When Scheduling Fails Students

Insights from the Hispanic Development Fund (HDF) Scholars on balancing life and school

As a current Hispanic Development Fund (HDF) Scholar and summer marketing intern at Ad Astra, I’ve had the unique chance to see both sides of the higher ed experience — what it’s like to build a class schedule around life, and what it takes behind the scenes to make those schedules possible and still have a life.

The Hispanic Development Fund (HDF) supports Latinx students through financial aid and academic empowerment. As part of my internship, I helped organize a focus group with HDF Scholars to discuss the real-life challenges students face when balancing scheduling, school, work, and life.

My Experience with Scheduling Courses

I spent my first two years at a community college before transferring, and as a first-generation college student, I found registration confusing at first. I thought I was on track, checking all the boxes, until I found out I was missing two credits for my associate’s degree.

No one caught the issue.

It was stressful, especially since I had already planned my next semester at the university. Thankfully, I was able to reverse transfer the credits back to my college to satisfy the two missing credits—but it shouldn’t have come to that. If I hadn’t caught it, it could have cost me time and money.

Seeing the Bigger Picture

In article I read titled, Who Are the New Majority of College Students? by Michelle Centamore helped me put this all into perspective. She writes, “Today’s learners are not problems to be solved, but the future of higher education.” That line stuck with me, and it reflects what we heard from HDF Scholars, too.

Most of us aren’t following a traditional path. We’re balancing work, family, commuting, and other responsibilities. And when course scheduling isn’t flexible, it adds even more pressure to an already full plate.

What we heard from the HDF Scholars

During the focus group, students shared experiences that fell into three major themes:

1. 1) Getting the Classes They Need

   “Two of my required classes ended up being scheduled for the same exact time. That caused a really annoying chain reaction throughout the next semesters.” — Megan

   “One of my classes got canceled three weeks before it started. I was already stressed because it was short notice, and classes were filling up fast.” — Maximo

2. 2) Where Time Management Falls Apart

   “When you're working a job and going to school, it can be really hard to create balance. I work all day and then have social work classes at night. Finding time is really tough.” — Aliyah

   “Some of these classes are listed as three credit hours, but they actually take six hours of work a week or more. That mismatch makes it hard to plan.” — Ryan

3. 3) Planning Without Support

   “I was just taking courses and didn’t even know what I needed. Only last year did I actually start making progress.” — Ryan

   “We need a way to see everything at once—classes, work, personal time—so we can actually plan. Right now, it’s scattered across websites.” — Catherine

Scheduling isn’t just about picking classes. It’s about making college work with everything else students carry. By listening to students and designing schedules that reflect the realities of their lives, institutions can turn frustration into momentum. Tools like Ad Astra’s scheduling software help make that possible—by aligning course offerings with real student demand and supporting paths to timely graduation.

HDF Scholarship Student Profile

• 80% are first-generation college students
• Many are first-generation immigrants from low- to moderate-income families
• Students have a 3.4 GPA
• 14% are undocumented learners (Dreamers)
• 64% live in Kansas
• 36% live in Missouri

About the Greater Kansas City Hispanic Development Fund

The Greater Kansas City Hispanic Development Fund (HDF) works to improve the lives of Latino families by engaging the Latino community in philanthropy to build stronger communities through grantmaking and scholarship support. Each year, HDF awards supplemental scholarships to Latino students who graduate from a metropolitan high school. Since its founding in 1984, the organization has awarded more than $1.7 million in scholarships.