We all know that parking on this campus is nearly impossible, especially when parking lots are suddenly replaced with fountains. When I lived off campus my sophomore year, it was a struggle for me to get to class on time because I never took into account how long it would take to find a parking spot and then walk to class. I learned pretty quickly the best tricks in order to avoid parking problems.
In general, you need to make sure that you have all the 
required campus parking permits and know the locations of all of the available parking lots. There are many 30-minute, faculty, and reserved spots that have specialty rules that you need to be aware of. Be sure to read the signs carefully before leaving your car parked in the space all day, or you may be ticketed.
If you live off campus like I did, the best advice I have is to leave your house early. The earlier you get to campus, the more likely you are to get a spot. Since all classes start at the same time on certain days, arriving to campus just 15 minutes earlier gives you a leg up because the rush of the masses to find a space before class hasn’t happened yet.
The best way to avoid the parking mayhem is to simply not drive at all. 
Make use public transportation whenever possible. Our campus makes this easy by providing us with a trolley system that makes stops all over campus every 20 minutes or so. Personally, I didn’t like the trolley system because I didn’t like abiding by the times that it came to my stop. One way that I got around driving however, was to carpool with my friends who lived near me and had class at the same time that I did. We would alternate who drove every other day to make it fair.
It is also important to realize when the parking lots are most likely to be full, such as around lunch or dinner time or peak class times. This is useful information for you to know so that you can plan to do your other non-class related activities during this time, such as going to the gym or visiting friends. Most importantly, be patient. Parking spots will open up eventually. You may just have to drive around campus three or four times before finding one.
hanse010 
This is an awesome article. Having personally received multiple parking tickets this year, it becomes very frustrating driving around looking for a spot two minutes before class starts. I have learned, just as you stated, the earlier you leave for a class the more spots there are likely to be. I have learned that sometimes the trolley is the best option at certain points of the day.
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