As you may or may not know, Advance Registration ends on Sunday.

If you are anything like me (read: huge nerd), you find these two weeks among the most exciting in the semester. For exactly 14 days, I am filled with wide-eyed optimism about the opportunities the next semester will bring, conveniently disregarding the fact that even the most interesting and enjoyable classes entail work that I never feel like doing, spending money on textbooks that I never feel like reading, “midterms” that occur approximately every 20 minutes and professors who make me feel like I should not have passed kindergarten.

One of the greatest things about Penn is that there are hundreds of courses to choose from, ranging across a breadth of subjects, and there are hardly any restrictions on what you can learn.

One of the worst things about Penn is that it adheres to the 168-hours-per-week schedule that the rest of the world tends to follow, making it difficult to manage all of the courses that sound attractive in such a limited amount of time.

Therefore as a public service I have decided to draft a Penn Course Cipher that will help decode the often-overwhelming Course Register and equip you with the appropriate tools for selecting the best spring semester schedule possible.

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