One of the most stressful parts of college is choosing your classes for each upcoming semester. At most schools, the upperclassmen are the first students to sign up for classes so as younger students, it can be extremely nerve racking as not everyone is guaranteed the teachers and classes they want. After personal experience with choosing classes, here are a few pieces of advice for incoming college students as well as current students on how to successfully make college class schedules.
1. Meet with your advisor before signing up for your classes to keep yourself organized and on track with the specific courses you need to take. Personally, I’ve become very close with my advisor during my first year at Tulane and before signing up for each semester’s classes I always make an appointment so we can meet and discuss my schedule to ensure I am meeting the required criteria for my major.
2. Reach out to older students who may be taking similar classes or have the same major as you and ask them about what classes and teachers they recommend. I feel that I have become much closer with some older students who are also studying business and I feel comfortable reaching out to them about what classes to enroll in and what to expect as I move forward.
3. Use the website Ratemyprofessor.com to look up different teachers for the classes you’re taking to look at students’ reviews about the teachers they have had in the past. For each teacher there are certain comments I look out for on this site regarding their personalities, their course workload, and past students’ grades they’ve received.
4. Compare your schedule with friends and other students you’ve taken classes with in the past which has helped contribute to a successful semester. One of my close friends is also studying in the business school so we try our best to coordinate our schedules so we can do homework and study together.
5. Keep in mind the times you’re signing up for and if possible, avoid the very early classes as well as any classes that run very late. This semester I had one 8 am class every Tuesday morning for my Business Statistics class and to be honest, it was definitely difficult getting up each morning but most freshmen have to take at least one 8 am their first year for specific courses.
6. Don’t freak out if one of your classes has no seats left; just email the teacher, explain your situation and everything should work out for you. Throughout the upcoming weeks after classes are released, there are seats added to each class and almost all students end up getting all of the classes they need whether it is with the teacher they want or not.
Each time you schedule classes you will find a rhythm and determine the type of classes that suit you best. What is most important, however, is to make sure you take the classes you need, create bonds with the teachers, and meet other students in your classes to get work done more efficiently, because at the end of the day we are all in this together!