon re-reading it you seem to be entering first year?

If so, disregard my above advice...I mean it's still true, but there aren't too many 'hotcake' first year courses around. 1st year courses tend to have very large class sizes to prevent people being shut out. In my experience, as someone who didn't particularly care about awkwardly timed lectures, there isn't too big of an issue. Keep in mind that what may seem awkward to you, may be just right for someone else's schedule...And so the only concern I've ever had is courses conflicting, their lecture sessions overlapped.

The beauty part is, if you really need to get into a different time section (particularly because of conflicts), you can go make arrangements with either the professor or the undergrad advisor to bend the rules and get you in there. It's definitely doable, and you should take advantage of that.

Note that this doesn't mean they will create a new lecture time for you, it simply means if there are like 3 different lecture times and you can only get into one which conflicts with another course, then you have reason to demand special permission to enter a different lecture section. The university tends to be accomodating in this way.


(And just FYI, the reason things are so different when you get to 2nd year and above (and why it required different advice) is because courses generally only have one section, and they can fill up and leave you with a sad look on your face when you try to register for them. This doesn't really happen in first year)

Wouldn't the best tactic be to select all your electives first since you are reserved a spot in the required courses? If you don't get in your required courses you just talk to someone right? Who is that person again?

If there's anyway you could be on the internet at midnight the night registration opens, I would do it. You're assured a spot in your required courses, but some popular electives may be filled by upper year students before your registration even begins.

It should be noted that if a given course is manditory for completing your degree, and there is any one in there who is taking it as an elective or for another reason, you get priority over them...though you may have to make a big deal out of it to get your way.

All you do is make an appointment, see the undergraduate advisor for your faculty, and let them know the situation. So don't worry, you'll never get shut out of your manditory courses even if they are limited enrollment. As I've recently mentioned in another thread, Mac will make exceptions for you, to ensure they get the most money out of you. (I don't expect you've read the topic in which I've discussed this, but I can link to it if necessary)


EDIT: And just so I don't mislead anyone, this becomes a problem is in later years. Certain courses are not 'manditory' for your degree, but instead you must take say, 30 units of level 3 and 4 science to complete your degree. The specific ones are not important, and so space is not reserved for you...so instead of taking that physiology course you're dying to take, maybe you get stuck in something not so interesting to you.

And if you go in to complain they'll just be like "You can still take (some other course) and graduate...doesn't matter that (the course you want) is full."

But again...don't worry about this in first year. I can't think of any program that has courses like this...but someone please correct me if I'm mistaken.