De Anza College needs to clarify its course registration system regarding programs and groups eligible for early registration.

Students attending De Anza for a while notice they can’t just add whatever classes they want to take. With the college averaging 22,000 students per quarter, some classes, especially general education courses, are extremely hard to get into. Also, students can’t just register for classes whenever they want, even on the official date for registration.

De Anza assigns each student a certain date when they can start to sign up for classes.

“I just want to know why I’m getting this date,” Lisa Oh, an economics major said.

The general rule is that a student receives a registration date based on the number of units the student has accumulated. The more units completed, the earlier the student can sign up.

De Anza offers eligibility for early registration to several groups. Some of those are mandated by the law, such as veterans and recipients of Disability Support Services, as well as members of the Extended Opportunity Program. The system seems fair enough for these groups.

International students receive priority registration, but only if they have earned fewer than 36 units. This is to insure that new international students can take classes full-time, as required by their student visa. Also, students in the Honors Program are allowed to register early because they are mandated to take one honors course every quarter to remain in the program.

De Anza, like many other colleges, offers athletes priority registration to avoid conflicts between the students’ class schedules and practice times. However, considering the population at De Anza and the competitiveness of its course registration, this reason is not convincing to other students struggling to get into classes they want to take.

Another controversy arises whether priority registration should be available for those student government. Despite the claim that student government members need first pick to be able to balance a schedule with college activities, students with jobs or any other activities on and off campus can use this arguement.

Many De Anza students are not aware of the long list of groups receiving early registration. There is no mention of priority registration recipients on the De Anza website or in the college catalog. The website and states registration for “continuing students” starts Nov. 22 and registration for “new/former students” starts Dec. 6 for winter. But, when continuing students actually log into the registration system to add classes, they notice a lot of seats are already taken.

In an effort to remain more transparent to its student population, De Anza needs to clarify and publicize its early registration system.