Getting Shut Out of Desired Classes

goodday
Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:43:49 +0000

My freshman son has been frustrated his entire freshman year with getting shut out of virtually every class he has wanted to take. Incoming freshmen register the summer before, but their “preferences” are given little weight and classes are basically assigned randomly for first semester. He ended up with with only two classes he liked, two he pretty much hated and ended up dropping one he had no interest in. When he tried to add a fifth class, pretty much every freshman level class he had any interest in taking was full. He ended up with four classes in the fall. I told him not to be discouraged, because he would truly get to choose his classes starting in the spring.

Spring selection time comes, and same story. Now the university gives each freshman a specified time to go online and choose classes. By the time he gets to do it, all of his first, second and third choices are filled. He ends up again with two classes he likes, and three he hates. He drops one that was junior level (one of the few available ones that he thought might be interesting) because after a week, he realizes it is way over his head based on his lack of knowledge of the subject area. He tries to add a fifth class, but again, everything interesting is filled. I assure him he has seen the last of these problems, since he will now be choosing as a sophomore and will be selecting before all 2,000 incoming freshmen.

He is in the process of choosing classes for the fall. Again, each student has an assigned time to register. A bunch of kids he knows were given times a week ahead of him. Guess what? Again, he can’t get what he wants, including several freshman level required classes that he was shut out of last year as an incoming freshman. He can’t even get into a foreign language intro class that he wants to take.

He is frustrated beyond belief. His friend at FIU, the state university right down the street with 30,000 undergraduates, has had no trouble getting classes he wants.

So, here we have UM, whose big selling point over the state universities is a smaller student body, better access to selecting classes you need/want, smaller class sizes and more intimate contact with your professors. While he has found the latter two features to be true, the ability to get the classes you need/want has been a nightmare every bit as bad (and compared to FIU, worse) than what we have heard about the state universities.

And for the privilege of having to take classes you don’t like, you get to pay 8 times the tuition. What a bargain!

In most other ways, he is happy with UM. But in the one that’s most important–being stimulated by the education–he is quite displeased.

What gives? Any UM students having the same problems? Is there a way to work the
system that he isn’t privy to? Any UM faculty/administrators on the forum have any suggestions?

He is giving some thought to transferring to a state university, on the theory that if you are going to be frustrated with class selection, you might as well save a ton of money in the process.