CAESAR. Just hearing the word makes Northwestern students bristle.

The slow search engine, the shopping cart process, making sense of time conflicts and accidentally pressing back on a page makes registration week a hassle. University of Massachusetts at Amherst senior Tom Petr faced similar frustrations and decided to solve the problem with Schedr.

“It was created because our registration system called SPIRE — it’s really similar to your CAESAR — was really awful,” Petr says. “I just wanted to make a solution that saves time and makes more sense to people. Letting people visualize what they want to do instead of making them think in terms of numbers just makes things easier.”

Schedr streamlines the course registration process by letting students search and schedule classes on one page. Brought to Northwestern in August 2008 at the request of McCormick senior Andrew Reiter, the site resembles calendar applications such as Google Calendar with blocks of time representing selected classes on a weekly schedule. All course data is pulled from CAESAR’s database, so students don’t have to worry about missing classes.

“I really just like how it puts out the whole schedule in a block format,” says Weinberg sophomore Michael Nussbaum, who is a Schedr user. “So I can see everything I have for that one day.”

After running for two years, Schedr has 2,000 registered users, most from University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Northwestern is only the second school that the program serves.

Petr plans to monetize the site but decided to stay away from ads on the main page to save space. He plans to license the product to other schools.

Although the site requires registration, Petr protects the privacy of all users. Schedr requires a school e-mail address to identify college students.

Users have responded positively to Schedr, and Petr welcomes additional feedback on how to improve the website.

“CTEC integration would be great,” says McCormick senior Ethan Altman, who is a Schedr user. “Right now you’re going between two systems inside and outside CAESAR. Scheduling all in one system — that’d be very useful.”

Petr appreciates suggestions and plans to implement additional features such as CTECs and narrowing down classes by distribution requirements, so Northwestern students can look forward to complete freedom from the shackles of CAESAR.

That’s what CAESAR thinks, at least. The already complaint-worthy registration system is still up and running, however at last glance the wormhole to the baby boom is still there. No, you can’t actually see those courses.

Say hello to President Truman for me.

Registration week is upon us, and we at North by Northwestern are here to help. We’ve culled through CAESAR and scanned through CTECs to bring you the best of the best classes for next quarter — and also some of the strangest. Also, we asked you last week to send in your own recommendations for classes you loved or couldn’t stand. Whether you want a life-changing lecturer or just a science distro, we’ve got you covered.

The CAESAR course selection system at Northwestern is a piece of crap. Sure, it had an upgrade about a year ago. We now have shopping carts and stuff. Sounds fantastic. At any rate, here’s my list of CAESAR add-ons that would make my life so much easier.

1. Stop having the search function default to the previous quarter. Oh, this pisses me off so much. I’m trying to register for my Winter 2009 classes, but CAESAR likes to default to Fall 2008 classes. I’m sure this has happened to numerous people: You’re sitting and looking through classes and you find an amazing class on Lumberjacking Techniques. “OMG,” you say, “let me add that to my shopping cart.” But you can’t because that class already happened. Would whoever controls CAESAR just update the damn thing in a timely fashion?!

2. Get a recommendation system. “Based on your CTEC reviews of Lumberjacking Techniques, you also might enjoy The Fine Art of the Blacksmith.” It would be just like iTunes, Netflix or Amazon’s systems. CTECs would still remain anonymous. The data would just be anonymously harvested for this process. Yes, I know it would take some time to code this, but it would be eternally useful. I don’t have time to search through every department. Give me some recommendations. Better yet, get the Computer Science majors to code this as a project. They’d love it and it would save NU some green.

3. Nix the shopping cart, add a wish list. The shopping cart sucks. Once you add stuff to the shopping cart, you have to enroll in those classes. Yes, you can hit the little trash can icon, but if I ever want that class back, I have to search for it again. If I had a wish list on CAESAR, I could add every class that I’m thinking about taking (usually 7 or so each quarter) and simply check the ones I want to enroll in when my time comes. Sometimes, I want to drop a class and add one of my other choices. If I had a wish list, this would be simple. Ultimately, this could be easily fixed by just adding check boxes to the shopping cart in addition to the trash can.

4. Let Quikpay communicate with CAESAR. There are times when I get behind in my quarterly payments and Northwestern puts a registration hold on my account. Understandable. But once I pay the balance due, the hold is supposed to be lifted. However, in order to have the hold lifted, I have to call some office at Northwestern and speak to someone. Why? Why can’t these two systems talk to each other? And if I pay my balance on the weekend, why do I have to wait until Monday to get my hold released? Absolutely ridiculous.

Have any more ideas? Let us know in the comments.

When I was a little kid and someone asked me, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I had many answers: coroner (don’t ask), mommy, doctor, nun. It seemed that the well of inspiration and ideas never ran dry. But now that I actually have to make a choice, it’s hard to come up with a convincing answer.

For freshmen (myself included), this can be a daunting proposition–especially with Winter registration right around the corner.

In high school we still clutched to the childhood frame of mind with wary delusion; we had the opportunity to take all different kinds of courses with limited liability. Just because we took Chemistry or AP Literature didn’t mean we were destined to become doctors or English professors. Rather, we used this as a litmus test for our futures. If we found ourselves in over our heads (cough, cough), the solution was simple: wait it out, cross it off and move on. At worst, our GPA was tugged down, but we surely didn’t waste vast amounts of money (at least not in proportion to that of a class here).

But now, from picking classes to joining clubs to attending lectures, it seems that life at Northwestern is tied to the question we once found so easy to answer. How is one supposed to make a sound investment without any clue of their academic direction? As little kids, we could change our minds every day if we wanted to, but that simple approach to life–along with the Easter bunny and Santa–has faded with the stinging reality of this thing we call adulthood (it’s still scary to say that word). There is, after all, a lot more at stake. We fulfill prerequisites, take major-related classes, and study within one specialized school: There is an emphasis on making our choices early, and sticking with them.

Yes, the labyrinth that is CAESAR can appear intimidating for all–regardless of decisiveness in major–but the convoluted registration system may not be as useless as it appears, even if your registration time falls after the sun sets. In fact, it can actually be a blessing in disguise for undecided students.

The problem is that the “good,” popular classes are known to fill up fast. This leaves late-registration students, particularly freshmen who aren’t even able to preregister within their major, out of luck. However, this doesn’t necessarily have to mean an end to your future. Take a breath, maybe chew it over with a Twix, and return to your computer.

Take, for instance, the registration experience of one of my cross country teammates. She ended up in a history class that, at the beginning, she wasn’t too thrilled with (to say the least). Let’s just say that Medieval Japanese History was a far cry from what the pre-med student thought she should be looking for. It took her a few classes to actually get into the rhythm of it, but not only has it become her favorite class, it is something she wants to study more in the future. Look at that! From a potential “drop class,” a genuine interest had emerged.

My teammate’s story can be comforting to undecided students: even if you end up in classes that you’re not excited about initially, exposure to things you’d otherwise avoid can lead to discoveries of your own unknown passions, helping turn “undecided” into “decided”. At the same time, if you do end up in classes that are truly heinous, you’ll know what to avoid next time. Either way, registration can steer you in the right direction toward a declaration of major or even career choice.

At $50,000 a ticket, the Northwestern experience is still not something to play around with. However, when you have a blank slate in front of you, there is no danger in some eclectic sampling. Immersed in lab reports and numbers all day, my teammate found solace in the folktales and history of the Japanese people. A late registration time might seem like a death sentence, but I refuse to allow people believe that an unwanted class means that all hope is lost.