We all know the feeling -- it's approaching course registration day, and you open up your course catalog to search for next semester’s classes. First, the requirements, be it pre-professional or for your major. Organic chemistry lab: so many times, so many options -- why not add them all to your cart? Intro to Bioethics: 10 different sections, meeting on different days. Let's add all of those as well. It'll be easier to visualize your schedule later if you can see all your options, right?
Now for the fun classes. As you scroll through, you find yourself inundated by fascinating course titles. "Prophets, Kings, and Demons: The Art of Islamic Book Painting." "Planets, Life, and the Universe." "Psychobiology of Drug Addiction."
Add to cart.
Add to cart.
Add to cart.
Pretty soon, you see this:
In comes Semester.ly. Started by college students Noah Presler, Rohan Das, and Felix Zhu, Semester.ly was created to streamline the course scheduling process. I was recently asked to review their latest version of the site, and would like to present a list of 13 ways in which Semester.ly makes course registration a breeze.
1. Easily filter classes by type with the advanced search option.
So many of us struggle to find the classes that are writing intensive - that becomes easy with an option to filter out all the classes that don't satisfy the requirements you need. You can also search by department and level for all of those major requirements.
2. Create your schedule first, then look for classes.
Maybe you have yoga every morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Maybe you have volunteer work every Wednesday at 3 PM. Drag the sliders to indicate when you are free for class, and Semester.ly will only show you the courses which fit into you schedule.
3. Easily access course evaluations.
Gone are the days of having the course catalog open in one tab and Rate My Professor open in another. Semester.ly puts it all in one spot. Scroll down past the course description to see ratings and reviews from past years.
4. Try out a new, concise course rating system.
We might not be able to describe how student debt makes us feel in 3 emojis or less, but I know we can describe the classes we've hated with a good ol' poop emoji. Semester.ly has an emoji reaction system which lets you see how your classmates felt about a course.
5. Don't sweat it - let Semester.ly do all the difficult scheduling for you.
Add all the classes which you find interesting, and Semester.ly will create a bunch of possible schedules which you can cycle through until you find the one which best suits you. No more course-section-Tetris for you!
6. Let Semester.ly know what matters to you.
We can all agree that computers are just better at us at some things, and calculating the most efficient schedule is definitely one of them. Don’t worry about trying to squeeze all your classes into a 4-day week – let Semester.ly know that’s what you want, and it’ll figure it out for you.
7. See how a professor's section fits into your schedule.
Let's say you really want to get into a specific Organic Chemistry professor's section. Will it fit in your schedule? Click on a class and hover over the professor's sections to see how they fit into your schedule. Then lock the section you want into place, and Semester.ly will fix the rest of your schedule for you.
8. Create multiple schedules, and pick the one you like best.
Sometimes you have a couple sets of classes which you can’t decide between – why not make an entirely new schedule? Semester.ly makes it easy to create schedules from multiple sets of classes, perfect for discussions with your advisor or creating the perfect semester.
9. See what your friends are taking.
No need to ask your friends for their class schedules anymore - Semester.ly lets you connect with your friends via Facebook, and will show you which friends are in your classes. It’ll make forming study groups simple!
10. Easily share your schedule or interesting classes with others.
Semester.ly lets you share a link to a specific class, which makes it easy for your friends to find the classes you’ve registered for. And who needs screenshots or poorly taken photos of your flickering laptop screen when you can just send your schedule to someone in a simple link?
11. Separate your electives from your core courses with “Optional Courses.”
Got a few extra credits left over and want to take a fun class? Go ahead, add Studio Drawing and Musical Theatre to your optional courses list and let Semester.ly see which ones fit in your schedule.
12. Find all your course materials in one place.
Now that you know what classes you’re going to take, what textbooks will you need? Semester.ly lists all your course materials in one convenient place, and even includes links to Amazon so you won’t have to fiddle with pesky ISBN’s.
13. Need to schedule on the go? Use Semester.ly's mobile version.
Semester.ly's mobile version is friendly for small screens, without sacrificing the functionality of the desktop version.
So sign up today! It's free and easy, and it'll make your course registration experience efficient and simple. Semester.ly is currently available for Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland, University of Toronto, and Queen's University.
Happy course scheduling!
