by Rheena Fuentebella & Joy Palag ||
Freshmen don’t encounter any trouble in terms of completing their units and scheduling classes because their enlistment is taken care of by the Registrar’s Office. However, once the freshmen enter their sophomore year, they must undertake a task so crucial to their academic journey in the university---enlistment.
Our batch was pre-enlisted for two consecutive years until we finally had to face the hassle of fighting for slots and getting the best schedule on our 3rd year; and here are some tips from us for a less stressful and less grueling enlistment process to get you on your way to blazing more trails!
1.) “Libre mangarap!”
The first thing you should remember in preparation for the online enlistment is that you need to make a plan or a “target” schedule. Craft this schedule with the best professors in mind. Also pick schedules that will work best with how your brain functions. If, say, you find yourself really sleepy during the morning, try your best to have your earliest class scheduled at 9AM at the very least.
2.) “♫ I did my best, but I guess my best wasn’t good enough..♫”
Sometimes you just have to settle for what’s left. Say, you did your best to get into the enlistment system, but time just wasn’t on your side. Don’t worry, not everyone is lucky enough to get their dream schedule so make sure you have at least 2 alternative schedules; especially if you’re aiming for a subject that you know a lot of people will enlist for. Also, remember that getting delayed and catching up with the required number of units is a bigger concern than getting classes with professors you don’t know or classes you don’t want to take.
BONUS TIP: It will be best for you to take your PE classes as early as you can. If you’re an incoming sophomore, try your hardest to finish PE during your second year of college. You wouldn’t want to waste your prime and precious timeslots that could’ve been used for other CAS subjects, on classes that you could and should have already finished.
3.) “Check yourself, before you wreck yourself.”
Make sure that you know your student pin and student number. This is for you to be able to log on to the enlistment system. If you don't remember your pin, contact the Registrar’s office @ (+632) 637-0912 local 322 ahead of time. Set your alarm at least one hour before the scheduled time of enlistment. Health is wealth; and even if you wake up at 5 am or even 12 am to go to the website, enlistment will and only start at around 8 or 9 am. Also make sure that you have a working and charged laptop, tablet, or smartphone that won’t bail or crash on you in the middle of your enlistment journey.
4.) “Once is enough.” part 1
Make sure that you have the enlistment page open on your browser before the actual enlistment starts. but remember to just open it on one webpage. When you try to access the enlistment page on your laptop, your phone, and across different browsers (like Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and even Internet Explorer) all at the same time, the server will get congested, further decreasing not only yours but also other people's chance of successfully signing in as soon as possible.
5.) “Once is enough.” part 2
Once you get into the enlistment system, DO NOT click on anything other than the buttons that you need for adding your subjects and saving your schedule. Remember NOT to click on the buttons more than once. If you click on something and nothing appears, just be patient and wait for it to load because there are a lot of other people on the website so things are bound to load more slowly than usual. We cannot stress on this tip enough because doing otherwise will either freeze the page, make the page crash, and bring you back to your enlistment buddy---the enlistment log-in page.
6.) “Try and try until you succeed”
If you have logged in with your student number and pin but the system tells you that an error occurred, just refresh the page and try logging in again. Is the page taking too long to load? Just wait. Good things (ahem, slots and classes) come to those who wait.
7.) #Chillax
If your page crashes, don't fret. The classes you've picked save automatically. Haven't enlisted anything? Repeat steps 4 to 5 and keep your cool. You'll get there.
8.) First come, First served.
Once you have logged in, make sure to enlist for the classes that you know a lot of people will enlist for or your ‘priority subjects’. For instance, if the Ethics class you have been eyeing has 10 slots left, zone in on that first. If you notice that there are no more slots left for your other classes, remember, step 2 helped you cover that. Check the alternative schedules you made. You can keep track of the slots through this website: http://dragon.uap.asia/enlistment.php
9.) “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”
If an error comes up that even your friends haven’t encountered, much less know how to solve, don’t worry because we have a very responsive and helpful enlistment team. You can easily reach them by tweeting your #enlistmentwoes and #enlistmentproblems on twitter at @UAP_Enlistment. Take note that the people behind the enlistment team are working really hard to make the enlistment process as smooth as possible for you. Remember that they’re just ordinary people like you so always give due respect. :-)
10.) Final Note
Once you're finished with your schedule, double-check to ensure that there aren’t any conflicts in the schedules of your CAS subjects (and majors classes, if you already have them). Confirm your payment scheme with your parents, update your Registrar’s Certificate, and you can finally go back to savoring what remains of your summer.
BONUS TIP: In order to avoid the long lines when the majority of the students enroll on campus, print your Registrar’s Certificate or RC, and go to school the day after the schedule of your online enlistment to have it signed by the authorities who need to validate it, but only if you’re already satisfied with the schedule you’ve made. You may already pay for it on the same day or pay for it on the schedules allotted for the on campus enrollment without having to line up for your Academic Adviser’s signature, etc.
11.) Wait, don’t forget to #BeGrateful
Thank the Lord & the enlistment team. They went out of their way to make your enlistment process possible. If you don’t get your dream schedule, remember that everything happens for a reason and sometimes, you just have to be practical. You wouldn’t want to get delayed for another year just because you didn’t pick a class that could’ve completed your units. If you get a terror professor, maybe this is the best opportunity for you to challenge yourself in order to grow, and slowly develop into a #CulturedMan; and for that, thank the Lord. :-)
Happy Trailblazing, Dragon! You’re on your way to becoming #LiberallyEducated.
