diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index 09b42f4..ebfa1bd 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ gem 'devise-kerberos-authenticatable',
   :git => 'git://github.com/atomaka/devise-kerberos-authenticatable.git'
 gem 'cancan'
 
+gem 'enumerated_attribute'
+
 
 # Gems used only for assets and not required
 # in production environments by default.
diff --git a/Gemfile.lock b/Gemfile.lock
index 69a4962..7cfda63 100644
--- a/Gemfile.lock
+++ b/Gemfile.lock
@@ -72,6 +72,8 @@ GEM
       orm_adapter (~> 0.1)
       railties (~> 3.1)
       warden (~> 1.2.1)
+    enumerated_attribute (0.2.16)
+      meta_programming (>= 0.2.1)
     erubis (2.7.0)
     eventmachine (1.0.3)
     execjs (1.4.0)
@@ -97,6 +99,7 @@ GEM
       i18n (>= 0.4.0)
       mime-types (~> 1.16)
       treetop (~> 1.4.8)
+    meta_programming (0.2.2)
     meta_request (0.2.3)
       rack-contrib
       railties
@@ -191,6 +194,7 @@ DEPENDENCIES
   coffee-rails (~> 3.2.1)
   devise
   devise-kerberos-authenticatable!
+  enumerated_attribute
   jquery-rails
   less-rails
   meta_request
diff --git a/app/models/alert.rb b/app/models/alert.rb
index 75d7b80..7a56f50 100644
--- a/app/models/alert.rb
+++ b/app/models/alert.rb
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 class Alert < ActiveRecord::Base
+  enum_attr :semester, %w(US13 FS13 SS14)
   attr_accessible :course, :department, :semester, :sections
   attr_protected :user_id
   attr_protected :alerted
diff --git a/app/views/alerts/_form.html.erb b/app/views/alerts/_form.html.erb
index 61392ec..d6ba143 100644
--- a/app/views/alerts/_form.html.erb
+++ b/app/views/alerts/_form.html.erb
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
   <div class="control-group">
     <%= f.label :semester, :class => 'control-label' %>
     <div class="controls">
-      <%= f.text_field :semester, :class => 'text_field' %>
+      <%= f.enum_select :semester %>
     </div>
   </div>
 
diff --git a/db/migrate/20130424230817_change_alerts_semester_type.rb b/db/migrate/20130424230817_change_alerts_semester_type.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..82d6098
--- /dev/null
+++ b/db/migrate/20130424230817_change_alerts_semester_type.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+class ChangeAlertsSemesterType < ActiveRecord::Migration
+  def up
+    change_table :alerts do |t|
+      t.change :semester, :enum
+    end
+  end
+
+  def down
+    change_table :alerts do |t|
+      t.change :semester, :string
+    end
+  end
+end
diff --git a/db/schema.rb b/db/schema.rb
index 41b8f56..381e886 100644
--- a/db/schema.rb
+++ b/db/schema.rb
@@ -11,18 +11,10 @@
 #
 # It's strongly recommended to check this file into your version control system.
 
-ActiveRecord::Schema.define(:version => 20130413054153) do
+ActiveRecord::Schema.define(:version => 20130424230817) do
 
-  create_table "alerts", :force => true do |t|
-    t.integer  "user_id"
-    t.string   "department"
-    t.string   "course"
-    t.boolean  "alerted",    :default => false
-    t.datetime "created_at",                    :null => false
-    t.datetime "updated_at",                    :null => false
-    t.string   "semester"
-    t.text     "sections"
-  end
+# Could not dump table "alerts" because of following StandardError
+#   Unknown type 'enum' for column 'semester'
 
   create_table "roles", :force => true do |t|
     t.string   "name"