I might as well write about this will I'm still fuming. I couldn't register for classes tonight.
This school is run by a bunch of mentally retarded fucking monkeys with bad ideas. I can't fucking register because some dipshit with warm diahorrea between his ears thought it would be "progressive for the instituion" and a practice in "organizationalized uniquness with goal of streamlining the academic processization" to make students have TWO fucking pin numbers to get into the registration area.
One pin number gets you into the system, a personal number of your chosing. Then, the other one (WHICH NO ONE FUCKING TELLS YOU ABOUT) is the "alternate" pin number, or, "registration" pin number. I mean for Christ's bloody sake WHY?!?!?
Given how "relatively" obvious the importance of this number is, you would think that WHEN YOU MEET WITH YOUR ADVISOR ON THE FRIDAY BEFORE REGISTRATION that she might maybe perhaps say "oh! did you get the alternate pin number that you are supposed to get from me when you meet with me about classes? I mean, you CAN'T register without it, so you PROBABLY FUCKING NEED IT YOU LITTLE MONEY-SPEWING PAWN! NOW GET UNDER MY DESK AND STUFF ME WITH TUITION!"
Honestly. In the two class-wide emails I received from her, maybe she could've mentioned a number as important as this. It's not even like you get one number for the year and go from there. You get a new one EVERY SEMESTER. This is a COMMON thing. Such fucking dick, I tell you.
Yeah, maybe if I read the instructions for online registration I would've seen the two places this is mentioned. I shouldn't be complaining. No, fuck you. You don't sell someone a digital security system and hide the initial passwords on your poorly organized, unprofessional, unintutive website. You don't sell someone a car and then leave it to them to figure out that you open the doors with psychic energy instead of with a normal god damn key.
This is why I miss RIT. This place should take a fucking seminar from them. Allow me to compare the respective registration processes.
| RIT | Lehigh |
| Beautifully intuitive web interface | Confusing, ugly, disorganized webpage |
| an actual bound book containing the courses organized by college and then by subject | a newspaper with courses organized alphabetically by subject |
| 4 different methods of registering (web, telnet, telephone, paper) | 2 ways. paper, web |
| consolidated registration information (course availability, course selection, course description, GPA stats, GPA model, all within clicks of eachother | separate pages for registration, course availability, course description (often spread over completely different departments) |
| ONE pin number to get into the system | TWO fucking pin numbers, one of which you are supposed find out about yourself. |
And fugimax, i really don't care to hear your predictable disagreement. i'm sure cmu does it even better than rit, or i'm sure 'this is normal procedure for acredited universities' or some shit. just don't bother.
Lehigh, expect to find a dump in one of your more important filing cabinets tomorrow.
Posted by Alchemae at November 17, 2003 11:41 PMI wasn't going to comment...but you just asked for it.
I registered today. It went smashingly. Our system is integrated amazingly. In fact, we use kerberos authentication across all of our system which means that I have to log in once (say the first time I check my mail in the day). The authentication server issues me a "ticket" saying to my computer that says "You can use any authenticated service for X hours or until you log out." While I have that ticket...I can check mail, publish my website, ssh, register for classes..WHATEVER I want to. It's a marevlous system. And unlike RIT...I don't have to stay up all night (although that was fun...minus the one time the entire RIT ghetto ended up in my room calling their other G's over) waiting to register.
Anyways...I'm done being an ass for now. Let this be a lesson not to provoke as I will only amplify everything you hate about me. ;)
(Seriously though...that sux. I would be calling the President of the university at 3am asking for my PIN. In fact, I suggest you do that.)
Posted by: fugimax at November 18, 2003 01:34 AMYour hate is so poetic it's beautiful. However, allow me to put it in perspective with my unrightfully trumped Cornell-ness. For a proudly Ivy League school that makes you bleed 40K out of your ass every year, we have probably the most ass-backwards dinosaur of a course enroll system ever.
1) Bear Access, with kerberos authentication, which isn't a bad interface itself, but the fact that it takes about 20 minutes just to log on course enroll day really undermines any ease of use whatsoever. Average time to enroll in each subsequent course ranges from 10 to 15 minutes, complete with a plethora of errors and server failures because the entire operation is probably run from a 486 connected to a dial-up line.
2) Bound book listing all courses with descriptions, with separate book listing course times and instructors. Courses also listed online. All of this is sweet, but the fact that they don't tell you in advance when courses are offered is a real assbite. I'm going to laugh really hard when I'm enrolling for classes my last semester here and a class I need to take isn't offered. Then I'm going to cry upon realizing I can't graduate.
3) One method of registering. Web. Powered by 2400 baud modem speeds. While you compete with about six thousand or so other fucks who want an education just as much as you.
4) Registration information, as mentioned above, is split between two books.
5) One PIN number, but depending on your advisor and how little he gives a shit about you, this could be difficult to procure because they enjoy ignoring your emails and appointment requests.
Posted by: deKaliber at November 18, 2003 04:57 AM