After indulging myself in HBO's Hard Knocks,"" I have come to two realizations: The NFL depth chart is the most scrutinized aspect of the sports world, and it is a near impossibility that the time spent altering a team's depth chart eclipses the amount of time I have spent modifying my class schedule.
Between various websites that offer statistics of specific professors' grading patterns to the mayhem of enrolling, swapping and dropping classes, choosing courses is both a jading and chaotic process.
The process for signing up for classes is a complete joke. Most of the classes required for one of my majors, political science, are filled long before I can enroll, which leads me to find the next best thing - an easy class that sounds remotely interesting. If those are not available, then a class that is easy and boring will do.
As I sat through one class that was neither interesting nor related to my major, I decided to browse the catalog for classes that pertained more to my interest, if not my major. I flipped open my laptop and I would substitute one fluff class for a legitimate one. My zeal was soon eliminated after the Student Center would not load, thus making a class switch impossible. It was almost as if fate had intervened.
Maybe this is the way picking classes should be. Who cares if knowledge of Inuit folklore won't come in handy later, if ever?
Once a student completes his or her breadth requirements, he or she then hits the home stretch of fulfilling his major credit requirement, which then leads to graduation.
Then, there's that problem of not being able to take classes within one major. Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you pickaprof.com or ratemyprofessor.com, or, ""whichprofessoris easy(orhot).com.""
However, in defense of these websites, I have chosen several classes because a certain professor was highly rated.
Despite these ""exceptions,"" there is a certain guilt associated with the knowledge that I may be taking a class solely because the web denotes its students receive higher grades.
This guilt, I have concluded, is a necessary evil of the class selection process since the whole problem starts with the system in the first place.
I would have taken an honest class within my major if that class was open. Since that class isn't open and I didn't want to tinker with the waiting list, I had to go back to square one.
At the very least, the university could make sure that Student Center operates effectively during the peak hours of class swapping.
In addition, a revamped scheduling system that disperses similar class meeting times more evenly over the week, or re-locates popular classes to larger venues, could help alleviate some of the aforementioned difficulties.
Meanwhile, I'm just trying to find that next best option, ranging from an easy class that is interesting with a hot professor according to ratemyprofessor.com to an easy class that isn't interesting and is taught by Linda Tripp.
