Friday, October 05, 2007

portfolio 2: surviving the university of pila

**I'll be posting my three best essays in English 1 for the next few days. Since I'm supposed to encode them, why not also post them? Hehehehe. Seriously now, I'll be submitting these essays as a final project so please feel free to point out any mistakes in spelling, grammar, and common sense. Violent reactions and brutal comments will be most appreciated.

Surviving the University of Pila

The enrollment process in UP is really simple. You simply get a Form 5A from your college, verify your subjects, add some more or drop a few if you want, then transfer the information to a Form 5. Have the form checked and assessed, and then all you have left to do is to pay your tuition fee. That simple, at least in theory.

Reality, however, is different from theory. Enrollment in UP, oftentimes referred to as registration, is oftentimes an exercise in frustration. Yes freshies, it's not as easy as you think. You've gone through it once, but we upperclassmen have gone through it lots of times. You still have top priority over us, so this coming semester, enjoy it while you can. Once you enter your sophomore year, you'll find out what I'm talking about. Better for you if you find out now though, so read on.

We UP students are very lucky; we get to choose which classes to attend every semester. We're not forced to follow some rigid schedule, and we can even avoid the so-called terror professors! However, this comes at a high price, and payment is due during the enrollment period. Yes, this is the main problem you will encounter once you become sophomores. The mad scramble for subjects and classes is what makes enrollment in UP so frustrating.

Let's go through all the steps once again. The aforementioned Form 5A is the product of what we call PRE-ENLISTMENT. The Computerized Registration System (CRS) is responsible for getting you the subjects you want. As freshies, you can just collect and select any subject you want, thanks to your "priority" status. Once that's gone, you'll join every other student in what amounts to a lottery; when you pre-enlist in a subject, there is a large chance that you won't get it, especially if it's a GE subject. The CRS will randomly select from the students who pre-enlisted in that subject. So while you get to see filled-up Form 5As, the rest of us end up with nearly blank pieces of paper come ENLISTMENT time.

So we've got our Form 5As. You haven't gone through ENLISTMENT yet, so let me tell you now: be prepared. While PRE-ENLISTMENT is done in front of a computer, ENLISTMENT is the hard leg work. Bring food and water with you. Charge your cellphone and stock up on prepaid credits. Grab a thick paperback book as you leave home. This is where you'll find out why UP is often referred to as the "University of Pila". Woe to the poor schmuck who didn't get his classes through CRS; he now has to line up at various enlistment rooms to get the class he wants - or even worse, needs. Pray that you don't end up like that. But, in case you do, the food and water and book will help greatly. You won't have to leave your line and you won't die of boredom. The cellphone will help you keep connected with your friends who might send you important information, like when new classes have opened up. I can't stress this enough: come enlistment time, the person who is the most well-informed has the best chance of surviving the entire enrollment process with his sanity intact.

Aside from keeping informed, you have to be mobile. This is not the time to bring laptops with you. Limit yourself to a pen and essential documents, plus the other items mentioned above, as you will find yourself running to and from different and often widely separated buildings. You have to memorize the layout of the campus - where the important buildings are, the routes of the jeepneys, even the best shortcuts to take. Remember, you are also competing with thousands of other students, so the faster you get to that newly-opened GE class, the better your chances of getting it.

Once you get all your desired classes, you have to transfer all the information from your Form 5A to a Form 5. Be careful with this! Check that all the information on your Form 5A is correct before you write on your Form 5, as this will save you the trouble of having to rewrite and start from scratch when the people at CHECKING find a mistake.

When you've had Form 5 checked by the registration assistants, your next step will be ASSESSMENT. This is the easy part. You go to a room where accounts look over your Form 5 and tell you how much your tuition fee is going to be. You are then all set for PAYMENT. One last line, and you're all done.

As you can see, the major problem with registration is in the ENLISTMENT part. This will take up most of your time and will be the main source of your frustration. Trust me. I know. To get through the enrollment process, or more precisely the ENLISTMENT process, you have to be prepared, be informed, and be mobile. Those are the keys to surviving enrollment at UP.

Don't worry. You'll only be doing this at least four times during your UP life, unless you opt for summer classes. Once you reach "graduating" status, you'll be a "priority" once again.

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