Building Your Semester Class Schedule

After you have determined which courses you should take (either by utilizing the online information or talking with an advisor or both), the next step will be to put together a workable class schedule. For an example, let’s suppose that you have determined that you need

ENGL 1301
HIST 1301
BIOL 1406 lecture and lab
MATH 1324
PHED

Each semester WCJC mails a Schedule Booklet to homes within the college service area. Suppose that you are preparing for your first semester in college and it is a fall term. Looking in the Schedule Booklet you will find many sections of ENGL 1301, also many sections of HIST 1301, not quite as many sections of BIOL 1406, fewer sections of MATH 1324, and still fewer sections of PHED. A math section might look like:

10283 MATH 1324 – 902 TR 12:15 N – 01:30 PM 3 Staff SUGAR 200 SUG

From left to right, the 10283 is the CRN (Course Reference Number). Each class section has a unique CRN. The system uses this number to identify the section. MATH 1324 identifies the course as Finite Math. The 902 is a section number. TR indicates that this class meets on Tuesday and Thursday. 12:15 N – 01:30 PM indicates the time of day the class meets. The 3 is the number of semester credit hours for the course. Staff is where the instructor’s name fits. At the time the booklet was printed it had not been decided who would teach this section. SUGAR 200 is the building and room number where the class will meet. SUG indicates the campus (Sugar Land).

To start your schedule building process, first decide which campus you want to attend. That will narrow your section choices somewhat. Suppose it is WHA (Wharton). Then look at the WHA sections for each of the courses you need to take. You may find the number of sections to be similar to

ENGL 1301 16 sections
HIST 1301 7 sections
BIOL 1406 4 lecture sections and 6 lab sections (you will need one of each)
MATH 1324 5 sections
PHED perhaps 3 sections depending on what course you take

Special attention is needed for the BIOL 1406 because you must choose a lecture section and a lab section. Lectures have a three digit section number such as 10171 BIOL 1406 – 103. Labs have a section number that begins with L, such as 10176 BIOL 1406 – L04.

An example schedule could be

10169 BIOL 1406 – 101 MWF 8:00 – 8:50 am Jeffery Scienc 101 WHA
10182 BIOL 1406 – L06 W 1:00 – 2:40 pm Jeffery Scienc 127 WHA
10351 MATH 1324 – 103 MWF 11:00 – 11:50 am Ermis Scienc 218 WHA
10495 PHED 1107 – L06 TR 9:25 – 10:40 am Bahnsen Gym Wt Room WHA
10572 HIST 1301 – 103 MWF 10:00 – 10:50 am Wind Admin 209 WHA
11046 ENGL 1301 – 110 TR 8:00 – 9:15 am Bartsch Admin 207 WHA

I started with Biology because of the need to pick both a lecture and a lab.  Next, I added the Math, although I had looked at the Kinesiology (PHED) schedule to make sure my first two classes would not block the PHED, which I filled in next.  Then, I fitted History around the others.  Finally, I chose English.  Basically, I started with the subjects that have only a few sections and ended with subjects that have many sections.  Usually that strategy works best.

The class schedule information is also online at https://fannin3.wcjc.edu/pls/prod_dad/bwckschd.p_disp_dyn_sched . One advantage of the online schedule data is that it is current.