<p>Incoming freshman students have own their separate registration over the summer. There are whole courses reserved just for freshmen, esp in introductory level courses: calc, chem, bio, psych, soc, econ etc.</p>
<p>If they want to enroll in open course (like a intro course in philosophy or history or an upper level course), they have to take their chances since upperclassmen get first dibs.</p>
<p>Sometimes contacting the a prof will work. Or just keep checking with the prof and/or registrar since people do drop classes and space will open up during the first 2 weeks. (HINT: it helps to attend the class you want even if not registered for it. You’re more likely to be allowed to enroll and you won’t be behind in the material.)</p>
<p>Popular writing course topics fill fast and it’s pretty easy to get closed out of those. Getting in by contacting the instructor doesn’t work well for those classes because there is a pretty strict class size limit for writing classes. However, the same topics will be offered again in the spring. Students don’t HAVE to take freshman writing in the fall. In fact, they don’t have to take it during freshman year. Just some time before they apply for graduation.</p>
<p>D2 has never had an issue getting into a class she wanted. But sometimes she’s ended up with a section time (for recitation or lab) that was less than popular. Like Friday evening. If your son is flexible about when he’ll attend class, he usually won’t have any trouble.</p>