one child went to Emory and is graduating in a couple weeks. We would routinely hear about how the needed classes were already full for the next semester. After days / weeks of stress related to that, it would work out. But it was a standard experience. And especially for the early years, when ‘everyone’ is taking the same classes, it was disappointing that they know there are x kids that will need to take a class. So they need to make enough sessions for x kids? But inevitably, there would be no sessions available for 1 - 2 - 3 classes. Or if they were available, they would conflict with other needed classes. getting a day of no classes or no early classes would be nice, but certainly not coming into play here. They’d routinely be lucky just to get into the class regardless of the time of day or days of the week.
Fast forward to our other child as a direct admit to Kelley Business School at IU. They have the kids sign up now, just before finals, so they have this to deal with now.
Same think - they call saying they can’t get into needed courses because all sessions are full or would conflict with another course that they signed up for and no, they can’t move that 2nd course because that has no other sessions available.
And they are looking to do the 3 year / 2 year program that Kelley pitches - do the undergrad in 3 years then MBA in 2 years. Why offer that if it’s physically not possible? They say there’s another school you can take classes online over the summer as a solution. Uh, OK, but why can’t they get the IU education they wanted? if they wanted to go to a community school for their education, they’d save a fair amount of money.
Are we missing something with this? At least in the first couple years, the school has some required classes that all the kids have to take. and at 2 (good?) schools, they don’t seem to have enough spaces for these required classes? Yes, some non core courses / elective requirements you can take at another school, but for the core courses, don’t you want them to be at your home school? Why can’t they provide that?
Very disappointing. Are we just having lots of bad luck or is this just standard at most schools?
I wouldn’t say that this is ‘standard’ as such, but it does happen fairly often. I’ve been lucky enough to never get locked out of any classes that I need, but I’m potentially facing that this fall with an abstract linear algebra class. I’m transferring into UIUC as a physics major, but will be declaring a second major in math. I don’t have my registration until May 20th, and as of now the course is full. However, I’ve always heard that UIUC holds a certain number of seats for transfer students, so hopefully I won’t have this problem.
It depends on how their class registration system works. At my school, the students with disabilities, athletes, honors students, and upperclassmen always get the first pick of classes and earliest registration times, while freshman and sophomores get to essentially fight over whatever is left. It’s typical for freshman to get locked out of some courses they really need, however, I’ve never heard of a freshman never getting into a needed class before they were supposed to graduate. It’s even more common if they are in a very popular major.
My school has multiple sections of the most popular courses (like General Biology II) in order to accommodate the need. Usually people don’t get locked out of necessary classes unless they wait until the very last minute to register.
“may the odds be ever in your favor” - accurate quote describing college registration.
I lucked out in that I took enough community college credits in high school and subsequent summers to be considered 1 year above what I actually was. I was regularly allowed to register up to half a week before my peers due to my “upperclassman” status.
Class registration is a frustration every time at my university. We have very small class sizes and the upper-level classes usually only have one class. Last year, it was especially difficult, since I was registering for sophomore/junior level math and sophomore level comp sci classes as a freshman. I’ve pretty much accepted that I’m gonna need a department override for my math/cs classes every semester. And i get priority registration, but that doesn’t really help me with the upper-level classes, since I just get to register before everyone else in my year. Even with that, for this past spring semester, I didn’t get into a freshman seminar class I wanted.
Yes, it’s fairly common, but there are some errors in your reasoning.
“They” know no such thing. Departments have a best guess based on historical data and declared majors. Underclassmen, however, are an especially fickle bunch (as well they should be) and change areas of interest a lot. The good news is that there will be movement over the summer as these same underclassmen fiddle with their schedules. Keep your eyes open as spots in the sections you want may open up.
Why would you even expect this? If all classes are scheduled to avoid early classes and to leave a day open, you’d have an even bigger nightmare than you have now. Sometimes students complain that nothing is open when they mean nothing they want is open. A good friend’s S got stuck in a Friday night lab once (YUCK!). He complained, but his mom told him to suck it up because at least he got in.
This one is the problem everywhere and who knows what you do about it. You’ve got a faculty member who teaches several sections of a course and students from his or her own major and three others that need to take it. It just isn’t always possible to schedule all the sections to avoid conflicts with all the other courses and gen eds required by all the students who might need to take it. Or sometimes, the one section that would work for your student is the one that fills up on the first day of registration. Those situations are often impossible to predict.
There is movement in class lists over the summer. Keep an eye on them and be ready to nab spots as they open up. If missing a required course were to get a student out of sequence, an in person request to the faculty teaching the course can sometimes get an override (and sometimes there are just so many chairs in a room). And, if the course can be taken another semester, put it off.
While a “seniors first” system makes sense, I’ve never understood “priority” registration for many groups of students (athletes, honors, certain majors). It leaves so little open for “regular” students, who are no less valuable to the institution and should really mount a complaint. And if students are admitted to a specific program, then there really ought to be very little registration. They progress each semester with no choices in program classes and all a student would need to register for would be electives . (Then an institution would know how many sections of program courses it needed.)
D, a h.s. senior, stayed up until 1:00 a.m. this morning to register for a freshman class that she wanted, right when it opened up. She was in bed asleep ten minutes later, but I’m trying not to picture her sleeping through Econ class this afternoon!
That’s the argument. But I think any number of groups of students can make the exactly the same argument. Students who have jobs need classes that don’t conflict with work. Students with children need classes when their own kids are in school, preferably not starting until after drop-off and ending before pick-up. And so on. I would argue that “priority,” expect when required by law (e.g. as an accommodation for students with certain disabilities) sends the message that certain groups of students are more valuable to an institution. Maybe they are. But if you or your student aren’t in a group the institution considers valuable, why wouldn’t you vote with your feet and go someplace where you the institution actually wants you?
Because no one will move schools because a few people pick before them. Priority registration is a small part of the problem as there are fewer athletes that will get that priority in a school usually. Also, most schools do this: if you moved to get away from this you would be incredibly restricted.
My school does time tickets by credit, not grade. It may correlate, but allows those with more credit coming in to have an advantage. All the time slots are within 8 AM to 5 PM so no one has to stay up to odd times. Personally there’s so many offerings I have never had any real problems, nor has anyone I know. All freshman. Some inconvenience, but they get relevant classes. For reference, my school has about 15,000 undergrad. So a good system helps, and size helps.
It is a way for them to attract honors students. One of the factors that helped S1 choose his college was the ability to select his courses before his peers. It is a selling point for the college like honors housing and scholarship money.
When S was in college, registration was typically done by number of credits earned/received. High school districts located in more affluent areas seem to offer more AP courses. Should a student who received a lot of college credit at a hs that offered say 15 AP courses v a district that only offered 3 AP courses gain “affluent priority” and be able to jump nearer to front of college registration line in large part because of his/her zip code?
Athletes and students with disabilities may get priority due to other scheduling constraints that they have to deal with.
Honors students may be offered priority as a perk to entice them to attend instead of choosing some other school.
A school may allow departments to reserve a portion of the space in a class for students at certain majors and/or class levels, in order to ensure that students who must take the class to graduate on time will be able to enroll in it. That space, if any is not used by the designated majors and/or class levels of students in the earlier registration, may be released to general student registration later.
I.e. there are reasons for these kinds of priorities. Of course, you may not necessarily agree with the reasons. Also, not everyone would agree that a strict “seniors first” method makes sense.
I am the parent of an athlete. I am an academic advisor, I do understand all the reasons why certain groups feel,entitled to “priority” registration. Students with accommodations are legally entitled to that. For everyone else it is a choice made by the institution based on what and who it values. And while a university has the right to value any group it chooses over any other and while a system of some kind has to exist to avoid chaos and crashes during registration, I have great sympathy for the undecided and undervalued freshman who doesn’t fit in any priority group. Because while one may argue that athletes are a minority of students, add up all sports, and that’s a lot of students. Add in the honors students, and that’s a lot more students. Add in whatever other groups the institution values and…no wonder classes close before registration opens for the regular joes.
My kid only had this problem the first quarter but after that Regents kicked in and she always got her classes. One of the perks of receiving Regents scholarship. But all her friends got classes, just not the ideal time.