Making the Perfect Schedule

In honor of the younger kids making their schedules for next year this week, this post will cover tips on how to relax your nerves before decision time and how to get your perfect schedule.  This can be a very stressful process for many students.  I personally had never had scheduling troubles until just this past semester when I was making my final class schedule.  My advisor never cleared me to register, which caused me to not get the only class I needed to graduate with my minor.  After a week of talking to four different administrators, I finally had a schedule that worked. 

The first step of creating your perfect schedule is to know the exact time you register and all of your possible class options.  It is a good idea to look over the course catalog before making your final decisions, there may be classes that you don’t even know exist and that peak your interest.  This may also supply you with more class options than you need.  Prior to your register time, it is a good safety net to create a second schedule with classes that you wouldn’t mind taking in the event that all or some of the classes you desire are already taken by the time you register.  However, just because you write down multiple options, make sure you don’t register for all of them.  Over-scheduling your semester can cost you more in tuition and can add an unnecessary amount of work and pressure.  Also, be sure that when you actually register for classes that none of them overlap.

After creating a draft of your schedule(s), you should make an appointment to meet with your advisor.  They can make sure you are on the right track and approve that you are actually eligible for the classes you desire to take.  Your advisor can also give you the full list of required classes and tell you the guidelines of your major.  It is a good idea to get your required classes over with early.  The earlier the better! Then you are free to take more classes that interest you as you get closer to graduating.  With this being said, maintain a balance.  Take a mix of easy and hard classes.  Don’t just jump into hard classes as a freshman, you are still adjusting.  It is also a good idea to not schedule early-morning classes if you don’t function well in the early hours of the day.  You will go to more classes if you make a schedule that works well with your day to day schedule.