A Web site that helps students get the classes they need has been a profitable business for one ASU student, but it's not catching on at other universities.
PerfectSchedule.com, a Web site started two years ago by computer science senior Rocky Smith, now has about 600 customers.
"The business is doing really well," Smith said. "Each semester my customer base almost doubles."
The Web site alerts customers when a seat opens up in a full class section during the drop/add period.
"I found myself refreshing a page literally to see if the classes were available," Smith said. "It just seemed such a mechanical process that it made sense to make a program for it."
PerfectSchedule.com customers are added to a list on the system, which continually checks the ASU Web site to see if their desired classes are available.
"When the class is available it will immediately place a phone call," Smith said. "An automated message will tell them which class is available and they can run to a computer or call SunDial."
If a student misses the message, Smith said they can go back to the Web site and be included in the list again for another notification free of charge.
He charges $10 per class that students would like to have monitored.
"I figure in most cases if a person needs to get into a class, they have no problem paying $10," Smith said. "I just do not want to get greedy."
To provide the service, Smith spends about $20 a month for an extra phone line and the Web page.
Broadcast senior Ashley Laakso said PerfectSchedule.com was inexpensive and easy to use.
"I figured it was worth a shot to try," Laakso said. "It worked and I got the class I needed."
Bioengineering senior Justin Kiggins has used the service every semester since it opened in April 2004.
"The pre-registration did not work for BIO 187, and the service got me into that," Kiggins said.
Kiggins said he has spent close to $100 for all the classes he needed.
"It was definitely worth it," he said.
Smith said the site "tends to advertise itself because people tell their friends."
Smith said he designed the Web site primarily for ASU students, and after a semester he expanded to NAU and UA.
"It never really caught on with any of the other schools," Smith said. "I have about 15 customers at U of A and two at NAU."
Smith plans to graduate in December, but said he will keep running the Web site.
The challenge for his business, Smith said, would be if ASU decided to design an automated system of their own to inform the students when classes are available.
"If they put together some type of a waiting list, my service would not be needed," Smith said.
ASU is in the process of implementing a new system called Oasis, said Associate Registrar Bonnie Wilcox.
"We will be looking at wait listing in the new system," she said.
Wilcox said it was too early in the development of Oasis to comment on further details.
Reach the reporter at tatiana.hensley@asu.edu.
