<p>Some departments/subjects are more popular than others and it can be difficult to get into oversubscribed courses. I just sampled a few, and it looks like sophomores have priority for intro classes in the two you mentioned, followed by freshmen. So, it could be hard to sample them as an upperclassmen, but not so hard the first two years – when you are presumably trying to figure out what you want your major to be. You also have to satisfy various lab/science/language/etc. requirements for graduation, and you would probably do a lot of that the first two years as well. With the quarter system, you actually get a chance to take a lot of classes in different areas.</p>