Two weeks before the semester starts, there is always a battle that cannot be avoided. Early in the morning, students sit in front of their computers, looking in watches with great tension. As nine o’clock nears, they frantically start typing numbers and clicking their mouses with great speed. This is the typical battle scene during class shopping and dropping these days. With the click of a mouse, students can register for whatever class they want to attend in just a few minutes— if it is available. But before the advent of the Internet, how did students sign up for classes?

             According to Kim Su-jeen, a staff member at the Office of Academic Affairs, online class registration was adopted in 1996. Before then, students had to fill out class registration forms which were signed and sealed by their advisors and department deans and the school president, and finally submitted to the Office of Academic Affairs. Until 2004, Kim added class registration was also done before vacation from the previous semester began. For example, for the spring semester, students registered in November and not in February as we do these days.         

Unlike the students these days who sit in front of a computer with sweating palms, students in the past had to wait in a long line in order to register for courses. Yoon Hye-woo (’87, Chinese Literature) says, “When the day of registration came, my friends and I had to wake up before five o’clock in the morning and go immediately to school to stand in a line to register for liberal arts courses. We could not ask other friends to register for us because only one person at a time could apply.”

While students these days become frustrated when the message “the classr is full” pops up, students in the past had to hear it right in front of their faces. “In the case of my friend, I remember her being so frustrated because the registration for a course she was standing in line for closed just before her turn,” said Yoon.  

Going back further in time, Lee Kwang-ok (’61, Nursing Science) said of her experience with class registration during school years, “Our department office gave out a fixed schedule for us, so we just had to sign it and give it back to the office. Those who wanted to take subjects in other departments had to choose subjects that did not overlap with their major classes,” said Lee. But, she added, “Although the method of class registration has changed due to the advent of the Internet, the struggle of students to register for their favorite or popular subjects seems to be the same as before.”  

By Cha Ji-hae

저작권자 © Ewha Voice 무단전재 및 재배포 금지