Siscast.com is a site built to help university students plan future quarters. Students can enter the courses they want to take and Siscast.com will create schedules for them. It can even find GEs that will fit into the schedule they have already chosen. The site also helps students in researching which courses to take by allowing them to see teacher and class ratings. These ratings can help students decide which section of a class to take. Come the beginning of the quarter, Siscast provides students with an easy way to purchase their textbooks online. Students only need to enter the name of the course they are taking (e.g. bst290) and Siscast will direct them to an Amazon.com page where they can easily purchase the textbook. No more hassling with ISBNs or s.

The compose schedules portion of the site allows you to enter class names (e.g. bst290)or s (e.g.92433) of the courses you want to take next quarter. Using a nifty algorithm, Siscast.com figures out if any of the classes conflict, and returns a bunch of schedules to choose from. You can even set time restrictions so that Siscast will only show you the schedules that start at a decent hour. For instance, many students like to require that classes start no earlier than 10am. But that's not all! The composer can even help you find a GE. Just check the box that says "Find me a GE:" and Siscast will magically pick a GE that fits nicely into your schedules. And there's even more! You can check the box labeled "only search open courses" and Siscast will only show you the schedules with classes that are open.

The search classes portion of the site allows you to search all of the classes being offered during the term. You can search based on a or class name. You can restrict your search to certain times of the day, certain days of the week, or to upper and lower division courses. We've also made it easier to find the GE that you need. Now you can restrict your search to only GEs that fill the university D(diversity) and W(writing) requirements.

This is the section of the site where you can purchase textbooks. Just enter the or name of the class you are taking and Siscast will tell you what books you need. Here are the steps you need to follow to buy textbooks:

• Click on the "textbooks" link
• Enter the classes that you are taking (You may be prompted to choose a section if different teachers require different textbooks)
• Siscast will then show you the textbooks that you need
• Click on the "add book to cart" button for each textbook you wish to purchase. Each time you click "add book to cart" an amazon.com window will pop up allowing you to add the book to your Amazon cart. Here you can choose to buy a new book from Amazon, or you may buy a used book by clicking on the link that says "used & new" right above the "add to cart" button.
• Once you've added a book to your cart, you should click "Hide Amazon.com Page" so that you can add the rest of your books to your cart.
• After you've finished adding all of your books to your cart click the "Purchase Books" link on the bottom of the page. This will take you to an amazon.com page to complete your order.

You may also click the "email book price list" link to email your list of books to a nice person who will buy them for you.

The class ratings section of the site is also new. Here you can do some research on the classes being offered. You can see what previous students thought of the teacher and the class. Ratings are broken down into the categories of interest, easiness, clarity, helpfulness, and overall rating. This gives you a detailed breakdown of others' opinions. You can even add your comments for future generations to view.

This is a brand new feature for Siscast. And yes, it's yet another social networking thing. What, you may ask, is novel about this one? Now, when you search for classes and schedules, you can find out how many friends you have in a class. Using the schedule composer, you can now find schedules where you can take the most (or least) classes with your friends. No more gazing around the room on the first day for a friendly face in a sea of strangers. If you and your friends use Siscast, you'll know who to be looking for.

The teacher ratings section is very similar to the class ratings section. Here you can see all the classes a teacher taught, and the opinions of the students who took those courses. When you click the "Rate this Teacher" button you are given a short survey to fill out. This helps future students get a more detailed summary of your thoughts on the teacher and class.

The Siscast Calendaring feature gives each student a personal online calendar. This calendar is automatically updated with the student's course schedule and finals schedule. It also allows them to schedule events with other students (e.g. study groups, lunches, etc.). It also includes the schedule overlay feature which helps to determine free time among an event's participants.

Schedule overlays allow you to see everyone's schedule for the week. For each hour of the day, the overlay shows you how many people are busy and how many people are free. It can even suggest a meeting time. If you need to find a meeting time where specific people are free, just click the check box under the column "must be available for the meeting" to the right of the person's picture. You can overlay schedules with any other user by clicking on the link "overlay my schedule with John's" right above their schedule on the user's profile page. You can also overlay the schedules of all of your friends by clicking on the link "Overlay schedules with John's Friends". Yet another way to overlay schedules is to go to a class page by clicking on one of the classes on your saved schedule. In the "roster" section of the class page you can choose to overlay with everyone in your class or just those people in your section. This would be useful when trying to plan study groups or office hours.

Just click the "Add Custom Event" button above your schedule on your profile page.

Click the link "overlay schedules with friends" at the bottom of the friend section on your user profile. Once you're ready to schedule an event, just click the link "schedule an event" at the top of the page. You can always add more users by clicking the "add user" button when you are filling out your event information. The event will be added to all of your friends' calendars on their user profiles.

Just click the link manage custom events on your profile page. You can delete any event you've created or that someone has created for you. If you delete a group event that you did not create, then it will only be deleted from your calendar. You may modify any event or group event that you've created. You can even add and remove people from your event.

You can only add people to events that you created. To add someone you must modify the event. You can access this by clicking "manage custom events" from your profile page. You can then click the “edit” link next to the event you want to modify. Simply click the “add user” button on the next page and search for the person you'd like to add. Once you are done, submit your changes by clicking “edit event” and you're done !

First you must be on a class page. See the question "How do I access a class page?" for more details. Next, you click on the link “Schedule Events” for the group of students you want to schedule an event with (don't worry, you can always add or remove people later). You are then taken to the schedule overlay page where you can view everyone's availability. Once you have chosen a time for your event, you can click the “schedule an event” link at the top of the overlay page. Now you must enter the date and time of your event. You may also add or remove people from the event. Once you are done, simply click “add event” and the event will be added to everyone's calendar.

No, schedules are saved separately from personal events. If you change your schedule, your personal events, such as meetings and lunches, will remain on your calendar.

The class cart appears on the bottom of the class search pages. Use it like a shopping cart to add the classes that you would like in your schedule. Simply click on the of the class of your choice, and it will be added to your cart. Once you have finished "shopping" for classes, simply click the "Build a Schedule with these classes" button. This will take you to the schedule composer where you will be able to choose which combination of these classes you like the most.

There are many links to the class pages throughout the site:

Click on a class on any of your schedules

Click on the class name in the classmates section of your profile

Click on the title of the class when you are searching for classes

Please notify us immediately. If you know the correct information, please email it to us as it will expedite the update process.

With the new Siscast, you can create a user profile. If you convince your friends to do the same, then you'll get access to oodles of new features. With Siscast, it's easier to plan group meetings with classmates or meet up with friends. You can use the schedule overlay feature to figure out when everyone is free so that you can plan a gathering. We hope it'll be useful for anything from friends trying to schedule a lunch to clubs trying to schedule meetings.

No, the login is NOT required. You can still search for classes, buy textbooks, and create schedules. Without the login, though, you won't be able to find your friends in classes and they won't be able to find you. You also don't get access to the schedule history feature of the site. Without the login we don't know who you are, so we can't give you access to these features.

When you are viewing schedules in the schedule composer click the "Save this Schedule" link to the right of the schedule. The schedules you save will be accessible via your profile page. Just click the link “view saved schedules”.

When you are viewing schedules in the schedule composer, just click the "Put this on my Siscast Calendar" link. It will now show up in your calendar on your profile page. Another method is to go to “view saved schedules” from your user profile page. There you’ll see a link also called “Put this on my Siscast Calendar" next to all of your saved schedules.

The save to profile link sets the schedule as your primary schedule. This means it will now show up in your calendar on your profile page. The "save this schedule" link is intended to allow you to save multiple schedules. You can then view all of your saved schedules by clicking on the "view saved schedules" link on your profile page. Many students save a number of schedules when they begin searching for classes. Eventually, you sign up for the classes on one schedule. Since this is now your schedule for next quarter, you should click "save to profile" so that it will show up on your calendar.

Just click on the "people" tab and search for your friends. All you have to do is click the button "add friend" next to their picture. The next time the person logs in, they will see a salmon colored box on their profile page and on the Siscast homepage asking them to accept your offer of friendship. If your friends haven't signed up on Siscast yet, you should tell them about it. We'd really appreciate it.

There are multiple ways to find a GE. One method is to have Siscast find a GE that fits into your schedule when you are using the schedule composer. Just check the box that says “Find me a GE:”. The more information you enter, the better the results. Another method is to click the “find a GE” link on the bottom of the Siscast homepage. Again, you can enter as much or as little information as you want, but the more the better. You can have Siscast only search open classes by selecting the “Only Search Open Courses” check box. If you have a schedule saved to your profile, then you can check the box “Must fit into my schedule” and Siscast will give you a list of GEs that meet your conditions and fit into your schedule.

First, obviously, you must have friends added to your profile. See the question "How do I add a friend?" for more details. When searching for classes or using the schedule composer, a small friend icon will appear on the right side of the page. Click on that and you can see which of your friends are in that particular class or a similar class.

From the Siscast homepage, you can search for courses from previous quarters as you would current courses. Just change the drop-down menu labeled "Using Fall 2006 classes" in the bottom right corner of the form.

Well we should try to keep this a secret since its how we make money to feed ourselves, but that wouldn't be nice. The university supplies us with textbook information freely. They do this because of the California Public Information Act which effectively requires that state government agencies make most information public.

This, on the other hand, is no secret. It can be found on the registrar's website.

Siscast.com is a site developed by three former UCD students: Arjan Dehar, Sean Regan, and Kevin Widjaja. It's been around since mid-2003. The first major revision came in the Fall of 2005 and we continue to work hard to improve Siscast. Contact Us if you have any suggestions or comments.

Well, it all started on a blazing hot August day during summer advising 2001. Arjan was a nervous little freshman and didn't know how to choose which classes he should take. So he wondered aloud if it would be possible to write a program to help him choose his classes. That was the end of it, until two years later when Kevin came along. Kevin wanted to learn how to use PHP (a web programming language) and MySQL (databases). Arjan told him about this little idea he had as a Freshman, and in a few short months Kevin had whipped up the first incarnation of Siscast. You could search for classes, create schedules, and save them. To this day, Kevin is very secretive about the algorithm he used to create schedules, but suffice to say it was like nothing else the world had ever seen. It was an amazing feat for one man to accomplish in 3 short months. Siscast spread by word of mouth and became more popular than Kevin or Arjan had ever dreamed. But something was missing. Buying textbooks online was still difficult because you had to visit the bookstore and write down your ISBN before you could search for the book online. But to do something as complex as textbook purchasing required that we call in someone with a little more programming prowess. Enter Sean. In a couple of months he wrote a shopping cart program that linked to an online retailer. We made a couple of bucks that quarter, and that made us happy. And so we decided to redesign the site to make it better and easier to use. And here we are...

Our privacy policy is very simple. We do NOT sell or distribute your personal information. We do not have partners or affiliates, so you will NOT receive such unsolicited offers from us. The only emails you will receive from us will be strictly related to Siscast. Examples include friend requests, textbook notifications, and reminders.

Drop us a line using our Contact Form and we'll let you know when we plan to expand to your school. We would love to hear from you. If you are a college or university official and are interested in licensing Siscast for your school, see the question that follows.

Siscast is available for colleges and universities to license. This allows the school to have more control over Siscast (e.g. no textbook purchase referrals to 3rd parties). You can find more information on our license page.