During the preregistration craze, it’s tempting to look ahead to next term rather than focus on the end of this one.

While the university has made strides toward decoding course listings on MyAccess during preregistration via curriculum clusters, academic departments need to more clearly define the meaning of course levels online. This clarification would help make pre-registration more of a happy distraction than an added stress.

The registrar — through the initiatives of associate professor of French and Francophone studies Sylvie Durmelat — announced last week the addition of a food studies cluster that will imitate the race and ethnic studies cluster implemented this semester. These clusters group together classes pertaining to similar topics, linking themes across different departments. Compared to cross-listed courses, clusters are broader and allow students to filter by topic. Just as they can search by department, professor or class time, students are now able to search by cluster.

Yet as it stands, there is no uniform course numbering system across departments. Within the English department, a 300-level class isn’t more challenging than a 100-level class; it simply focuses on the literature of a later time period. But in the economics department, courses are numbered by degree of difficulty. For many freshmen and transfer students, lack of familiarity with these different systems creates confusion as they search for classes across departments.

Georgetown attracts students who get excited about the prospects of future syllabi, and we shouldn’t be disenchanted by the complexity of the preregistration process. With a few more clusters and some numbering clarity, this time of the semester would include an added — and welcomed — sense of certainty.