With it being time for registration again, I figure it is a good time to ask what the problem is that everyone has with APR2.0? I get it, last semester there were some issues as it was the first time it had ever ran but this past Monday twenty-one hundred students were registered by 7:30. APR2.0 has become one of those things that everyone complains about, despite it not being a huge issue because that’s just something SLU students do I guess. Let me list out a few common complaints about APR2.0.
1.) No priority anymore. Ok so this is the one that has the most traction and is probably the most legitimate. However, although it might be slightly unfair to current juniors and seniors who went through two years of low priority and then did not receive high priority now as upperclassmen. It is a much better system for everyone when everyone is able to get into at least one or two classes they want instead of potentially getting all or none of them. Also this will be a non-issue in two years when everyone will have only used the APR2.0 system.
2.) The class I wanted filled up. That sucks, but how is this APR’s fault? If there is a problem with not enough room in classes, that is the fault of that department, not APR. Same goes for when first years and sophomores fill up classes that upperclassmen want. The department should be putting in enough pre-requisites so this does not happen.
3.) It is really slow. When you have two thousand people loading a webpage at the same time, many of them frantically refreshing it, the site slows down. This was a big problem last year, but this semester new technologies have been put in place to help. A tip: when you’re looking to see if APR is live, click the blue box above your schedule instead of refreshing the entire page.
It isn’t APR2.0 that people hate – it is the process of registration itself. And they are right, uncertainty over what classes you will get is not fun, the stress of trying to click the button to register as quick as you can sucks, and waking up before seven feels like cruel and unusual punishment. It is important, however, not to project your anger at an unpleasant necessity onto a system that is a vast improvement over the old one and makes the process easier than it would have been otherwise.