Having trouble getting in those popular classes? Ed Board’s got some advice to make registering for classes easier as well as how to convince professors you let you in classes that are already full.

1. Prepare early. First off, you’ve got to find out when you can enroll. You can do this by visiting access.smu.edu. While you’re there, get your degree progress report. Figure out what classes you need and what classes you want. The access.smu.edu Web site can be difficult at times, so be patient. While you’re in front of your computer, you might try surfing to pickaprof.com or ratemyprofessor.com and see how your potential instructors measure up. It never hurts to have an idea of what you’re getting yourself into next semester.

2. Meet with your academic advisor early. This is the best way to get your be prepared and have a game plan ready for when your enrollment appointment comes up. Don’t forget to bring your degree progress report (available on access.smu.edu) and a list of first, second and third choice classes so that you can get advisor approval for any class you might be even remotely interested in taking next semester. Remember, if you don’t get your advisor’s approval before registering for class, it’s a violation of the university honor code, and if you’re caught, you could face serious consequences.

3. Find a friend who will hold a spot in class for you. If you can find someone who has an earlier enrollment appointment, get them to enroll in your hard to get in class to hold a spot until its time for you to enroll. Once it’s your turn to enroll, get them to drop the class, and you can take their spot. Ed Board isn’t really sure if this can you get in trouble, but we think we should be admired for our creativity.

4. Still couldn’t get in that class? Try showing up on the first day. Many times the most popular classes have students drop out last minute. Other times, professors will drop any student that does not come on the first day, so there’s still a chance that you can get into your class.

5. Try to get signed in. Professors can, at their discretion, allow extra students to enroll in their classes once they are full. This maneuver takes some work, but it can be very rewarding if the class is that important to you. You’ll need to get a form that your advisor as well as the professor will have to sign. Then you will have to get it signed a representative from the school that administers the class. Good luck finding all of these people on the first try. While campus is relatively small, there are many hiding places. It seems like advisors and professors are always hiding whenever you need to get signed into a class.

Ed Board hopes these tips will help make getting into classes easier for all our fellow mustangs. Dealing with this process is a necessary evil of the college experience, and can be very frustrating at times. If you get discouraged, cheer up, it could always be worse-at least we get to register by computer, who knows what registering was like before the Internet.