Here are the classes you should definitely NOT be taking next semester at NYU

Registering for classes at NYU can feel like a battle, not just because of the fight to find classes that match your schedule and fulfill that major requirement, but also because you’re always on the look out for landmines — those classes that you will instantly regret taking.

This week is the beginning of registration for the Fall 2017 semester, and whether this is your first semester or you’re a rising senior and you know what you’re doing, you still need to be prepared.

Any 8am class

This is a mistake many freshman will make. You think, “Well I got up for school at 7am every day, I can definitely handle an 8am class .” If you have spent any time at college and you are reading this, you can probably hear the naiveté screaming at you in that statement. No, you can’t handle an 8am because you are in college and you are always going to be operating on a high level of exhaustion that you did not experience in high school. Even if you somehow manage to wake up in time for your 8am, your roommate (who was smarter in scheduling than you) is really going to resent you making noise.

9:30 classes far from where you live 

See above – 9:30 is earlier than you think and everything is further than you think at NYU.

It was so early I couldn’t even spell

Classes with professors who have poor ‘Rate My Professor’ ratings

And they’re not even hot

Ah, the beauty of ‘Rate My Professor.’ Professors from departments all across NYU, are rated on the quality of their teaching, how difficult the class is as well as the average grade given to one of their students. (The hottest professors are also assigned a ‘red chilli,’ an important factor in my opinion). It’s rated by fellow students who have taken their classes so you can trust it more than an official NYU review. Aim for those high, near 5.0 rated professors. Or maybe a lower rated professor with a high ‘hotness’ rating, at least they’ll be nice to look at.

Friday classes 

Try and avoid these as best as you can. Like the 8am classes, you think that – because you did 5 days of high school – you can handle Friday classes in college. But when every Thursday night you have the internal battle between going out and staying in to do that last-minute homework, you’ll realize that while maybe you can handle Friday classes, doesn’t mean you won’t hate actually going to them.

An average Thursday night when you don’t have a Friday class

Core classes that are still open weeks into registration 

Core classes are going to be annoying and difficult but unfortunately, they must be done. With that in mind, take core classes that are popular. These classes usually fill up pretty quickly and are definitely not still sitting open on Albert weeks into registration. This may mean waiting till your junior year to take Texts and Ideas but I promise, you’ll be minimizing your misery.

2+ hour classes 

Only students will stellar attention spans and staminas for high-level concentration can be productive in classes longer than 2 hours. Even if you come prepared with coffee, snacks and a fully charged laptop, it will probably only take an hour before you’re on Instagram or watching Netflix with the subtitles on. And good luck to you if you have more than one multi-hour class in a day because even Netflix won’t stop you from staring wistfully out the window, just wanting to be anywhere but in that 3 hour class.

Classes where it’s only graded on exams

Unless you’re the kind of person who operates well under pressure and kills it at exams, classes which only grade you on exams should be avoided at all costs.