Registering for Classes

Picking classes is stressful at your own college so imagine doing it in a completely different school via an all paper-based system in a new country. It is a thousand times more stressful. However, I am writing to assure you that though you might have to go back and forth with a lot of people to get the classes you want, in the end everything will work out.

During the first week we arrived in Gaborone, we had an orientation week. Towards the end of the week the dreaded registering process begun. We all sat together and wrote out the classes we had already picked, however this by no means meant that anyone actually got those classes. You had to check if the class was going to be offered, regardless of what the course handbook says, and if their scheduled times matched up. After you completed a tentative schedule, the next week is the first week of school and you just show up to the classroom.

I cannot emphasize enough how strange it was that a majority of UB students and some professors do not show up for class during the first week. I had a schedule the first week of school and attended all of them, but ended up having zero classes. This was because some professors just did not show up, I went to the wrong room, or the class was not being offered.

Everyone in the group had obstacles with picking classes. Other issues included concern over whether their classes would count for credits or not, or if their class was on a Friday (which you don't want if you want to travel on the weekends). However, even with all of this, the trick is to not stress. Getting the classes that I wanted was not smooth sailing, but I did find trusting that everything was going to turn out fine was very helpful. Once I did that, I didn't worry or stress about classes and allowed myself to be open-minded and find good classes.

Some tips on how to find classes are talk to Base and Lebo, they know what classes and which professors are good. I just told Base what I was interested in and she found me my (now favorite) class on Afro-Caribbean literature. After attending that class, the professor offered to ask her colleague another class was available for me to take as it was more relevant to my major. I informed Base and that professor ended up having a class that I had disregarded earlier because it was scheduled on a Friday. In turned out that the professor did not want classes on Friday so I ended up taking a good class relevant to my major and getting to travel on Fridays as well. So my tips for scheduling classes are talk to people, email professors and let them know what classes you want or simply what sounds interesting. Your schedule might be completely different from what you originally intended but you'll find cool classes with professors you already know and more classes that you would not have even thought of in the first place. Trust professors, the students opinions, and your gut, all three are trying to help you out.