Advising Resource for Undergraduate Students

All University of Arizona students register for classes twice a year; once in the fall and once in the spring. This resource will provide you with information about registration, including how to best utilize your time with an advisor during your registration period.

What is Registration?

Registration is the time period during the semester where you will choose your classes for the following semester. 

Important things to remember about registration:

• Students are given priority for course registration based on credit standing (meaning seniors register first and freshman last). Fully online, veterans, athletes and honors students get advanced registration status.
• Registration starts around late October in the fall and mid-March in the spring. The University posts the priority registration schedules here. 
• Because Public Health is a very full college/major, we recommend that you prepare your shopping cart ahead of time and set your alarm for 10 minutes prior to your registration time to have the best chance of scoring your perfect schedule.
• The last important thing to remember during registration is to not hesitate to reach out for help. Your academic advisors are here to help! 

Can I Register Without Seeing my Advisor?

Absolutely! In an ideal world, this is what we want to happen. We want to give you enough information and confidence to navigate this on your own, select your own classes and build your own schedules.

We also have a fillable Curriculum Guide that we hope you keep up-to-date with completed coursework. Visit this page for the main campus Curriculum Guide and this page for the fully online Curriculum Guide. This is a tool to help you know what coursework you have completed and what still is left to do. 

All that being said, if you would like to meet with your advisor to prepare for registration, we welcome your visit! 

Appointment & Walk-In Etiquette During Registration

Note that there is no need to wait until priority registration begins to see your advisor. You can visit/speak with your advisor at any point before your registration period to sort out schedules and ask advising questions. 

• Be prepared for your appointment or walk-in time with your questions and classes in mind for your next semester (ideally, you will have placed courses in your shopping cart already).  
• When preparing your potential schedule it is important to have back-up classes in case you do not get into your first choices. This will help you problem solve the morning of priority registration if your ideal schedule doesn't work as you hoped.
• Lastly, read all emails sent out by public health advisors before and during registration. We do our best to anticipate your questions so that you have information available to you when you need it (without having to wait for your appointment or walk-in slot). 

I Didn't Get Into the Classes I Wanted - Now What?

First, take a deep breath! This sometimes happens.

Here are some steps you can take:

• Are you a first or second year student? It sometimes happens that courses fill and you don't get your ideal schedule. With a solid back-up plan, you can still make progress to graduation. 
• Is the class you cannot get into something other than a public health class? If it is, be sure to contact that department! For instance, if you want PSIO 380 and it is full, then reach out directly to Physiology department for assistance. 
• Are you still in pre-public health but trying to register for a 400 level class? Remember, you have to have already applied to the professional major to take 400 level classes!
• Is there a prerequisite for the class you are trying to get into? For instance, to take HPS 350 you have to have already completed HPS 178 and HPS 200. 

If you feel stressed about your schedule (or lack of schedule!), please reach out to your academic advisor. 

As you may or may not know, Public Health is classified by the University as a professional major. Much like the Nursing and Business UA programs, every student starts out in our college as a Pre-Public Health student. After meeting certain prerequisites, students apply to the professional major of Public Health and then take remaining coursework. Here are the steps you can works towards to be on track for graduation. 

01  Complete the Prerequisite Classes!

02  Maintain a 2.5 GPA!

03  Consider the Timing of your Application (hint: apply as soon as you are eligible to!)

04  Complete the Application!

Here are some tips on how to best communicate during your college years.

Emailing - Always be professional! ALWAYS!

In an age of texting and tweeting we understand the need to use shorthand and that most of you use it every day. #LOLOMGROFL That being said, now that you are a UA student, email is going to be your primary way of communicating with UA faculty, academic advisors, and other campus professionals. So, what do need you to remember about emails?

Emails aren't texts! It is important that the first impression you make doesn't look like this:

Hey professor Ramirez when are you free?
- sent from Iphone

In order to start a good professional relationship with your advisors, professors or any campus professional that will be in your life you would want it to looks like this:

At the end of the day your professors, advisors, etc. want to have a quality and productive relationship with you. While you can be friendly with them, you should always strive to maintain a professionalism relationship. Your polite and professional manner will go a long way in getting you the help or networking that you are looking for!

Remember, at some point you will want a letter of recommendation. The person asking WILL ask about your communication skills and abilities. You will not want a recommendation from someone you sent that first email example to.

Email Etiquette

In addition to the email example above, keep in mind these email etiquette tips.

• Check your email! Everyday! This is how all campus professionals will communicate with you and you don't want to miss timely information about a course, scholarships, internship or job opportunities.
• Always use a header and an email signature. For example, Dear and Sincerely work every time.
• Your subject line should always be filled in and it should be short and understandable. Don't email the professor with the subject line "help". It should look like: Sociology 101 class, section A, homework question. Or, to an advisor: Question about courses for the next semester.
• Always allow AT LEAST 48 hours for a person to respond before re-sending another email or emailing someone else. Most people on campus deal with hundreds of students so patience is key.
• Be sure to state who you are (include your Student Identification number), even if you just met with the person who are emailing. (If it is your advisor, chances are we have seen 10-15 students since seeing you!)
• READ EVERY EMAIL SENT TO YOU BY CAMPUS PROFESSIONALS! If we send you an email it is so we can let you know things that are important or that we think will be of some interest to you. Advisors don't work off commission or spam - if we are sending it to you it is because we think you need it.
• Before emailing, ask yourself, "Have I tried finding the answer myself?" While your advisor is happy to help it is harder to help everyone if we are receiving emails like "How do I contact the biology department." 
• Create folders in your email account so you can keep track of read and unread emails. It will make the email journey much more enjoyable!

I Emailed My Professor, Advisor, etc. at 5:01PM on Friday - Now What?

For most professionals on campus, the work week is Monday - Friday from 8am - 5pm. If you choose to send an email outside of regular business hours please understand you will not hear back until the next set of business hours occur. We love our jobs and we love our students, but we also love our time off (this is public health and we strive for work / life balance!).