Okay, you’re gonna want to sit down for this. We at the Clog are about to talk about something that’s scarier than “The Shining.” This is some real paranormal activity, a concept that’s probably all too familiar to us all — the waitlist: a true horror story.

CalCentral mentions it so casually that four or eight or 16 of our units are waitlisted. But we’ve all felt that rush of panic when we log on and notice that we aren’t full-time students. The truth is, remaining on the waitlist insinuates greater struggles than we care to admit, and just a few of them are listed below.

We don’t know whether or not to buy the books
The thing about college is that it costs money. As UC Berkeley undergrads (what’s an adult?) we’re not exactly looking for any reason to reach for our wallets, which is why we’re not trying to buy books before our enrollment in the class is confirmed. This means that in the meantime, we’ll probably be so confused in lecture it’s not even worth showing up, and we’ll likely end up failing our first quiz and two midterms while we’re at it. Is it even worth staying on the waitlist at all?

You have to compensate for your waitlisted units
In other words, you’re going to want to make sure you have some backups in case you don’t get off your waitlists, and since you don’t want to fall entirely behind in any class, you’ll have to attend lecture and turn in assignments for both the classes you don’t want to take as well as those you do but probably won’t get into. Good luck juggling 22 units.

You’re going to have an existential crisis
At one point or another, you’re going to say to yourself that if you can’t get into whatever class, it might be time to consider a change in major. Unfortunately, you only have so much time to check off your prerequisites, so if you can’t get into those classes as soon as possible, it might be worth opening yourself up to new passions.

You’ll probably realize that at some point, you just aren’t going to graduate
If you can’t accumulate enough units, you aren’t going to get your diploma. At this point, you’d best be advised to cry a little and begin considering an alternative lifestyle as a college dropout.

Unfortunately, it’s pretty tough getting through four years at UC Berkeley without being cursed with at least one or two poor enrollment times. Just power through these weeks and don’t give up. There’s nothing you can’t do if you try hard enough! Usually.