Scheduling classes shouldn’t be a stressful process. 

But for many LSU students, scheduling courses for the next semester can be very stressful. Between trying to figure out which classes they should be taking and waiting until the scheduling portal opens, students are on their own when it comes to scheduling.

There should be more resources to help students navigate through the scheduling process, from knowing where to find your degree audit and CATS status to how it all even works.  

“The first time I had to schedule for this semester, I had to do it on the spot,” Abby Sant, a political science freshman, said. “A lot of the gen ed classes… the convenient times are full before you’re given a chance to schedule, so you have to take super early morning or late night classes. The more specific ones for majors are completely full.”

She said navigating the process for the first time was hard for her as she had no one to guide her.

“As freshmen, they don’t tell you how to access your degree audit or anything,” Sant said.

But scheduling classes isn’t any easier for upperclassmen either, as getting a spot in major-specific courses can sometimes be crucial to graduate on time. 

“They give you a scheduling date, and when you get to that date, all the classes you needed were filled,” Madeliene Moss, a senior double majoring in political science and English, said. “So you sit there and wait for the portal to open up, and it shuts down because it’s too busy. And once you can get in, all the classes are night classes. The suggestion I was given was to go in with a plan and backups, but in the end, you’re busy trying to fill the classes and you’re stuck with gen eds. So what do I do? Take a random class?”

Moss had to be on the waitlist for her capstone class for a month and had to email professors and advisors to try to get a spot in the class. In the end, she got a spot in the class three weeks into the semester.

“A lot of the time, the advising team and the professor don’t communicate. I’m not expecting special treatment, but expecting to email somebody and receive their help, not sink or swim, especially as a senior. It’s very stressful,” Moss said.

The problem is not only the scheduling times, but the class availability. 

For example, journalism majors, such as myself, are required to take MC 2101. There is only one section for this course for Fall 2023, with a total of 19 spots that are already full. In a university with over 30,000 students, there should be more than 19 available spots for a class. There should be enough space in courses so that students can make timely progress in their majors.

Getting on the waitlist never hurts, but there’s not much hope when you’re number 14. Sometimes students have to email professors to be given a spot in the class. All the while, they must have backup classes scheduled just in case. 

LSU must offer and promote more scheduling resources for students to help make this chaotic experience we call college a little less stressful. 

Isabella Albertini is a 23-year-old mass communication major from Lima, Peru.