Plan and personalize your class schedule with College Scheduler

HFC’s College Scheduler is a planning tool that helps you balance your academic needs with your real-life schedule.

You can build a conflict-free class schedule based on:

  • The courses you need to take
  • Your availability and preferences
  • Work, athletics, clubs, and other commitments

Use College Scheduler to create your ideal schedule. Then, register for each of those class sections when registration begins.

Smiling college student turned toward viewer, sitting at library desk with laptop

How to use College Scheduler

Step One

Launch College Scheduler

Disable your pop-up blocker and use the Chrome, Firefox, or Edge browser. Other browsers might not work with College Scheduler.

Open College Scheduler.

College Scheduler works one semester at a time. Make sure you are viewing the correct term.

Courses that you or your advisor previously added in Self-Service/Student Planning for the current semester will automatically appear in College Scheduler.

Step Two

Filter and Find Courses

College Scheduler allows you to filter your results. Your filters are automatically saved and will remain just as you left them for future sessions.

You can find courses in College Scheduler in two ways:

  • Search by Course (we recommend this if you want to see all available sections)
  • Search by Instructor (this will limit your results to each specific instructor’s sections of the course)

Once added, your courses will appear in your Course Cart.

Common Issues (if you can't find the class you want)

  • If a course is missing from the drop-down, it might not be offered that term.
  • If you know a course is offered but you still can’t see it, check the filters you have set (for example, “Open Classes Only”).
  • If schedules stop generating after adding a course, review your filters (location filters are a common issue).

Instructor vs. Course Search

  • Search by Instructor: This search only shows sections taught by a specific instructor.
  • Search by Course: This search shows all available sections of the selected course, taught by any instructor.

Step Three

Generate schedules

After choosing your courses, select Generate Schedules. If you generate schedules for all your courses at the same time, you might see hundreds of possible schedules. Don't panic! Follow the strategies listed here:

Strategy 1: Focus on one required course first

  • Generate schedules only for a single course.
  • Select your preferred section.
  • Lock the course
    • Select the lock icon next to a section to keep it fixed in your plan. If a lecture includes a required lab/discussion, locking one will lock the two-course combination. Locking does not reserve your seat in the course. It simply places the course into your planning process.

Strategy 2: Add Breaks for Commitments

If you are not available to take classes at certain times (work, practice, commuting, etc.), you can build breaks into your schedule. These breaks prevent classes from being suggested for scheduling during those times.

Note: You cannot filter courses by a specific day of the week, but adding breaks effectively blocks days or times from being suggested.

Strategy 3: Use Class Padding

To ensure enough time between classes:

  1. Select “Advanced Options”
  2. Select “Class Padding” (between 0 and 90 minutes between classes)

Keep in mind:

  • More padding means fewer schedule options
  • If no schedules are generated, try reducing your padding slightly

Step Four

Register for Your Selected Classes in Self-Service

Remember: College Scheduler only recommends your class schedule. It does not register you for classes. You must complete your actual class registration in Self-Service.

After you have found your ideal schedule:

  • Return to Self-Service Student Planning.
  • Register for your selected class sections.
  • Confirm your successful enrollment by viewing your finalized class schedule.

Important Considerations

Before finalizing your schedule, keep these key points in mind:

  • You are responsible to make sure you have completed all course prerequisites. College Scheduler does not check your academic history to make sure you have completed requirements. Make sure that you:
    • Have completed all prerequisites
    • Add any required co-requisite courses with, for example, a science lab

Work with your Advisor if you have any questions about prerequisites.

  • Unchecking a course in Course Scheduler does not drop the class from your schedule.
    • If you have registered for your classes and then you remove a course from College Scheduler, you will remain registered for the course in Self-Service until you officially drop the course there.