Kennesaw State University is a wonderful place. This is why I chose to transfer here after my freshman year of college, however I never thought I would have a hard time registering for the classes I am required to take to pursue my major. According to its website, Kennesaw State is proud to be the third-largest university in the state of Georgia, and "one of the fifty largest public universities in the country." Included on the website is a table that shows how KSU's total undergraduate population increased by 5% from 30,480 in Fall 2015 to 32,166 in Fall 2016. Many people know that KSU merged with Southern Polytechnic State University, which led to what many students described as an overcrowded environment on the Kennesaw Campus, as well as an increase in tuition. On August 30, 2016, 11 Alive News published an article, along with a video, pertaining to the parking problem experienced by students at KSU. The article stated that "According to school officials, KSU has roughly 35,000 students and of those, 22,000 have parking permits. There are just over 14,000 open parking spaces on campus."

As a current student, I can assure you all that parking is still a major problem on campus, however, it is not the only problem us students face. As a Finance major, I have a "Sophomore GPA Requirement" I must meet to apply for the Coles College of Business. It is my understanding most, if not all majors require a certain GPA in a certain group of classes to be eligible to apply for a specific college. THE PROBLEM IS THAT THOSE CLASSES NEEDED TO APPLY FOR THE COLLEGES FILL UP SO QUICKLY THAT A MAJORITY OF STUDENTS ARE UNABLE TO TAKE THE CLASSES BEFORE THEIR JUNIOR YEAR, WHEN THEY SHOULD BE STARTING THE COURSES WITHIN THEIR COLLEGE. There are not enough classes offered to students for us to be able to complete the requirements in time to apply for our college of choice without having to take a summer semester of college, which costs more money.

According to KSU's website, there were 4,873 new freshman enrolled for Fall 2015, and 5,182 new freshman enrolled in Fall 2016. This doesn't include the 5,425 transfer students from those years. That's nearly 15,480 students who will need to fulfill their respective Sophomore GPA Requirements over the next year or two years. Take away the transfer students, and you still have 10,607 students who will be taking first and second year courses. I'm a Finance major, so I'll approach it from the Business Sophomore GPA Requirement view.  Take a look at ECON 2300, or Business Statistics. There are 9 courses offered, with a total of 465 seats. Now, this class is a REQUIREMENT for the Sophomore GPA in order to apply for Coles College. According to the Coles College website, it currently has over 6000 students. Do the math, with KSU having 35,000 students, and Coles College accounts for around 17% of KSU's total population. Now, I don't know if that 6,000 includes graduate students, so lets take it down to 4,500 undergraduate students at Coles College. That accounts for 14% of KSU's total undergraduate population. 14% of the 15,480 first year, second-year and transfer students is around 2,167 students. So, one can assume that around 2,167 first and second-year students at KSU plan on studying in the Business field. KSU, if offering 465 seats of ECON 2300 each semester, will offer 1,860 seats of ECON 2300 over the course of 2 years. THERE ARE AROUND 307 STUDENTS WHO WILL NOT BE ABLE TO TAKE ECON 2300 BY THE TIME THEY ARE JUNIORS, AND WOULD HAVE TO TAKE A SUMMER SEMESTER OR WAIT IN ORDER TO FULFILL THE SOPHOMORE GPA REQUIREMENTS IN ORDER TO APPLY FOR COLES COLLEGE. I understand the numbers are not exact, but non-business students are also able to take these classes as electives, thus increasing the number of students who are attempting to take courses such as ECON 2300.

The students of KSU deserve better than this. I understand that not all transfer students are freshman and sophomores, and that some may have transfer credit that can count towards the Sophomore GPA Requirement. However, many students have jobs, so their schedule is not as flexible in terms of when they can schedule their classes. For a university that prides itself on how large it is and its exponential growth rate, it is a shame that students cannot take the classes they need. ACCORDING TO U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT, KSU'S 4-YEAR GRADUATION RATE IS 15%. We students are not asking for anything ridiculous. We are proud to go to a school that places such emphasis not only on academics, but student life as a whole. All we are asking for is we be granted the ability to learn.