Can Chat-gpt-5 Choose My Spring Courses?

Exploring how well an LLM’s judgemenet comes to choosing my courses vs that of myself & an academic advisor
LLMs
Academic
Author

Eleni

Published

November 9, 2025

Spring Semester is quickly approaching and like many of you I have been carefully crafting a course cart with Path@penn, penn course review, penn course plan, and the help of an academic advisor. This process can be very time consuming, frustrating, and even anxiety inducing for some individuals. As a result, I wanted to see if an LLM could help with this. Would it be able to navigate the intracacies of UPenn’s course requirements? would it be able to correctly identify the differences between our schools (ex: wharton, the college, the school of nursing, etc)? Let’s find out.

I decided to be a bit more detailed in this prompt with Chat-GPT-5. I outlined all of the courses that I have already taken and clearly stated my academic level etc. Instead of explaining, Let me just show you! My prompts will be in red and Chat’s will be in blue

I am a third year student at the University of Pennsylvania. I am majoring in Economics and Minoring In data science & analytics in the college of arts and sciences. I am currently in my fall semester and I need to choose courses for my spring semester.

Here are all of the courses I have already taken:

  • Math 1400
  • Math 1410
  • COMM 4190
  • STAT 4300
  • STAT 4310
  • ECON 0100
  • ECON 0200
  • ECON 2100
  • ECON 2200
  • SPAN 0100
  • SPAN 0200
  • SPAN 0300
  • SPAN 0400
  • EALC 1242
  • GSWS 2700
  • MATH 1300
  • WRIT 0250
  • COML 1701
  • CIMS 1004
  • PHYS 1100
  • CIMS 1800
  • STAT 4750
  • PSYC 0001

I need you to create a mock schedule of 4–6 classes for spring. You can find the available courses through UPenn’s various websites and you can find the requirements for graduation there as well.

awesome—here are two ready-to-register mock schedules (5 courses each) that move you toward (a) the ECON BA and (b) finishing the College Data Science & Analytics minor (DASA). I’m aligning these with the official degree rules and the spring-typical offerings noted in the Penn catalog.

Option A: Quant & econ-core sprint

  • ECON 2310 Econometric Methods & Models — completes the Econometrics requirement for the Econ BA (you’ve already satisfied the “Statistics” requirement via STAT 4300 + 4310). (University of Pennsylvania Catalog)
  • ECON 4410 Public Finance (4000-level ECON elective) — counts toward the 4 required 4000-level ECON electives. Catalog lists as Fall or Spring. (University of Pennsylvania Catalog)
  • ECON 4510 International Trade (4000-level ECON elective) — another 4000-level elective; listed Fall or Spring. (University of Pennsylvania Catalog)
  • STAT 4710 Modern Data Mining — counts for the DASA Applied Data Science bucket; offered Fall or Spring. Prereq satisfied by STAT 4310. (University of Pennsylvania Catalog)
  • CIS 4190 Applied Machine Learning — appears on the DASA “Applied Data Science (Python)” list; good bridge between econ and DS. (SAS at Penn)

Why this works:

  • Econ BA: You already have ECON 0100, 0200, 2100, 2200, and Math 1400/1410. Adding ECON 2310 completes the econometrics core; ECON 4410 and ECON 4510 push you 2/4 into the required 4000-level ECON electives. (University of Pennsylvania Catalog)
  • DASA minor: Your past STAT 4300, STAT 4310, PHYS 1100, STAT 4750 already cover “Math & Stats,” “Intro DS & Programming,” and one Elective. STAT 4710 (Applied DS) + CIS 4190 (Applied DS Python list) move you closer to the 6-course structure. (SAS at Penn)

Option B: Policy/impact + methods

Why this works:

  • Econ BA: ECON 2310 + two 4000-level ECONs progress you cleanly toward the 4 upper-level electives. (University of Pennsylvania Catalog)
  • DASA minor: STAT 4420 covers the Applied Data Science slot; COMM 3130 adds another approved DS elective. (Reminder: DASA requires 6 courses total with specific core/elective mix and overlap limits.) (SAS at Penn)

Quick audit of where you stand (per the official rules)

  • Econ BA structure (2025–26 catalog): 2 c.u. math; intro micro/macro; intermediate micro/macro; stats (via ECON 2300 or STAT 4300+4310); ECON 2310 econometrics; four 4000-level ECON electives. You’ve completed everything except ECON 2310 and the 4000-level electives. (University of Pennsylvania Catalog)
  • DASA minor (College): 6 courses → 3 “core” (Intro DS & Programming; Math & Statistics; Applied DS) + 3 Electives from the approved list; page also lists many approved courses you’ve taken or could take (PHYS 1100, STAT 4300/4310, STAT 4750, STAT 4710, CIS 4190, etc.). (SAS at Penn)

Nice alternates if sections/time conflicts pop up

How to lock these in

  • Verify specific Spring 2026 sections and times on Path@Penn / Course Search; the catalog shows which are typically offered in Spring and the official degree rules. (Econ BA PDF and DASA minor page above are the authoritative requirement sources.) (University of Pennsylvania Catalog)

If you want, tell me which option vibes more (or mix & match), plus any constraints (no Friday classes, max 4 courses, specific profs), and I’ll shape it into a day-by-day schedule with backup sections.

I am shocked that Chat identified that I took the STAT 4300+4310 route instead of the ECON 2300 route. I have had many colleagues who had academic advisors not catch that before.

Furthermore, this doesn’t stray too far from the courses I actually chose for next semester. I hope to take ECON 2310 (identified in all options from the LLM), ECON 4410 (option A in the LLM), another ECON elective, and a general elective.

Here are some of its pitfalls: - It did not identify or offer suggestions for gen ed course requirements I am missing - It did not offer other general electives (however, this could be fixed if I added my other interests in the prompt)

Thank you for reading