It’s 8 a.m. on my registration day. My laptop is open, my class plan is on my screen, my finger is hovered over the refresh button like I’m about to buy concert tickets on Ticketmaster. Except I’m not trying to see Morgan Wallen in Neyland Stadium, I’m just trying to get a seat in anatomy lab so I can graduate.
This happens every single semester at UT, turning what should be a simple and easy process into a cutthroat competition. Class registration here is not just inconvenient, it’s a potential barrier for students’ success, and it’s time that UT does something about it.
The biggest problem with registration at UT is how quickly classes fill up, leaving many students without the courses they need, me included. Every semester, I meet with my academic advisor and then meticulously plan the classes out on One Stop’s registration service. Only for the registration day to come and those plans fall apart. Popular labs, major-specific requirements and upper-level electives run out of seats within minutes, forcing us as students to scramble for backup options that most likely don’t fit within our schedules or graduation timeline.
This creates unnecessary stress and frustration each semester, especially for students who are already balancing difficult majors, jobs or extracurriculars. When essential classes like anatomy lab, chemistry or biology courses are filled, students may end up behind on their degree and be unable to stay on track for graduation. I’ve faced this challenge myself, often being told I’m “off track,” despite doing everything possible to plan ahead. A process that’s designed to help students thrive instead holds us back, turning registration into a contest instead of a chance to succeed.
The registration process doesn’t just cause frustration for UT students, but it has real consequences for us. When our essential classes fill up before we can even enroll, it can force us to take courses out of sequence. This affects our eligibility for future classes since some must be taken in a specific order. For example, for my kinesiology major, you need to take Chemistry 1 first, then 2. You also need chemistry classes for certain kinesiology courses, but when I cannot get into one, I cannot take the rest. The stress of trying to secure a spot in courses can also take a toll on students’ mental health, adding anxiety to an already stressful and demanding semester. On the other hand, not every student has the same experience with registration — some may have fewer flexible schedules or less experience using the registration system. I know I was clueless as a freshman about how to register for classes by myself. I truly was going into the experience blind at first. Experiences like these can make registration less like a helpful tool and more like a common obstacle that students like me and thousands of others are faced with every single semester.
Something must change with how UT handles registration, because students shouldn’t feel this stressed just trying to secure a spot in the classes they need. One solution I believe would be to increase the number of seats in high-demand courses like anatomy, chemistry and biology so students aren’t constantly fighting for a spot. I know this is an obvious answer, but it’s the truth. Most of my required kinesiology classes only have 25 seats in them, but we all know there are more than 25 students who are planning to take this class. There are multiple sections, but for the number of students who are in my major, the number of sections does not accommodate us. Another idea would be to give priority to students who are closest to graduating, since those classes are often the ones that make or break a graduation timeline. Personally, I know how much relief it would give me to register without worrying that one missing class could throw off my whole degree plan. Even small improvements like these would make a huge difference, because at the end of the day, registration should support our goals as students and not stand in our way.
Registration is not a fair or easy process at UT. It should not feel like I am competing with other students or trying to steal their seat in a specific class. UT must make the process fair so students like me can focus on learning, not frantically refreshing a page every semester. After all, this is class registration — not Ticketmaster.
Madisyn Williams is a junior at UT studying kinesiology. She can be reached at [email protected].
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