As registration rolls around, students are faced with the stressful situation of deciding which classes to take. While enrolling for classes is annoying at universities everywhere, the registration process at the University of Miami continuously proves to be unnecessarily problematic. Creating next semester’s schedule should not be more stressful than a 300-level class.
For the fourth semester in a row, I have frantically had to rearrange my entire, carefully thought-out schedule because the day before my registration appointment, the classes that I needed to take filled up. This semester I had no choice but to take a bunch of random electives strictly because of scheduling issues.
The scheduling system here at UM makes no sense. Why are business school students allowed to sign up for communication school classes before the communication school students? Each student should only be allowed to sign up for classes for his or her major at first, and when everyone is registered for their required classes, then they should be able to enroll in classes in other schools.
I am not just speaking from personal experience. This week I have talked to numerous people of various majors who have found themselves in the same situation: being locked out of a class that is required for their majors.
This is not the only issue when it comes to scheduling. There are so many classes that only have one section scheduled. For a university that has over 10,000 undergraduate students, it doesn’t take someone smart enough to be one of those students to realize that one section of a class is not enough.
It is not only the limited amount of sections that prove to be problematic, but also the number of spots available for each class. If a class is only going to have one section, then maybe there should be more than 18 available spots.
I don’t know, just a thought.
I was hesitant to write this letter because I thought it may not make a difference, which may still be true, but after having to put off required classes for both of my majors semester after semester and seeing my classmates experience the same frustration, I had to say something.
The system is clearly not well thought out and needs to be changed.
Lizzie Wilcox is a sophomore majoring in French and media management.
Featured image courtesy of Pixabay user jarmoluk.