Claire C. Laurence/Arizona Daily Wildcat Students have been cramming into classrooms in order to fulfill the prerequisites they need to graduate, like this cellular biology course in BioSciences West. Many students have had trouble adding classes as a result of the budget cutbacks in multiple departments.

UA registrars have already processed more than 1,700 class-change requests, an indication of the growing competition among students to get into classes.

Senior associate registrar Beth Acree said 1,773 change-of-schedule forms were submitted to the Registrar's Office in the first three days of the semester.

Matthew Schlievert, a Latin American studies senior, was only able to get into one class for his criminal justice minor after three attempts to find an instructor who would add him.

After attempting to add two classes that were full, Schlievert finally found a course that had a few vacant seats, giving him a chance to graduate in May.

To further complicate his mission to add classes, the line to process the change-of-schedule forms in the Student Union Memorial Center was packed Friday.

"I came yesterday but there was a long line so I decided to come back today," Schlievert said Saturday.

About 6,300 schedule changes are usually processed during the first two weeks of any given semester, and about 1,200 more are made throughout the rest of the semester, Acree said.

Acree said students can still add classes online through WebReg, but change-of-schedule forms are necessary for classes limited to specific majors.

Lisa Gernak, a theatre arts senior, said she had trouble getting into economics 200, a class she needs to graduate.

The course used to be in a lecture hall that holds 600 people, but now hundreds of students can't get into the class because it's held in a smaller hall, said Gernak.

"I also tried to get into (business administration) 301, but it was full in the middle of senior registration," Gernak said.

Gernak said she was frustrated that she couldn't get into classes needed for graduation, which forced her to sign up for Winter Session and spend more money on tuition.

"They should have a sufficient amount of professors and room space for the number of students who need the class," Garnek said. "I don't know why they don't fix it."

Acree said many departments, like English and art, handle the schedule changes independently because the courses may be open only to specific majors or require prerequisites.

"It's cleaner for the departments to keep track of these things themselves," Acree said.

Wilma Pinedo, an art department office specialist, said there is a big demand for art classes because of limited room space. There were more than 100 schedule change requests made last week by art majors.

"The system seems to work well, but schedule changes are unavoidable," said Pinedo. "Students may change their mind or find scheduling conflicts."

For students who want to avoid changing their schedules once classes have begun, Acree recommends meeting with their advisers, having a plan and paying close attention to the beginning of priority registration because after that, class choices become limited.

"Planning is probably the best thing you can do," Acree said.

Amanda Peters, a pre-pharmacy sophomore, said she accidentally slept through her priority registration time on WebReg because it was early in the morning. She also didn't know what classes she wanted.

"I didn't have a solid plan, but it's on my to-do list for this semester," Peters said.

Peters said she only had to wait a few minutes to get her schedule change processed and was happy that the line was not long.

"I like that they have a station in the Student Union and not everything is concentrated here (in the Administration Building)," Peters said.

Acree said that someday all schedule changes may be able to be done through WebReg, which has been used by the UA for about eight years.

For now the Registar's Office is trying to minimize waiting times by closely monitoring lines.

All students will need to complete a change of schedule form to add or change courses after today when WebReg closes, Acree said.