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| My face after this semester |
As of today, everybody has had their scheduling window, although there is still time to play around with yours if you're not happy (or if you have an 8am, RIP). If you're anything like me, you saw the date you were given to schedule and immediately committed to staying up until midnight to camp out on LionPath in order to get the classes you wanted.
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| LionPath: the lesser known 8th circle of Hell |
In an effort to retrace the horror that is scheduling night, I give you the Five Stages of Grief While Scheduling.
Stage 1: Anticipation, 11PM EST
In this stage, you're lurking on Schedule Builder glaring at the 8AM's you could potentially need to take if the good time slots for your classes fill up too fast. You hold your coffee in your hand and wait, not trusting anybody around you who is also on their laptop
Stage 2: Frustration, 11:40PM EST
You start to frown as Schedule Builder is loading slower than a fly walking through molasses. You realize the coffee is not helping your skyrocketing blood pressure, but you drink it anyway. You hit the refresh button again
Stage 2a: EXTREME FRUSTRATION, 11:53PM EST
SCHEDULE BUILDER AND LIONPATH CAN BOTH GO CRAWL BACK INTO THE HOLE FROM WHENCE THEY CAME. NOTHING IS LOADING. ALL SITES ARE CRASHING. ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE.
Stage 2b: Calm before the storm, 11:57PM EST
Schedule Builder is beginning to be a bit more cooperative. You still want to scream but at least you aren't getting the error message anymore
Stage 3: AAAAAAAAAAH, 12:00AM EST
THE GATES ARE OPEN. YOU RUSH TO IMPORT YOUR SCHEDULE TO LIONPATH AND REGISTER, BUT SCHEDULE BUILDER CRASHES. IT'S LIKE THAT EPISODE OF SPONGEBOB WHERE GARY IS A RACING SNAIL.
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| COME ON SCHEDULE BUILDER, IT'S A RACE |
YOU BEGIN TO SWEAT AS YOUR SCHEDULE FINALLY IMPORTS. YOU CRY REAL TEARS WHEN YOU SEE THAT YOU HAVE BEEN WAITLISTED.
Stage 4: Denial, 12:06AM EST
You frantically try to rearrange your schedule, losing hope as all the good slots are taken. In one last effort you return to Schedule Builder and it crashes again. You hold your head in your hands and
Stage 5: Acceptance of your fate, 12:23AM EST
You have exhausted all rearranging resources. You take a long last look at your schedule and think to yourself, "Self, it'll be okay, I scheduled a break time for a nap, we'll get through this semester together". You log out of LionPath saying a few choice words under your breath, close your laptop, and go to bed ready to roll out of bed tomorrow.
All in all, scheduling is not difficult, but with the increased load on the LionPath servers, it makes you (read me) want to tear your hair out when the website won't load.
For this reason I give the scheduling experience 3 tired college students out of 10. I think if there's one thing PSU IT should work on, it should be updating or just overhauling that god-forsaken site.
I hope you all had a better time scheduling than I did, got all the classes that you wanted, and NO 8 AM'S! Until next week!
Pictures in order of appearance
I can honestly say that these stages are pretty accurate. I was waitlisted on most of my classes once lionpath finally finished loading. That really was a stressful night; there has to be a better way. Your blog post made me laugh a few times and your choice of visuals make the post even more relatable and humorous.
ReplyDeleteI loved this blog post. I definitely went through these five stages of grief when scheduling and you presented them in a way that made me almost forget what a terrible experience that was.
ReplyDeleteThat does not sound like fun at all. I'm so glad I didn't have to schedule after most other people did. I really liked your post and your humour, and it made me really think about how lucky I was to not have to go through what you did.
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