It’s that time of year again—class registration. Choosing classes for next semester can be a very stressful process. Students need to meet with advisers and meticulously plan out their schedules to somehow handle five classes, clubs, sports and everything in between. It isn’t an easy process. And unfortunately, this year Hurricane Sandy did not make registration week any easier.

Despite Sandy’s setbacks, a bigger problem facing students this semester was the elimination of the Matrix cart feature. In past semesters, students could place all their chosen classes in a nice, little “cart” on Matrix, so when it came time to register, all one needed to do was click a single button and pray for dear life that Matrix didn’t crash.

Last year, students were informed that the cart feature would be eliminated after the Spring 2012 semester. The university stayed true to its word and, for Spring 2013 class registration, students said goodbye to the Matrix cart.

I’ll admit I was a bit worried when I first heard about the suggested change. Matrix has had a history of crashing during class registration. The cart feature acted as a tool to assist students in obtaining multiple classes at once. Because of Matrix’s inevitable system crashes, the cart seemed like a pretty fair solution. However, when the cart feature was eliminated, it appeared that students would be spending even more time trying to register for class, since they would have to individually register for each course.

So, on the morning of Nov. 8 at 6:01 a.m., with five tabs open on my browser, I prepared myself for the semesterly scuffle with Matrix. The cart, my battle buddy, was gone. It was pretty unsettling.

When the clock finally struck 6:01 a.m. and I pressed the “register” button, Matrix crashed. To be honest, I was not surprised. What did surprise me, however, was hitting the refresh button and immediately seeing that my enrollment had been successful for one of my classes.

Shocked and curious, I searched for the rest of my classes, one by one, and successfully registered for all of them. I had fought the ultimate war with Matrix in less than five minutes, and I could not have been more relieved. This was the first time in all my years at UNH that I had finished registration in such a short time period.

My previous doubts about the cart-less Matrix have now been eased. Registering for each individual class seems to be beneficial in reducing traffic on Matrix during class selection, as there are no more “groups” of classes being registered at a single moment.

While all students may not have shared similar positive experiences, Matrix has made a definite improvement in terms of class registration. Of course, the system is still prone to crashing and students are bound to get upset when they don’t get their preferred classes right away, but, for now at least, I have been freed from the perils of “The Matrix.”