Course Scheduling Resources

Self-Paced Guides and Tutorials

There are a few tools you can use to schedule your classes. The tools are organized below by 

  • Course Enrollment Tools
  • How to Create a Schedule You're Satisfied With
  • How to Pick General Education Courses
  • Other Course Scheduling Tools

Students are encouraged to choose whichever tools you are comfortable with. Any combination of the self-paced resources below can be used to help you with course scheduling. If you run into trouble or have specific questions, please reach out to the adviser you met with during your academic consultation.

Course Enrollment Tools

There are two primary ways to enroll in courses: Schedule Builder and the Class Search function. You will likely use both when you are creating your first-semester schedule.

When to Use Class Search When to Use Schedule Builder
  • When you want to find one or two classes to add to your schedule, not a total schedule overhaul or start from scratch
  • When you want to set up a course swap and you need to find a class that will fit well with your current schedule
  • If you want more control over course information such as pre-requisites, professor information, course description, and class building location
  • When you are starting from scratch with a schedule
  • If you prefer to visually see your possible schedule represented in time chunks on a calendar
  • To compare possible schedule options side-by-side
  • If you have time commitments such as work or practice and you want to view schedule options that take those breaks into account

Resources to Help with Class Search

This guide walks you through using the Class Search function, including:

  • How to locate courses at your campus for the correct semester
  • Finding courses based on facets, such as class status and meeting day/time
  • Searching for General Education courses

Once you know which courses you want to enroll in, this guide provides instructions for enrolling, including adding courses that have a lab component or adding yourself to a waitlist.

If you need to make changes to your schedule, you can view tutorials on dropping a class and swapping a class. In some instances, you may want to set up a swap with a waitlisted class.

This video tutorial created by the Smeal College of Business walks you through Class Search from beginning to end.

Resources to Help with Schedule Builder

This guide walks you through using Schedule Builder, including:

  • What each filtering option means
  • Searching for courses
  • Viewing possible schedule options
  • Adding breaks

If you need to find a General Education course, you can use the course attribute search.

A “lock” in Schedule Builder allows you to narrow down your possible schedule options by telling Schedule Builder that you want a specific section of a course to be considered in all possible schedules.

The search by course attribute feature in Schedule Builder allows you to search for General Education courses.

The validate feature in Schedule Builder helps you understand if you meet the required pre-requisites for the classes you are hoping to enroll in.

Once you find a schedule you are satisfied with, you’ll need to send your selection from Schedule Builder into LionPATH in order to official enroll. View this helpful video for further information on completing this important step.

How to Create a Schedule You're Satisfied With

Creating a schedule you’re satisfied with is more than just picking classes—it is also about creating a balanced schedule. This video created by the College of Health and Human Development features students sharing their best tips for creating a schedule.

Video: New Student Orientation: Student Advice

How to Pick General Education Courses

Your first-semester schedule will likely involve a few General Education courses. Watch these two videos to understand how to pick General Education and what the requirements are.

Video: Tips for selecting General Education Courses, Part 1.

Video: Tips for selecting General Education Courses, Part 2.

Other Course Scheduling Tools
  • Tutorial on requesting a pre-requisite override
  • Tutorial on using the validate feature in the enrollment shopping cart to verify that you meet all required pre-requisites for a class
  • Your academic college or campus may have additional, specific course scheduling tools available on their NSO website. Visit your NSO Tasklist and find the item titled “Learn More About <college/campus>” for a link. (Tip: It may be in your “completed” items if you already marked it as finished!)