Courses Next Semester

I am fairly confident in saying that most first years would agree that picking courses during orientation was a rather stressful experience. We were given a 65 page packet with a bunch of abbreviations and numbers and codes and we given the complete responsibility of choosing just which courses we would take our first semester. Unfortunately, at least for me, this became very difficult when figuring out the time schedules, how some classes require discussions, all on top of which classes I really want to take. Well fortunately, the time to pick new classes is upon us, and this time it shouldn't be nearly as stressful.

Now that we have ample time to browse through the plethora of courses at UVa, know which classes our friends have recommended, and just have an overall better feel of how things work at UVa, regardless of our scheduling time, we should have a better chance to optimize our schedules. That, and we have a few other helpful resources that have been pointed out to me.

Lou's List- This is a comprehensive, easy to use (in my opinion much easier than SIS), guide full of the courses available at the University. You can see what classes are available at what time, in which building, how many spots are available, as well as a brief description of many of the courses. While it is technically "unofficial," it is broken down in a very organized manner, and makes it easy to find what classes you want.

theCourseForum- The Course Forum is another place that can be helpful for students looking for classes. Students can browse through these courses, read recommendations, and compare these classes to find which suit their needs. While I haven't really used the Course Forum as much as Lou's List, it is to my understanding that it can be very informational.

Finally, once we have found our ideal classes, it is time to put them on our enrollment requests on SIS. Hopefully these resources prove to be helpful, and we aren't brought back to the anxiety that was thrust upon us during orientation.