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Note: Keep an eye out on this post - Updates will be posted as they become available :-)  ~AK

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10/19/2020 (AK) - Had forgotten to add APLING 643 to the campus electives list. Fixed that this morning :-)

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Hi everyone!

It's hard to believe, but September is almost gone! I don't know about you, but this year the fall feels simultaneously like it's moving at warp speed, not moving at all!

If you are a matriculated student, you will be receiving an email from the Registrar's office for Spring 2021 registration pretty soon. This kicks off our department's advising and course registration period :-)

In this blog you will find out a bit more about the Spring 2021 advising timeline, when certain things happen, and what you need to do.  As new information is available, this blog post will be updated, so keep it in mind when you have questions :-)  If your questions are not answered by this blog post, please post a comment on this InfoPost (scroll all the way down for the comment box)

PREPARATORY WORK:

Before meeting your with advisor, please log into WISER (http://wiser.umb.edu) and make sure you don't have any holds on your account!  This is really important! The only hold that we (applied linguistics) can remove is the "Advising Hold." If you have other holds on your account you need to get those resolved ASAP with the appropriate departments otherwise we will not be able to register you for courses. 

The second thing that you need to do in WISER is to download a copy of your unofficial transcript and send it to your academic advisor. The most current information is important as the basis for accurate advising :-)

Immunization Hold:

If you are an online student you can apply for the immunization exemption. You will need to fill out the form and submit it to University Health Services via the online health portal. This way the immunization hold can be removed and we can register you for courses. Both campus and online students should check their WISER accounts to see if they have a hold on their account. If you do, log in to the Health Portal (MyHealth Beacon --> https://myhealthbeacon.umb.edu/ ) ASAP to get the hold removed - otherwise we cannot register you :-)

Note for new spring 2021 students (On-campus & Online):

Even though new students will not be registered right away (since all of your information probably has not been processed yet) no need to worry. There will be spots available in introductory courses for you! We will be registering you for APLING 601, APLING 603 and/or APLING 605 (our two introductory courses) if you are on-campus. 

COURSES:

SPRING Online courses

Core courses [not open to campus students]

• APLING 601: Linguistics - MIKROS
• APLING 603: Language, Culture & Identity - BECKMAN-BRITTO
• APLING 605: Theories & Principles of Language Teaching -  BARTOLOME
• APLING 621: Psycholinguistics -O'BRYAN
• APLING 623: Sociolinguistics -  BARTOLOME

Concentration Courses [not open to campus students]

• APLING 612: Integrating Culture into the Curriculum - TBA
• APLING 618: Teaching ESL: Methods & Approaches - KISS

Elective Courses [open to campus students]

• APLING 627: Phonetics & Phonemics - MIKROS
• APLING 673: Teaching Reading in the ESL Classroom - URBANSKI
• APLING 685: Internet in the Language Classroom - TBA
• APLING 690: Field Experience - KISS

SPRING On-Campus Courses

Core Courses

• APLING 603: Language, Culture & Identity - CHUN (M @4)
• APLING 605: Theories & Principles of Language Teaching - SCLAFANI (Tu @7)
• APLING 623: Sociolinguistics - CHUN (W @7)
• APLING 698: Practicum (licensure) - SERCOMBE (TBD)

Concentration Courses

• APLING 612: Integrating Culture into the Curriculum - URBANSKI (M @7)
• APLING 618: Teaching ESL: Methods & Approaches - CARHILL-POZA (Th @4)

Elective Courses

APLING 643: Historical Foundations and Contemporary Issues in Critical Pedagogy - GOUNARI (Tu@4)

SPRING PhD Courses

• APLING 705: Advanced Ethnography - SCLAFANI (Th @4)
• APLING 892: Dissertation Proposal Seminar - TBA (TBA)

Please note that PhD program students have priority access to PhD course offerings.  PhD Courses may be available to MA program students on an as-available basis, and with prior permission from course instructor and your academic advisor.

TIMELINE:

October 10 – October 15: Your advisors will be contacting you via email. Please check both your UMass Boston student email and any emails you've given to us as part of your application process. Your advisor will contact you to setup an appointment to meet with you.  You can meet by phone, by email, by skype, by zoom, etc.  :-)  Be prepared to discuss your goals, and what courses you might be interested in signing up for. In consultation with your advisor you will pick 2 or 3 courses for next semester. Your advisors will tell us (AK & Evy) which courses you decided to sign up for and we will sign you up.

Please note that you advisor is not listed on WISER. We keep an internal departmental database to keep advisors and advisees :-)

Student Checklist Item:If you haven't heard from your advisor by October 13 (Friday), please email applied.linguistics@umb.edu and let us know :-)

Student Checklist Item: Take care of any holds in WISER.

Student Checklist Item: Download your unofficial transcript, and share it with your advisor.

November 15 – December 10: During this period of time we will be going through and registering all students for courses. This is true for both online and on-campus students. If you log into WISER and you are not registered for a course yet, don't panic!  By December 20th you will be :-) We will be monitoring this forum to make sure everything's going well and answering questions as they come up. If, for some reason, you aren't registered December 10 – December 20 will be a catch-up and correction week for registrations.

Student Checklist Item: On December 8 (Friday), please check your WISER account to make sure that you are registered for courses, and that you are registered for the courses you and you advisor agreed upon. If you are not registered for courses, please post a question here. 

December 15 - 25: Book Lists will be posted, for Spring Semester courses, in the Classroom group. Please be patient until then and refrain from emailing us about book lists :-)

January 15 - January 30: Non-Degree Registration period (for spring semester). If you are a non-degree student, once all currently enrolled students are registered, we will begin processing non-degree registrations.  It's important to note that prior to January 15th we will not know how many available spots there are in courses :-)

Student Checklist Item: If you are a non-degree student who wishes to register for a Spring 2020 course, please check in on January 15th to see what courses are available. Once you submit registration paperwork, you should be registered within a few days (depending on how busy the registrar's office is :-)  )

FAQ

1. Who is my advisor?
   Your advisor's name is mentioned in the welcome letter you received when you matriculated to the program.  If you don't remember your advisor that's OK :-)  Please email applied.linguistics@umb.edu to inquire about your advisor's contact information if you have not heard from your advisor by October 21.
2. WISER does not show my advisor, what's up with that?
   The WISER system is setup for undergraduate advisors.  Unfortunately we do not have access to change this, so graduate students will show a blank advisor.  Rest assured that you have an advisor , they just don't show up in WISER :-)
3. Can I change advisors?
   Of course! If you would like to change advisor, please read this blog post for information, and then email applied.linguistics@umb.edu.
4. Can I register without meeting my advisor?
   No. You will not be able to register without meeting your advisor.
5. I have a hold, can you register me?
   We can only override the "Advising" hold if you've met with your advisor.  We cannot override other holds, so we cannot register you if you have holds.

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