Why university course selection drives Ontario students crazy

But despite best-laid plans, she says she was routinely assigned a late enrolment window. By the time she was allowed to log in, she often encountered error messages or a system that repeatedly crashed. Inevitably, she found herself shut out of classes she not only wanted, but needed — no matter the time slot — to complete her degree.

“It’s one thing for it to happen maybe once or twice, but for it to happen every single year, every single term was really frustrating,” says Groh, who this fall switched to finish her teacher training at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. “Honestly, it contributed to me leaving the school.”

That such a routine administrative task could trigger a life-changing decision might seem extreme, but course registration is frequently a pain point for students, no matter the program or institution. Against a backdrop of post-secondary funding shortfalls, staffing cuts and program cancellations, it’s little wonder the process can feel a little like a Hunger Games-style scramble.

“Students perceive that registration is competitive and that if they don’t get right in there on the first day, in the first hour, they’re not going to get a seat in their most desired courses,” says Jenn Stephenson, a Queen’s University professor. “That’s not entirely true, but it feels like that,” says Stephenson, who recently led an overhaul of the process to “help take the temperature down.”

“It’s almost a sense of panic.”

The sentiment is echoed across social media, where university Reddit threads brim with feisty commentary: “It’s the bane of my existence,” says one student; “I’m borderline livid,” says another. A recent survey of Canadian post-secondary students by higher-ed consultants Academica Group found that about one-fifth of students didn’t get into all their required courses (the number doubles for electives), and a similar proportion find the selection process difficult. Such frustration even prompted an Ontario student to build a seat-alert service just to help classmates navigate the chaos.

Students say it’s more than a scheduling headache: Being shut out of required courses can delay graduation and add a financial cost. In a 2024 Canadian survey of 12,000 graduating university students, more than one-third reported a delay in completing their program, most often because required courses weren’t available.

Such statistics underscore why students feel disgruntled — but behind the scenes, faculty and administrators emphasize that managing course enrolment is complicated, and differs from university to university, even program to program.

As Marisa Modeski, president of the Ontario University Registrars’ Association (OURA), observes, “There’s always a science and an art to space planning and timetabling.”

One thing Emma Wu knows for sure: the McMaster University biology course she needs this winter is already full. What’s less certain is, if someone drops out, will she be the one to get in?

The first-year Life Sciences Gateway student isn’t leaving things entirely to chance — or a system with no wait-lists. She’s using Seat Alert, a student-created service that pings users the moment space becomes available. It already helped her with physics, another required class she was shut out of during registration.

“Seat Alert is super popular,” she says. “Everybody talks about it.”

McMaster graduate Ethan McAuliffe built the digital “wait-list” a couple of years ago while studying computer engineering and management. Seat Alert monitors course registrations every 15 seconds, and users pay $2 per course per term for notifications, but it’s up to students to log into the university portal and nab the seat .

“People are a little desperate to get into courses,” says McAuliffe, who also offers the service to McGill students. In 2025, Seat Alert has had more than 28,400 course sign-ups.

“I wish there was a better way,” he says, noting that McMaster administration has asked him to explain his platform multiple times, to ensure he wasn’t violating school policies and confidentiality as well as putting an extra load on their system.

“What would put me out of business is if they actually implemented wait-lists; I think that would make everyone a little more at peace (because) clearly, course selection, kind of a mundane act, does have potential to change someone’s path.”

University spokesperson Andrea Lawson emphasized Seat Alert is not affiliated with McMaster and that “any external tool interacting with our systems must be assessed to protect system integrity and student security.”

The university continually reviews its practices and “extensive planning goes into ensuring students can progress through their programs,” she added.

Balancing course registration requires juggling an intricate set of factors, explains OURA president Modeski, including enrolment targets, historical demand, faculty availability, classroom and lab space and program requirements, which, she says, can make the whole exercise seem “quite MacGyver-y.”

Schools also must consider broader economic trends that can affect program interest, such as a recent dip in computer science applications amid the AI boom, says Modeski, who is also Western University’s registrar.

Some universities try to anticipate demand with surveys or early course selection ahead of actual registration, but predicting human behaviour is tricky.

“There’s a lot more choices” than high school, says Wu. “It’s exciting, but also kind of intimidating, because it seems like you have to know what you want to do from the very beginning.”

Depending on the program, undergraduates may have a pre-enrolled timetable, a mix of required courses and electives, or full schedule flexibility.

Universities stagger course registration using time tickets, sometimes assigned randomly or prioritized for groups like first-years or fourth-years, athletes or scholars. A late log-in date, a missed alarm or spotty Wi-Fi can derail a plan to get into a sought-after course. 

And while many schools reserve seats or offer wait-lists, some do not. As McAuliffe notes, Seat Alert sees its heaviest traffic at the start of each term — especially in January, when the brief add/drop course window gives students one last chance for a seat.

Omar Sayyed wasn’t on the class roster, but he showed up anyway.

The Western integrated engineering student had not had enough time during the summer’s brief registration period to secure the special faculty permission he needed to enrol in the course. So come September, he took a seat and reminded the professor that approval was still pending. It’s a tactic some students say they’ve tried with varying success.

Without official status, Sayyed had no access to the syllabus. “It was really difficult to follow along,” he says, but he didn’t want to risk falling behind. With the help of a supportive instructor and the eventual approval, Sayyed was able to stay on track. He graduated in June and is currently serving as the student council’s vice-president of external affairs.

But adding one more student to a full class is not always possible or simple. Course availability and size are shaped by a range of considerations — from faculty sabbaticals to lecture hall fire codes.

Still, professors have discretion over what and how they teach, says Daniel Corral, an assistant professor in higher education at OISE. He has the authority to increase his classes beyond the cap of 25, and he usually does, adding up to 30. But he cautions that classes that are too large, even online, can affect student engagement.

In the case of required courses, says Corral, “we tend to be more responsive to adding more sections if it’s possible and if we see the demand.

“But that’s not always a sure thing, so I know that can be quite stressful for students.”

Western’s Sayyed says he’s found that course selection works best for students who follow a strict, linear path. The trouble comes, he adds, when students stray from that, changing up areas of concentration or modifying a course load. “That’s when things get messy, because you’re not doing it in the way the university intended.”

Universities strongly encourage students to consult academic advisers about their options and challenges — and to do so early. Still, students report that adviser availability and effectiveness can vary widely. The Academica Group survey reported that only one-quarter of students reach out to an adviser before making course decisions, with most just relying on the academic calendar for guidance.

Sarah Groh says regular emails to faculty never seemed to get her beyond the promise of being put on an elusive wait-list. “I was told I couldn’t get into the courses I was paying for and instead ended up with backups I wasn’t as interested in. It was always disappointing.”

It wasn’t until her fourth year — after she flagged her risk of not graduating — that she finally secured the seats she needed, including two first-year required courses she had never been able to access.

A York University spokesperson acknowledged that some required courses fill quickly and that the university uses wait-lists “for many but not all courses.”

“Faculties monitor demand, make necessary adjustments and maintain wait-lists that may not be visible from the registration system, which is why students are given general guidance on potential wait-lists,” Yanni Dagonas told the Star.

Dagonas says York continues to streamline and improve the process, including assigning advisers for every student in the faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies “to prevent academic difficulties through early intervention.”

Modeski urges students to double-check registration dates, use timetable building software to plan early and take advantage of webinars and one-on-one sessions. “It’s really important for students to be proactive.”

But universities also need to deliver “a great student experience,” she says. “Students pay for these courses, so it’s our responsibility to make sure that they can register in a seamless way, in an efficient way, and one that gets them excited.”

It’s hard to imagine anyone more excited about course selection right now than Jenn Stephenson, the Queen’s professor.

Her enthusiasm is unmistakable as she describes the “revolutionary” change to the school’s academic calendar, shepherded through during her recently completed term as the Faculty of Arts and Science’s associate dean (academic).

Where once the faculty’s 13,000 or so undergraduates had to endlessly scroll through a 328-page PDF to choose from thousands of courses, there is now a fully digitalized, fully searchable calendar with links to prerequisites and learning outcomes. The final phase of the project — in which a new mobile-first interface will bring the calendar, timetable, a degree audit tool, seat availability and a campus map all in one place — will be rolled out this February, in time for summer term registration.

“This will be most impactful on students,” says Stephenson, explaining that previously, registration required juggling multiple pieces of information on different screens and in different formats, which made the process feel “quite overwhelming.”

The new system is built to avoid crashes, and while students still aren’t guaranteed a seat in every class, Stephenson says the “amazingly opaque” error messages of old have been replaced with clear notices that will explain why, for example, 15 seats are being reserved for majors and specifying when the hold will lift so others can enrol.

Queen’s will be, according to Stephenson, the first university in Canada to offer this kind of registration experience. The interface is also going to be public, allowing even prospective students to “dream about their future,” she says in awe of its potential.

“Courses are at the heart of the academic experience. This is what university is.”