Whether it’s selecting class times or professors, scheduling your semester is difficult. Trying to coordinate classes with friends while also meeting graduation requirements is almost as confusing as explaining Bitcoin to your parents – and there’s no shot your advisor will have any open appointment slots to help. For most of us, we rely on older friends or the internet to help us build our schedules, but sometimes even those two options can’t fix our issues. That’s why I’ve come up with three tips that will always make your schedule amazing whether you’re taking ten credit hours or twenty-two (psycho).
Tip #1: If you have to take an early class, make it an easy one
Sometimes, the 8:00 am class is inevitable. Regardless of how you manipulate your class schedule, early lectures never seem to simply disappear like you hope they would. However, what you can control is the class that you have at 8:00 am. If you go to a big university like I do, you’ll likely have lecture halls with three-hundred-plus people that are incredibly easy to fall asleep in. Sometimes, I even contemplate bringing a small blanket to lecture so I can just continue my slumber like I didn’t even leave my bed.
But, when you sleep through a class consistently, you can miss a lot of “necessary” information. I put necessary in quotes because sometimes certain things your professor will talk on and on about aren’t really all that essential to being successful in the course. So, do some research before you pick your 8:00 am class(es) and make sure it’s as easy as possible. Or one that you can cheat in without the risk of being caught.
Tip #2: Don’t rely on RateMyProfessors.com
This website is a staple when it comes to selecting your classes each semester. But, I never could really understand why. I mean, if I have a really great professor, I’ll take the time to send them an email expressing my gratitude, but I’m not going any further than that. The only emotion that could drive me to hop on Yelp! for professors is pure hatred – which happens to be all you see on this website.
For one reason or another, some pissed-off college kid in prior years had a bone to pick with a certain professor and decided to absolutely destroy them behind a computer screen. Sure, at times RateMyProfessors.com will provide some valuable insight into how a professor runs a course, but a vast majority of the reviews are Comedy Central-style roasts involving the professor’s weight or lack of hair.
In my experience, the easiest way to determine the best professor possible for a class is to look up past grade distributions for the course. You might have to do some digging, but usually, you’ll be able to find an archive of class grade distributions for any class you’re trying to enroll in. From there, literally just pick the professor with the highest average grades. The professor you choose might be the most intolerable person on planet Earth, but at least you’ll (maybe) get an A!
Tip #3: Look at the buildings your classes will be in
When making a class schedule, many people will overlook the building their classes are in. But, this small detail can completely make or break your entire semester. If you go to a college with, like, three buildings then it probably doesn’t matter all that much. However, if some buildings are miles apart on your campus, you might force yourself into quite a lot of walking if you’re not careful. Ideally, you can schedule your classes each day to be in the same building, but what is ever ideal about making your class schedule?
Whatever you do, just make sure that you don’t leave yourself a ten-minute window to travel two miles. Spoiler alert – you can’t walk two miles in ten minutes. While you could use one of those electric scooter things, not only will that get expensive quickly but it also makes you look pretty dumb, in my humble opinion.
If you follow these three tips religiously, you’ll have an outstanding schedule every semester for your entire college career. If not, you’ll probably fail out of college. But hey, it’s not my money.
