I’ve heard that with so many students, it is hard to get the classes you want at UCs. Is this true for upper division courses too? How important is priority registration really?
From my understanding, you can generally get the classes you need, but not the classes you want.
i.e the difference between math 101 at 8am with a poor professor vs 10am with the best professor. If you have the chance for priority registration, I’d jump on it!
They save required major courses for transfers so you do usually get a core and pretty much a good accommodation. Obviously priority registration is superb, but only open to regents, and maybe a few others.
It totally depends on your major. First the majors and makes very little difference because there’s a lot of room in the necessary classes. In other majors like mine, sociology, it makes all the difference in the world. They’re very specific requirements that must be fulfilled, and they only offer so many classes per quarter and it’s very often that they get full before you even have an opportunity to register. Regents, disabled students, veterans, graduating seniors, all get priority and it makes a big difference.
If you are tenacious, you can generally finagle your way into classes you need by either crashing or waiting for something to open up.