When I had to re-register for several classes and change my schedule during my fourth semester of college, I thought it would be a good idea to set up an alarm on my phone that would go off every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day, until the add/drop period ended or until I registered for all of my classes. I did not sleep very well and was getting progressively more annoyed with having to check for all of my classes.
When I had to re-register for several classes after I was erroneously dropped from all of my classes in a later semester, I typed the names of my courses into the free Coursicle scheduling app, received a notification when I could register, and added myself to the new class within a minute.
After Coursicle made it easier for me to register for my classes even after the semester had started, I wanted to shout from the rooftops and share what an amazing application it is. But since it’s more practical for me to write a blog post than it is to stand on the roof, here are my tips for how to use Coursicle for scheduling college classes.
Coursicle overview
Coursicle is a college course scheduling app that makes it easier for students to register and plan for their classes. Students can plan their schedules and get notified when seats become available in closed or waitlisted classes, as well as browse the course catalog using filters to find information about class names, locations, professors, and more. For some schools, students can also get the names of textbooks for each class, which makes it easier to purchase books or request accessible textbooks in advance.
Coursicle is a free app available for iOS and Android. Users can pay for a $5 in-app purchase to track unlimited classes each semester, or they can refer the app to three friends and track unlimited courses for free. Coursicle can also be accessed through their web application with no downloads required.
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Participating schools
Coursicle now supports over 1100 colleges and universities in the United States, including community colleges, four year colleges, and a mix of public/private schools of various sizes. All programs that use the college’s course scheduling software can be used with Coursicle, including undergraduate and graduate classes.
Students can request Coursicle at their institution by sending the developers a message.
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- How To Find Colleges To Apply To
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How to use Coursicle
When first using the app, users will need to select their school, and then add classes to track. When the course has an open seat, the user will receive a push notification and can register for the course on their school’s class registration website. Coursicle does not automate registering for classes, they just notify students about which classes are available- they still have to register for courses themselves.
In addition to course registration information, Coursicle also offers several other features for setting reminders for classes, communicating with other students, and getting information about professors and textbooks. However, I don’t personally use these features because they have small font sizes.
How to add and remove classes
To add a class in Coursicle:
- Select the plus icon on the app home page, and select Class
- Scroll through all available courses, or search for a specific class
- To see all of the classes for a particular department, enter the prefix (e.g IT)
- To find a specific class or section, type in the full course name (IT 104, IT 104-006)
- Select the course name to add it to your list of courses to track.
To remove a course in Coursicle:
- Select the course on the app homepage
- Select the “untrack” button at the top of the screen
- You will no longer receive notifications about this course
Course notifications
If a course becomes open, a phone notification will pop up that says the course has seats available. For example, if I was tracking EDUC 203-001, I would get a notification that says “EDUC 203-001 has been changed from closed to open.” I do not get a notification if a class goes from open to closed.
Once users get a notification, check the name of the class or course registration number to ensure it is the correct class- some institutions may also give the class registration code/course registration number, which is a 5-6 digit number unique for each class. Students can register by going to the college’s course registration website and enroll in the class. Again, Coursicle does not automate registering for classes, they just notify students about which classes are available.
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- How To Schedule College Classes
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Using Coursicle with large print
Coursicle was updated recently to include a lot more text content, which is challenging for me to read in the mobile app. To find course information, I just search for the course name and select the Add icon to get notified if a class status changes from closed to open. The names of classes and section numbers are shown in a large bold font, and if I want to read other information I either use text-to-speech or open the Coursicle website in the web browser and use browser zoom or a screen magnifier.
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- How To Make iPad Accessible for Low Vision
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Using Coursicle with a screen reader
Coursicle is usable with a screen reader, but the Add button is unlabeled on the Home Screen for both the iOS and Android apps. Other buttons such as the Class Search function, add class to schedule, and remove class from schedule buttons are labeled, and text can be read out loud with text-to-speech. Users may prefer the web application instead of the mobile app for accessibility.
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- How To Use VoiceOver With Low Vision
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How I’ve used Coursicle
Tracking virtual classes
When I first registered for a math class, I thought it would be better to take it in-person rather than virtually, but quickly realized that I would actually do better in a virtual class where I could use my desktop computer. I tracked the distance learning/online classes for my math class until I found an open seat and switched to the virtual class.
Enrolling with a popular professor
I found out that one of my favorite professors was teaching another section of a class for my major, but their section was full. I tracked for an open seat with Coursicle and when the professor added additional seat openings for their class, I was one of the first to register!
Last-minute class changes
One semester, I thought I would take two classes that sounded interesting online, but I quickly realized after the first day that I wasn’t actually interested in these topics at all. I tracked two replacement classes with Coursicle and got an alert the moment a seat opened up so that I could fix my schedule and attend the first day of the new class.
Changing your major
For students who decide to change their major before the start of a new semester, it can be challenging to register for required classes. I recommend tracking class openings with Coursicle, as this makes it easier to register for classes during semester breaks without having to constantly refresh the registration page.
Registering or re-registering for all of my classes
Coursicle has a great scheduling tool for planning out the semester, but as I mentioned in the first section of this post, it also came in handy when I had to re-register for all of my classes after an administrative error caused me to be dropped from all of my classes. Being able to view the building location and times for each of the classes made it easier for me to adjust plans and make sure I didn’t schedule two classes on opposite ends of campus back-to-back.
Related links
- Tips For Taking Online Classes As An On-Campus Student
- What To Know About College Assistive Technology Specialists
- Ten Questions To Ask When Changing Your Major
- What If I Get Dropped From All My College Classes?
- Taking Online English Classes With Low Vision
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More tips for using the Coursicle class scheduling app
- Some colleges may have separate Coursicle pages for different campuses- this was the case for the community college where I took my math classes. Learn more about community college disability accommodations in How To Get Disability Accommodations In Community College
- Coursicle does not require an account for use, though some colleges make select features available to people with a verified .edu account. Read about how I organize emails in How I Organize Emails In College With Low Vision
- Scheduling tools and course information can be viewed on the Coursicle website, but users will need to download the mobile app to track classes
Published January 22, 2019. Updated January 2025