Spring Semester may seem like a distant dream, (or nightmare), but many students have already devoted time to thinking about which classes they want to take.

The Office of the Registrar has released the class schedule using information from each department on campus. While actual registration doesn’t start until November, many students have started mapping out their course wish list in order to avoid getting shut out of desired and required classes for their major or generals.

Michael Santarosa, associate registrar, said his office begins assigning registration dates to students based on class level and number of overall credits earned. A computer system using a priority formula then generates specific times within this priority ranking “to ensure random selection and fairness,” he said.

Austin Holmes, a senior in environmental and sustainability studies and international studies, said he’s previously been unable to add classes he’s needed. Holmes said due to these “very frustrating” past experiences he plans his classes before he can actually enroll in them.

Holmes said he doesn’t think the lack of spaces in classes has anything to do with how the Office of the Registrar’s assigns registration dates, but rather how rapidly the U’s student population is growing in comparison to the number of general education courses available.

Holmes said he thinks signing up as early as possible is the best way for students to avoid getting shut out of a required course. Santarosa stressed this as well, particularly for seniors wanting to graduate soon.

Of course, it’s not always possible for students to get into their first choice class. Santarosa said if a senior is facing this problem for a course they need to graduate, the easiest option is contacting the professor to request an add code for the course, though the success of this relies on the teacher’s willingness to go over capacity.

The next course of action is to contact their academic advisor to see if other classes could work as alternates. Or, if a student is feeling particularly desperate to graduate, they could see if declaring in a different but closely related major, or changing to a different catalog year, will satisfy requirements.

A student’s catalog year is the group of requirements for their major specific to the year they declared their major. While each department doesn’t always change their guidelines each year, they often do change. Santarosa said students not choosing the correct list when they talk to their advisor or when they generate their DARS report is one of the biggest problems in marking their progress.

Santarosa said with all of the options available, “students are likely to have a more favorable outcome if they are planning and communicating their needs well in advance rather than waiting until the last minute.”

To make applying easier in the future, the Office of the Registrar is releasing a tool called “Schedule Builder” in the next few weeks, Santarosa said. It will allow students to filter out courses based on what time they start, enter a desired class list and then generate sample schedules to choose from. After they select the one they want, they can send it to their shopping carts in Canvas and finish registering.

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