<p>Sanfranciscokid,
Sign up for any classes to meet the 12 units. Take nutrition or health or something and drop them when you get the ones you wanted. I really think you will be surprised at what opens up when everyone starts finalizing their schedules during the next passes. The only problem you might have is if transfer student passes occur when all the other students aren’t making changes. I would continue to try to reach an advisor in your major and set up a scheduled meeting. They want you to graduate on time, and they do have some pull (especially if not getting major classes will not allow you to graduate on time), but they may want to wait and see if you can secure the classes as I described above. Its also rare to not get a class by crashing it or waitlisting it. Full classes usually end up with final numbers that are less than full even after the crashers and waitlisters are done.</p>
<p>As some have stated above, the first quarter will likely be the only quarter that this happens. And you are right in saying they are somewhat disorganized, mainly because they just have too many students and too many departments that don’t work together well. I know students in UCLA and Berkeley that have the exact same issues as you are having, so I think it is just a factor when choosing a very large school.</p>