F&M Stories
Spring Course Registration and Advising
Registering for classes at college can be exciting and overwhelming. F&M offers so many courses that students often feel like they’re looking at a menu of delicious dishes. Sometimes it’s hard to decide which of the many intriguing classes to choose.
Our hope is that F&M students bring curiosity and excitement to their studies, and the pre-registration and registration period is invigorating for them. As faculty advisers and professional staff, our business is to cultivate our students’ openness and intellectual interest while supporting them practically and ensuring they are proceeding towards graduation.
So, how does the process of registering for classes at F&M work?
Step One: Pre-Registration Period
Monday, March 23 – Friday, April 3
Course offerings are posted and students meet with their academic advisers.
During this two-week period, students are required to meet with their academic advisers to discuss their course selections for the next semester and to receive their PINs (Personal Identification Numbers) in order to register for classes.
Academic advisers will go over the student’s remaining requirements, including general distribution and major requirements. Advising sessions also will include some form of future planning, whether it be about a student’s potential major/minor or a student’s potential career path. However, depending on a student’s class year, advisers will emphasize different issues in their advising sessions.
Pre-Major Advisers (advisers of first-years and sophomores) will discuss advising expectations and academic plans for the future. They will explain the requirements for graduating from F&M and plot a potential path. In the sophomore year, they’ll focus on major declaration and potential off-campus study options. They’ll suggest connections to the larger advising community including career advisers at the Career Center and others. Where appropriate, they’ll suggest support and help from peer academic coaches or tutors. During the spring of the sophomore year, many sophomores will switch from their pre-major adviser to their major adviser.
Major Advisers (advisers of juniors and seniors) will dig more deeply into discussions about career, summer internships, and the possibility of graduate school. Many times a senior final project will be discussed and planned. Graduation requirements will be reviewed at each session.
No matter their class year, students will be asked to build a class schedule of four possible classes (with four back-ups) in preparation for the registration day. At the end of the advising session, advisers will give students their PIN.
Step Two: Registration Period
Monday, April 6, 11:00 pm – Thursday, April 9
During this week, each class registers for their classes at a specific time.
This year, the schedule is as follows:
- Class of 2027: Monday, April 6, 11:00 pm
- Class of 2028: Tuesday, April 7, 11:00 pm
- Class of 2029: Wednesday, April 8, 11:00 pm
*The 11:00 pm start time is so all students have had time to complete all extracurricular activities and prepare for the opening of registration.
Add/Drop for Fall 2026 Opens
Monday, April 13, 11:00 pm
Once all students have a course schedule, students are permitted to make schedule changes. The add/drop period lasts throughout the summer, and ends only after the first week of Fall ’26 classes begin.
Tips for Parents
- Support your student with open-ended discussions about what they’re interested in studying.
- Remind them that a liberal arts education prepares them for a variety of careers, no matter their major.
- A hallmark of the F&M experience is small class sizes, which sometimes means that students will not get all their first choices. Students should put themselves on the waitlist for courses and seek to find other interesting classes while they wait for waitlist notifications.
- Help them to advocate for themselves. Students should email professors of classes for which they get waitlisted, and express their interest.
- Reduce the stress of the registration process by reassuring them that no student has ever been held back from graduating because they didn’t get a specific class.
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