One of the benefits of going to such a large university is that there’s so many classes to chose from. Practically anything we’ve be interested in exploring is available to us in one class form or another. We’ve taken electives ranging from indoor soccer to understanding music to Zulu.

But aside from an eclectic range of electives, we’re all stuck with a similar problem: How do you get those general education courses required for all students out of the way without killing your GPA or making a semester of college miserable?

We’ve learned some of these lessons the hard way.

First things first: weigh your priorities for each semester and plan ahead. Are you most concerned about not having to wake up early? Having professors who will inspire you? Getting through your last few semesters without putting in a ton of extra work?

If the first question is most important to you, you’re probably just going to pick whatever classes are scheduled later than noon and call it a schedule.

But if the other questions are making you feel conflicted about your class choices, you might want to consider the timing and choice of professors.

We’ve learned the hard way that even though your statistics class might be hard and bring down your GPA, it’s probably better to take it when you’re a freshman and still have time to improve your GPA, rather than waiting until your last few semesters of college to get a poor grade with no time to improve your record. That 1.5 in statistics might not be as noticeable on your transcript freshman year, but a slew of poor grades your senior year might draw questions from graduate schools or programs asking for your transcript.

Aside from timing and semester schedules, it really comes down to the professor.

If you’re worried a class is going to be challenging, but you still need to take it, spend a few extra minutes looking up the professor for your section.

Although it is tempting to check Koofers to find the professor that assigns the least amount of homework or doesn’t take attendance, a quality professor that’s lecture-style or whose personal research is interesting to you might give you that extra push to focus in a class you may not otherwise care about. If you know economics isn’t your strongest subject, a professor that makes jokes between examples might be the difference between you reviewing your notes for an extra few minutes after class and you zoning out halfway through lecture.

We would rather take a required class outside of our major with a more challenging professor who gives interesting lectures, especially if the alternative is struggling through a class we dread.