I’m one step closer to being an official student of the University of Ghana (UG)! This week, we registered for classes — and my goodness, what a journey it was….
Once I had been accepted to the University of Ghana awhile back, I began looking at the courses I could take while abroad. Because I am double majoring in Geography and International Development Studies (IDS), I worried that I would not be able to graduate on time if I had studied abroad for a semester. For anyone with similar concerns, don’t worry! With careful planning and communication with your academic advisors, you’ll be able to fulfill your major requirements while abroad! Here’s a bit about what I went through:
First, using an academic planning form and looking through UG’s course handbooks, I recorded any courses that interested me. Then, I went to talk to the academic advisors for both of my majors to see if any of the courses at UG would count for my major requirements at UCLA. Fortunately, any Geography classes I took at UG would count. For IDS, my advisor explained which courses would fulfill the specific major requirement categories. Because this preliminary step is just to get a sense of what classes you’d be able to take abroad, do not stress too much (as I did). These classes may or may not be offered, so do not spend too much time trying to make a perfect plan.
Since actual class registration was this week, I revisited my list of courses and added any that I would be interested in. I already had a good idea of what I wanted to take, so the next step was to find the departmental timetables by visiting each department I planned to take courses in. Unlike UCLA, UG does not have any software like myUCLA with online features for course planning or viewing class schedules. Everything had to be done manually. Thus, my fellow study abroad friends and I took photos of department timetables and organized our schedules and classes by hand.
We then had to sign up for classes using the UG website in the computer lab at the International Programs Office. However, the lengthy process was prolonged by the slow internet access and manual registration requirements. After registering online, I filled out a form for each department I’d be taking classes in and gave them my proof of registration and passport photo as well. I ended up successfully registering in Traditional African Drumming, Regional Development, Transportation Studies, Agricultural Land Use, and Gender and Politics.
Although registering for classes in this roundabout way was a bit of a hassle, it was a good experience of real University of Ghana students go through. I’m glad the registration process is finally over, but I am even more excited for the classes I’ll be taking!