It is that exciting time of the year again. You know the time I’m talking about. The one during which you are running around like a chicken with its head cut off because early registration starts tomorrow and you have no idea what you are majoring in, let alone what classes you want to take. 

Planning your schedule is stressful: there are so many factors to consider. If you know what you’re majoring in, great, you eliminated a major issue. But even if you know your major, there are so many requirements, prerequisites, co-requisites and all that fun stuff. Oh yeah, and then there are the general graduation requirements. Everyone forgets about those. 

Then when you finally figure out what classes you need to take, you go to see when those classes are offered, and guess what? You cannot take two of them because they overlap.  This is what makes creating your schedule so frustrating. Well, all the classes you need are at the same time. Last semester, I had four classes I needed to take offered at the same time. Three of them were within the same department! Unless Brandeis has a cloning machine I am not aware of, this appears to be a problem, and not only for me. 

I understand that classes overlapping are unavoidable, but at Brandeis there are “popular” times, when every single class you can imagine is offered, and “dead” times, where unless you’re a theatre or music major, there are no classes for you. And this is something that is really starting to become an issue, not only for students, but for professors with low enrollment. 

Let’s take a look at Spring of 2020. The “popular” times are Monday, Wednesday, 2 p.m. to 3:20 p.m. (block K) and 3:30 p.m. to 4:50 p.m. (block L), as well as Tuesday, Thursday, 2 p.m. to 3:20 p.m. (block N) and 3:30 p.m. to 4:50 p.m. (block P). Don’t get me wrong, those really are great times. Having my first class at 2 p.m. every day? Yes, please! 

In Spring 2020, block K has 83 different classes offered. According to my addition (which is somewhat reliable) there are classes in 33 various departments offered. Talk about variety.  Block L has 72 different classes offered, in 27 departments. Also not bad, right? Block N has 77 different classes offered, in 30 departments. And finally, block P has 67 different classes offered, in 23 departments. Some of the blocks are more diverse than others, but what about the “dead” times?

There are quite a lot of those, but let’s look at Tuesday, Friday 8 a.m. to 9:20 a.m. (block A2), Fridays 2 p.m. to 4:50 p.m. (block S5), and Monday, Wednesday 8:30 a.m. to 9:50 a.m. (block BX). Block A2 has 38 classes, in only seven departments. Twenty-three out of those 38 classes are music classes. Nothing against music, but this block is far from the definition of variety. Block BX has 39 classes, in eight departments. A little bit better than the previous block, but… out of those 39 classes 23 are, you guessed it, music classes. Those lucky music majors. But okay, I get it, those two are morning classes, and no one really likes those. But what about block S5? It has 40 classes, in eight departments. And like in the previous two blocks, music classes account for over half of them. 

So maybe I am being a little dramatic in calling them “dead” times, but they are not exactly “popular” either. The average amount of classes per block (without doing any complex math) appears to be around 50 to 60 classes per block. That is also a lot, but it is manageable! A few more fun facts: block A2 has the least classes, with only 38, while block K has the most, with 83. 

I understand that scheduling is not easy for anyone. Professors have other things to do, and the classes have to fit their own schedule. But for the sake of the success of the students, departments need to be more aware of how their classes are scheduled. If you schedule three classes, which are major requirements, at the same time, how can you expect students to be able to finish them all? Four years seems to be a lot of time, until you realize that it’s really not. Hopefully departments may be able to communicate with one another, and fill up those “dead” blocks. Music, you’re doing great.