Rise FAQ

Rise is a free visual schedule builder for UTD students. You add your courses and it automatically generates every valid schedule ranked by professor quality, grade distributions, and section availability. It also shows live seat counts, lets you set Discord alerts for full sections, and gives you detailed professor breakdowns — all in one place. When you're done you copy your schedule straight to Coursebook.

UTD students. Rise is independent and not affiliated with UTD in any official capacity.

Yes. Free for all UTD students. No subscription. No hidden fees.

No account needed to search courses or build schedules. You only need to sign in with Google or email to save seat alerts.

No. Rise is built and maintained by students independently. It is not endorsed by or operated by the University of Texas at Dallas. Don't contact UTD IT about Rise issues — reach us directly.

Not right now. Possibly in the future.

Add your courses to the sidebar. Rise instantly generates every valid conflict-free schedule combination ranked by a score combining professor grade distributions, RMP ratings, and how fast sections are filling. Browse ranked schedules at the bottom, adjust your preferences, and when you're happy copy your schedule to Coursebook.

Up to 6 courses at once. This covers most standard semester loads. We may increase this in the future.

A weighted score combining three things: 45% professor grade distribution, 45% RMP rating, and 10% fill rate compared to similar sections. Higher is better. You can hover over the score to see the breakdown. The score helps rank your options but you should always look at the individual data points too.

Every valid conflict-free schedule generated from your courses ranked by score. The first one is the highest ranked. Click any mini schedule to load it as your main view. Scroll right to see more options.

Yes. Click the lock icon on any section in the scheduler. Rise will only generate schedules that include that section. Everything else adapts around it. Useful when you know exactly which professor or time you want.

Drag across any time slot on the calendar to block it off. Rise will only generate schedules that avoid those times. Use it for work shifts, gym, commute, prayer times, or anything else. You can resize or remove blocks by clicking them.

When two sections conflict, hover over one and it highlights with a SWAP label telling you exactly what you'd be swapping with. Click it and Rise instantly finds the best valid alternative for the displaced section. If no valid alternative exists it won't let the swap happen and tells you why.

Schedule Shape — slide toward fewer days if you prefer a compact week, more days if you prefer spreading classes out. Class Spacing — slide toward less gap for back to back classes or more gap if you want breathing room between them. Both affect how Rise ranks your schedule options.

Click any day at the bottom of the sidebar to prefer it. Right click to avoid it. Rise factors your day preferences into the scoring so schedules matching your preferred days rank higher.

The colored circular dial shows the fill rate of that section — how full it is relative to its capacity. Color coded so you can see at a glance which sections are almost full without reading the numbers. Sections with very few seats left also show a badge like "2 left."

Yes. Online sections have a globe icon. Async sections are labeled directly on the course block.

Lab sections(that are in the same course eg: MATH 2413, 2413) are automatically paired with their corresponding lecture sections. You don't need to add them separately. Rise handles the pairing and generates schedules that include the correct lab for whatever lecture section is selected.

These are excluded by default. Toggle them on in the sidebar under Section Types if you want to include them in your generated schedules.

Yes. There's a toggle in the sidebar. Full sections are excluded by default. Turn it on if you want to see them anyway — useful for setting seat alerts on sections you're waiting for.

Yes. Use the copy as image option to capture your schedule visually and share it with friends. The "made with Rise" tag appears on shared schedules.

No. Rise is a planning tool. You still enroll through Galaxy as normal. Rise does not hold seats or communicate with the registrar on your behalf. Always complete your actual enrollment through official UTD systems.

Grade distribution data comes from UTDGrades. RMP ratings come from RateMyProfessor. AI professor summaries are generated from the most recent student reviews available and are regenerated each spring and fall semester to stay current.

Eight structured categories: grading policy, curve, exam type, workload, attendance policy, extra credit, pros, and cons. Each category is based on evidence from actual student reviews not just a general summary. This is more detailed than a single paragraph overview.

The GPA comparison shows how the professor's average grade distribution compares to other instructors teaching the same course. A positive number means students generally grade better with this professor relative to their peers in that course.

Grade distribution data from UTDGrades will still appear. The RMP portion of the score will be blank or show limited data. We display what we have and indicate when data is missing.

Professor summaries are AI generated from real reviews but they can be incomplete or occasionally inaccurate. If something seems wrong send us feedback through the in-app button or email us. We treat data accuracy seriously and investigate reports.

AI summaries use the most recent reviews available and are regenerated each spring and fall. Grade distributions are updated when new semester data becomes available from UTDGrades.

For courses where a public syllabus is available through UTD's syllabus system, Rise extracts structured information including grading component weights, exam dates, late work policy, attendance policy, and more. This gives you a detailed picture of a course before you commit to it.

Currently available for a limited set of courses. Full coverage across all courses will roll out when fall 2026 data becomes available. We're building this out actively.

It is extracted from publicly available UTD syllabus documents. It may be incomplete, outdated, or contain extraction errors. Use it as a helpful signal not a guarantee. Always check the official syllabus directly for critical details.

Rise pulls seat count data directly from UTD's Coursebook and related systems. We process and update this continuously with hot sections updating as frequently as once per hour.

We manually verified dozens of sections and found the data to be accurate in our tests. However a few important caveats: Numbers can lag by minutes or longer during heavy traffic or scraping limits. This is our first semester running live seat data so we are learning the edge cases. One known issue: dual enrollment courses capped separately for different departments may show as open when they are actually full for one specific department. We are aware of this and working on it. Always verify in Galaxy or official Coursebook before relying on seat counts for enrollment decisions.

Usually a timing difference. Rise refreshes on a schedule and Coursebook can update at any moment. If a discrepancy persists for a long time and doesn't seem like a timing issue send us the specific course and section and we'll investigate.

This can happen in edge cases especially with dual enrollment courses with department-specific caps. Always confirm in Galaxy before registering. Rise is a planning tool not the source of truth for enrollment.

Seat data is updated as frequently as once per hour but atleast once a day. However, there can be delays and more popular courses are prioritized because of our limited resources. Always verify in Galaxy or official Coursebook before relying on seat counts for enrollment decisions.

Sign in with Google or email. Find a full section you want. Click the bell icon. Configure your Discord webhook if you haven't already. Rise monitors that section and sends you a Discord notification the moment we detect a seat opening. You can test the alert immediately with the test button.

Discord notifications are fast, reliable, and free. Many UTD students already use Discord. Email alerts can be delayed or end up in spam. We may add other delivery methods in the future.

Currently one alert at a time. We may increase this in the future.

Possible reasons include the section never opened by our metrics, a delay in updates, a misconfigured Discord webhook, or a system issue. Alerts are a best effort helper not a guarantee. Always double check Coursebook and enroll quickly if you see an opening — seats can go fast.

No. The alert fires when we detect a seat opening. By the time you see it and go to register someone else may have already taken it. The faster you act the better your chances.

Yes. Grad courses are now live on Rise.

All undergraduate and graduate courses are included. Coverage is comprehensive across all departments including CS, CE, SE, EE, MATH, BIOL, JSOM, ATEC, and others.

Yes. Fall 2026 and summer 2026 data are live.

Fall registration opens March 30th. Fall courses should be available in Rise within a day or two of that date.

Yes. Rise works for any UTD student in any major. Business, biology, arts, engineering — all departments are included.

Trends is a research tool — you look up a professor or course and see data. Rise is a workflow tool — you build your entire semester schedule inside it with all that data already integrated. Rise also has live seat counts, Discord alerts, visual scheduling, time blocking, and auto-generated ranked schedules. Trends has deeper historical grade data going further back.

Galaxy is where you actually register. Their built-in planners require manual section selection with no ranking or professor quality data. Rise generates every valid schedule automatically ranked by quality, with professor breakdowns and live seat data built in. Use Rise to plan, then copy to Galaxy to register.

UTDGrades shows grade distribution data by professor. Rise includes that same data as part of a complete scheduling tool with live seats, Discord alerts, professor breakdowns, and automatic schedule generation. UTDGrades is a reference. Rise is a workflow.

Signed out use may include anonymous browser data and course-related events to improve the product. Signed in use adds account details needed for seat alerts.

No.

Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge — current versions. If something looks broken try disabling aggressive ad blockers, hard refreshing, or switching browsers.

The scheduler is built for desktop. Large timetables, sidebars, drag and drop, and dense course information don't work well on small screens. You'll see a notice on mobile. Landscape mode helps slightly. Desktop is strongly recommended for the best experience. We may improve mobile over time but schedule building will remain desktop first.

No personal data is stored for signed-out users. For signed-in users only what's needed for alerts is stored. We don't store your schedule or course selections.

Use the feedback button inside the scheduler — this is the fastest way since it gives us context about what you were doing. You can also join our Discord or email utdrise.app@gmail.com. We read everything even if we can't reply instantly.

Send it to utdrise.app@gmail.com or use the in-app feedback button or join our Discord. We're actively building and student feedback directly shapes what we prioritize.

Send us the specific course, section, term, and what you're seeing versus what Coursebook shows. We take data accuracy seriously and investigate every report.

Join the Rise Discord server for community support and to stay updated on new features.