As the spring semester continues, some LSU students are still feeling left behind when it comes to scheduling their courses. 

According to LSU’s Office of Budgeting and Planning, there were around 35,000 students enrolled in the fall of 2022. Eight thousand of those students were freshmen.

With a campus as large as LSU, class accessibility is a common problem students face. Some students have expressed their concerns with LSU’s scheduling process, most worrying about the required classes they cannot currently take. 

To better accommodate the busyness of scheduling, LSU works on a priority-based system, where priority is given to a student based on their classification. Once a student’s scheduling priority opens, they can request and register for the upcoming term. 

“Students are encouraged to schedule courses for the next semester as soon as their scheduling priority opens. If a student is attempting to enroll in a desired course that is full at the time, [the Center for Advising and Counseling] counselors will recommend that students join the course waitlist,” UCAC Director Bridget Robincheaux said. 

“However, students are reminded that waitlisting a course does not guarantee enrollment,” Robincheaux added. “Students are also guided toward other available degree applicable course options for their individual degree programs.”

After being waitlisted for a required course, psychology sophomore Isabella Brune said she felt the scheduling process was “unfair.” 

“I feel like the most frustrating part is that I don’t get priority scheduling because I’m a sophomore,” Brune said. “All of the seniors and juniors that want to take the course I need get to take it as an elective, and it seems unfair to me because I’m getting the repercussions of it.”

Brune said LSU’s “chaotic” scheduling doesn’t work out since most students find their systems crashing during registration. 

“Scheduling is just such a chaotic time since everyone is racing to get a class that they want or need,” Brune said. “I don’t know, but I feel like if there was a solution to make it less chaotic, I feel like it would be worth a try.”

Sports administration graduate student Nathan Messenger believes LSU’s priority scheduling should remain as it is. 

“I think the way they do it right now, they try to do it by seniority,” Messenger said. “So obviously the seniors are going to have first pick, but I don’t think too many things would fix the problem right now.”

Despite his views on priority scheduling, Messenger has also experienced his own issues with the backed-up system. He said he’s found himself waiting hours after his scheduled priority time before he could start registering for classes. 

“I’ve had to sit there for over an hour refreshing the page until I get some classes that are on my suggested list, but classes are full by the time I do get in,” Messenger said. 

Messenger suggests LSU add more professors and classrooms for future semesters. 

“I think they definitely need to learn how to utilize the room in [Cox Auditorium] because it has a lot of seats,” Messenger said. “I think I’ve only had one class there, so I think they need to utilize that more, especially when they have a lot of enrollees.”

Other students have had a difficult time processing some of their final required classes before graduating. 

Screen arts production senior Caroline Paden said the scheduling system is “horrible and annoying.” 

Paden said she has very limited course options available within her degree plan and she had to take course substitutions in order to graduate on time.

“I was supposed to be waitlisted, but I didn’t feel like dealing with it, so I had to do a course sub,” Paden said. “There were some classes that I wish I could’ve taken, but I couldn’t.” 

Paden described the priority scheduling as a “luck of the draw” and said the system is unorganized, hard to read and understand. 

“I was a transfer student, so the system was even more confusing for me,” Paden said. “My first-time scheduling I was not prepared at all, but I’ve learned you have to have an A through D plan or else you’ll spend the semester in classes you don’t need which won’t be enjoyable down the road.” 

Biological sciences senior Madison James said her original plan completely changed after her classes filled up in seconds. James said she was waitlisted for a biology course that was required for graduation before luckily getting a spot one day before the class started. 

“In my opinion, it’s the class sizes,” James said. “I understand that certain classrooms are allocated to certain courses which determines the class size, however it’s extremely frustrating when you have to take a class for your degree audit, yet it only has 30 or less spots.”

James believes LSU is accepting more students than they can provide for. She noted how the university “brags” about the size of the entering class but said results have shown “negative consequences” with students already enrolled. 

Though seniors have priority, it “isn’t enough,” James said. 

“There truly needs to be a better system in place for scheduling because we are still fighting for our lives trying to get into classes we need to graduate,” James said. “Whether there should be an alteration to the current system, a reduction in the entering class sizes or an increase in classrooms, something needs to be done.”

Correction: Isabella Brune’s last name was misspelled in the original version of this article.