Some colleges have well known cross registration agreements with other colleges.
How frequently do students at such colleges use them to take courses at the other colleges?
How much do convenience factors like whether the colleges have the same academic calendar and how far apart they are from each other affect the use of cross registration?
Good question. I bet it varies a lot.
Some examples:
I know a Haverford grad who did her major (as well as various other classes) at Bryn Mawr, and said it was easy and common.
I know a student at Hamline who is doing one major at Hamline, and a second major at St. Catherine’s (these are all in the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities, along w Augsburg, Macalester and St. Thomas.) From what I understand, the transportation and schedule are no problem, but registration can be tricky (apparently some schools make the cross registration students register after all the home students.)
Carleton and St. Olaf have cross registration, but the schedules are different enough (St. Olaf has semesters, Carleton trimesters) that it causes practical limitations: Olaf students find it convenient to do Fall classes at Carleton, but not vice versa. Carleton students find it convenient to do spring classes at Olaf, but not vice versa.
The differing school calendars can really make this difficult in some locations.
WPI is part of the Worcester consortium, but their quarters and different breaks can make it hard to maneuver.
There are various agreements in Boston, but participation is not common
if by common the majority are participating…rare is probably closer to reality. Wellesley taking a class at MIT. Simmons at one of their partners.
When I was at Macalester, I took 2 classes at St. Thomas and it was seamless and a lot of fun. Also the courses and students were very different from what I was used to - practical (as opposed to theoretical), business-y, and easy. I enjoyed them; I received 100%+ in both 
Very few students take courses at Macalester from the other schools because they perceive it as more challenging.
I spent a year at Mount Holyoke. I tried to sign up for a class at Amherst. I didn’t have a car and the bus times didn’t align well. I wasn’t willing to give up that much of my day to make it work. I transferred to Claremont McKenna College. The Claremont Consortium works very well and students easily register for courses at the other schools.
The information we got suggested the Bryn Mawr/Haverford BiCo worked well. Some people used it more than others but it was quite practical. Far fewer people made use of the TriCo with Swarthmore or the Quaker Consortium with Penn.
I do not know the differences between the colleges’ schedules, but I suspect that geographic proximity is also a good indicator about the likelihood of cross-registration actually taking place.
5 College Consortium in MA
I would imagine that there’s more cross-registration between Amherst and UMass (0.9 miles apart), followed by Hampshire (4.3 mi from UMass), than there is between those and Smith (7.5 mi from UMass) or Mount Holyoke (10.1 miles from UMass), due to the increased distances between them.
Baltimore Collegetown
In looking at the Baltimore Collegetown consortium, there’s a shuttle that goes between Johns Hopkins, Towson, and Notre Dame of Maryland, plus Penn Station & Towson Town Center (source) making me think that those schools have more students that are active in the consortium. The further a school is from a shuttle (or other schools), the less likely I think students would be to participate in the consortium.
ARCHE Consortium (Atlanta)
I suspect these have the most cross-registration (for scale, it’s 0.2 miles from Spelman to Clark Atlanta):
These are the ones where I think cross-registration is more feasible, but not as easy as above:
Unlikely for most students to do much cross-registration, but more likely than the schools further down:
I suspect these schools are too far for most students to consider cross-registration at the other schools:
Pittsburgh Council on Higher Education
Of the schools in this consortium, these are the ones that I think are likeliest to have cross-registration between them. I’ve put the distances between the schools on the map, so one can have a better sense of distances.
I suspect these schools are too far for most students to consider cross-registration at the other schools:
New Orleans Consortium
As Tulane’s and Loyola’s campuses are literally adjacent to one another, I suspect there’s the most cross-registration there but as Xavier is only about 1.5 miles away, there may be some cross-registration there. I suspect that there is little cross-registration with Dillard due to the distance but Dillard to the other universities is still closer than all the 5 college consortium colleges to UMass apart from Amherst, so that’s just an additional frame of reference.
Our Amherst tour guide said he had a friend from Smith who was taking classes at both Amherst and UMass, and who would just come over for the day (apparently you also have dining privileges). Kinda makes sense given that map.
The Carleton/St. Olaf exchange is also limited by a rule that students can only take a course at the other school if it’s not offered at their home school. While cross-registration is an option, I get the sense it isn’t used a lot.
I have a student at St. Olaf. He’s used the shared library resources, eaten meals in the Carleton dining halls, and gone to several parties at Carleton. Having the schools in close proximity to each other is a definite plus.
Duke alum here. I cross-registered at UNC Chapel Hill pretty much every semester except my first one. Additionally, one of the profs at Carolina (co-)supervised my senior thesis and wrote recommendations when I was applying to PhD programs.
Getting this approved was easy since they weren’t classes offered at Duke, but I had to be careful with course scheduling to ensure I had enough time to travel between campuses.
That said, relatively few Duke or Carolina students seemed to take advantage of cross-registration when I was at Duke (admittedly some years ago), and the Robertson bus was usually pretty empty during the day.
I have a Smithie. Several friends have taken classes in the consortium and they have mentioned having kids from other schools in their Smith classes. The bus system is a limitation because it can take a while, but students that cross register a lot generally have cars. It is true they can dine at other schools (UMass is popular because the food is so good) if they have classes at certain times.
I have a first year at Bryn Mawr. BMC/Haverford relationship is almost like a shared campus because of the convenience of the “blue bus”. Such a short distance. Class registration shows both campuses, so easy to select classes between the two. Seems like most of her first year friends have had at least one class at Haverford this year and spend time there eating and studying (meal plan works at both schools). Some of her junior/senior friends have also taken classes at Swarthmore and Penn, although this a longer distance. There is school transportation that routinely runs to Swarthmore, whereas you have to take the train in to Penn - the station is about a 10 minute walk from BMC campus.
