Class scheduling brings headaches

Admir Barucija, Staff writer

Signing up for classes in college is much different than it is in high school.

While the latter virtually guarantees getting into any class one requests, obtaining a spot in the classes one wants in college can easily be both frustrating and difficult.

It is especially challenging for freshmen.

As a freshman honors student, priority scheduling was a huge factor for getting the exact schedule that I wanted.

Using Student Planning made registering incredibly easy and the process was over in a matter of seconds, but that was almost not the case.

It felt truly dreadful to keep refreshing the Student Planning page and not being able to do anything as the spots in my classes kept filling up.

If my registration time was moved by a couple hours, for example, an overhaul of my schedule may very well have been required.

There is simply no better feeling than when one gets into classes that are needed or wanted.

However, for this to happen a certain degree of fortune is required, as not all people are lucky enough to fully register the plan they had from the beginning.

For many, the scheduling process does not go smoothly.

Some people have reported cases of courses refusing to go through on Student Planning, which is a huge inconvenience.

Certain courses are so popular that they inevitably end up with an extensive waitlist, which in many cases cannot accommodate everyone.

For freshmen, who register a week later than the remainder of the student body, they may find many of the courses they had planned filled or waitlisted, which may force them to make multiple adjustments.

It is not always easy to find a backup course in case things do not go as planned.

For example, there could be prerequisites that deter someone from taking a certain course.

Small class sizes are wonderful and is one of the things that is great about Mercyhurst, but the very limited amount of spots per class can make registration quite stressful.

Adding extra sections for certain classes would certainly make many students pleased, but is understandably not possible in many situations.

There is also a tendency for quite a few people who register early to take up classes happening at popular times, which leaves things like dreaded 8 a.m. classes to those who register later.

While that is somewhat unfair, 8 a.m.’s and classes that happen at unfavorable times are often slow to fill up, which can be quite helpful to those that are looking for courses to fill their schedule.

Overall, the scheduling process is far from perfect, but it is certainly not all bad.

There is a large number of classes available to choose from, which is enough to satisfy most people.

Being waitlisted can be frustrating, but it can often be worked out by speaking to the professor who teaches the course.

After scheduling for the first time only a few days ago as a college student, I can already tell that it will be tough from here on out.

This time around, things went my way, but expecting that to happen every time would be nonsensical.