How many times have you signed up to take a class just because you checked RateMyProfessors.com and saw that a professor that is teaching a certain class has a close to 1 level of difficulty and a close to 5 overall quality? We’ve all been there, don’t deny it. You’ve scrolled through the list of classes that are able to fulfill a core class requirement, research the professors, then looked at the main focus of the class.

However, things don’t always go the way that we want them to. As a college freshman, we are given very late class registration times because of seniority. Thus, often times, even when we did our class research ahead of time, the spots in the class with the good professor always get taken. We’ve all been there, there’ no denying it. There have been so many times when we think that we have our future all mapped out, because we have a certain schedule in mind for the next semester/quarter. And then there are times last minute, literally ten minutes before your registration time that the last few spots on that one class that you really wanted just disappeared.

Many of us all want that easy A in that class that doesn’t even require much work. A class with reviews of writing six twelve-page papers? No. Who wants that? Probably only the insane. Us, on the other hand, want to have a good balance between school work and our own personal social lives. Thus, we tend to choose the classes that require the least work and the nice professor who is somewhat accommodating.

Honestly, we shouldn’t sweat that much about not getting our first-choice classes. There are always somewhat decent backup plans. Think of it this way. When you’re planning your schedule for the next quarter, find some classes that you would replace some of your classes with if it comes down to it. This way, you actually have some backup plans and you won’t be freaking out last minute trying to search for what you should take. Have the specific course numbers written down. When your registration time is here and it says that one of the classes that you had just tried signing up for is full? Plug in the course number of your backup class. There’s absolutely nothing to sweat about.