Seniors Emily Bartlett and Sarah Khatry were already at school before the doors even opened on Aug. 29. Both arrived at 6:30 a.m. in hopes of getting their schedules changed before most of the other students arrived.

“We were concerned that the line would already be too long if we showed up at the normal time,” Khatry said.

Bartlett and Khatry were not the only students who showed up early. The schedule-changing session was from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., but the bulk of students came in before, only to join an ever-growing crowd waiting to change their courses. The students were required to fill out a form detailing with classes to add and to drop. Then, depending on students’ circumstances and priorities, they either went home or had to wait for counselors to call their names.

Counselors decided on this system, after having over 600 schedule changes last year, with students coming in to school on a first come-first serve basis.

“Tons of students change their minds after they finalize their schedules,” guidance counselor Tom McNichol said. “We have an abundance of electives offered and only limited times when they are scheduled, so the priority is for core courses and graduation requirements, then semester electives.”

Though the reasons for scheduling changes ranged from wanting to switch elective courses to missing core or prerequisite classes, many of the students came to a consensus that the system of handling the schedule changes was perceived as chaotic and disorganized.

“It was crowded, and I didn’t know what to do,” said Chris Kim, a junior who had to wait three hours before meeting with his counselor. “It was very disorganized.”

Schedules are still in the process of being changed, and will be finalized by Sept. 14.