While final papers are soon due and exams are just around the corner, Washington University students are first faced with another stressful (and perhaps more daunting) task: course registration for fall 2016.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably already been analyzing (and agonizing) over your course selection for weeks, carefully choosing every class to meet school and major requirements as well as your already packed schedule.

Well, after all that time spent planning, chances are good that you won’t get to take everything (or maybe anything) on your registration worksheet.

Last semester, I was waitlisted for nearly every class I wanted to take. When my mom heard how my registration had gone, she went on a lengthy tirade about how tuition prices are too high for Wash. U. not to better accommodate its students. At a price of $48,950 per year, our University ought to make sure that every student ends up with an OK schedule, she argued.

Although I got into most of the courses I wanted to take eventually, throughout all of winter break, I was enrolled in only three credits. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time checking my email for waitlist updates and even more time on WebSTAC.

My friend Juliana Berlin, a freshman, ran into many of the same issues when she went to enroll last semester.

A psychology major, Juliana had to take Psychological Statistics, a prerequisite for upper-level courses within the psychology department. She got off the waitlist in January, but in the meantime, she was “really stressed out.” As she says, “it was not a good situation.”

While most students end up with passable course loads by the semester’s start, we have to weigh many factors when piecing together our schedules: the size of courses, the professors, the total number of credits we’re taking, the timing of classes—the list goes on.

Hitting the perfect combination of requirement-fulfilling and elective coursework is hard. Getting into the classes you’ve selected is harder. In most cases, developing an acceptable schedule involves taking an 8 a.m. or a requirement-fulfilling introductory level course as opposed to a much more interesting 300-level seminar or (like me) signing up for all waitlists and hoping for the best.

Despite all my waitlist troubles, I did get into basically everything I wanted in the end, and I know the Wash. U. registration process is better than it once was.

University Registrar Sue Hosack has worked at Wash. U. for over 25 years. When she first came to the University, students had to line up at the Field House in order to register via a “manual paper process,” with registration occurring across all classes on a first-come first-served basis.

The Internet has made things more straightforward, with students signing up online for the classes they plan to take the following semester. In order to prevent system overload and to give certain students priority, the University “stacks the deck,” allowing students to enroll by class, starting with seniors and ending with freshmen.

As an underclassman, watching all of your classes fill up prior to your registration time is annoying, especially bearing in mind the high price of attending Wash. U. and the tediousness of putting together a feasible schedule in the first place. Spending six-plus weeks worrying about getting in off waitlists also adds an unnecessary level of stress to the end of semester (because finals week is too easy otherwise) and to school breaks.

Yes, the registration process isn’t perfect, but students at universities all over the country have similar concerns revolving around registration. At least you can take solace in knowing that your time will only get better as your class year increases, you can register without even having to get out of bed and you don’t have to camp out by the Athletic Complex 12 hours in advance of registration’s start in order to guarantee a decent time.