It happens at the beginning of every semester. You walk into your English, math and science classes that are overcrowded with students, meanwhile there are additional students on the wait list who actually need the class.

These students eventually have to live with a sense of overbearing stress until they’re able to figure out whether or not they can get into the class. It’s easy to point our finger as students and blame the administration for these problems, but the truth is that we are a big part of the problem.

Unfortunately students do not plan their schedules ahead of time or they plan for too much and the student results in taking up space in a class that they will inevitably drop.

So what are you supposed to do when you can’t take the classes you need? The situation feels more dire when the class you’re trying to get in is the one you need to transfer to a four-year university.

The biggest problem is that too many students sign up for classes without consideration of other students, especially the students who sign up to secure a seat even if they are on the fence of whether they need it or not. And since everyone can’t register at the same time, general education classes tend to fill up faster than others.

It’s far too common to see the class size cut in half after the first three or four weeks. But by that time, it’s too late for students who weren’t able to get into the class to add it.

Of course, there are legitimate reasons as to why students need to drop a class. However, it doesn’t change the fact that they took up a seat and someone who needed the class wasn’t able to get in, which ultimately prolongs how much time they spend at community college before transferring.

According the Skyline College’s annual report, 613 students transferred to a four-year university in the 2014-2015 school year. This statistic could be higher if only students were able to take the classes they need.

So if you are one those students that sign up for a bunch of classes because you don’t know how you want your final schedule to look, don’t do it because that’s not fair for the students who actually need the class.

There’s nothing worse than starting the semester with an overflowing class where there aren’t enough seats for every student. And before you know it, a month after the cut off date, you notice that only half of the students still attend class regularly.

One thing administration can possibly do to help alleviate this problem is if they can extend the add date of class pass the drop date, so students can have a chance of adding classes after people have waited last minute to drop the class before it shows on their record.

You should not overload on classes or work yourself too hard to finish school faster because it will just end up back firing on you. At the end of the day, you would potentially drop the class and have to take it again at a later time where you take up another seat for someone who needs it. Plan for classes accordingly.