<p>My experience (via son) was that freshmen who were accepted into engineering were guaranteed a spot in the beginning engineering course - in fact we were told that by his advisor during orientation when she put together his schedule. However, if you were in University Studies or transferring into the major, you couldn’t take it until your 2nd year. </p>
<p>I’m VERY surprised that your friend’s son wasn’t able to get a force-add to get the math course he needed. Especially if he wasn’t able to take any other course without it and has to stay home for the semester (which sounds like a very odd situation). I don’t understand how his advisor/department head wasn’t able to pull strings to get a force-add if the course was full. Don’t know why he couldn’t have taken some of his other CLE courses anyway, unless he had them already done. Both my kids have either been very proactive in looking ahead to see what will be needed in upcoming semesters, or in enlisting the aid of their advisors/professors. They haven’t had any problems.</p>