Student Planning software eases scheduling headaches

Lauren Abbott, Staff writer

This semester, seven majors got to be a part of a pilot program to test out the new student registration system before it is rolled out for the entire university in the fall. This system, Student Planning, will completely replace WebAdvisor next semester as the go-to tool for students when it comes to classes and registration.

As an Intelligence major, I got to use the new system to plan for the fall semester and register for my classes. Using Student Planning made the entire process so much faster and easier.

By far the best feature in this program is the ability to plan your semester right in the program.

Being able to see what times my classes are and if there is any overlap between courses right on the screen is so much easier than having to make your own document in Microsoft Excel or Word that you would have to do with WebAdvisor.

Having this made the scheduling process so much less stressful and really helped me get a good sense of what my days are going to be like next semester.

When searching for classes, the program will also tell you what semesters those courses are generally offered and if there are any prerequisites needed for a class.

Being able to have this information available takes away a lot of the stress of worrying about when is the next time a class is going to be offered and really helps you make the most of planning out your semesters.

The program also allows you to plan out your four years, so if you know there is a class that you want to take in your junior year, you can put that on your plan as early as freshman year.

Another thing that is really helpful about Student Planning is that it allows you to see and track your progress in the REACH curriculum and your major. This makes it extremely easy to see where you are at in terms of requirements and really is a great help when trying to decide what classes to register for.

Lastly, what is absolutely wonderful about this program is that it takes away the need for filling out those pesky little half sheets of paper and handwriting down the course name, number and time.
With the new system, everything is done within the program and once you have picked which classes you would like to take you can submit it to your adviser for review with just one click

It takes away all of the writing and forms that WebAdvisor requires and really streamlines the process. Not only does Student Planning make it easier for us students to figure out our classes, also makes things easier for our advisers to review our class schedule and help us make the best decisions for our upcoming semesters.

After using WebAdvisor for fall scheduling, I can say that Student Planning makes picking classes easy and actually kind of fun. It takes a lot of the stress out of trying to map out the semester and really makes it as simple as it can be to stay on track.