Anyone else's undergrad as ridiculous as mine?

[191159]

Okay, so my school uses some sort of system that allows students to register for classes at different points. No idea on who gets priority but here's what's left after my registration time opened up for me this afternoon:

Keep in mind: Took ochem I this semester without the lab (it was full)

Summer 08:
Ochem I Lab this summer: 0 seats available out of 15 labs.
Ochem II lecture this summer: 0 seats available out of 6 lectures.
Ochem II lab this summer: 0 seats available out of 10 labs. (not sure on number here but there were many full)

Fall 08
Ochem II lecture: 0 seats available, 5 lectures.
Ochem II Lab: 0 seats available, 10 labs. (not sure on number here but there were many full)

So i ended up getting into Ochem I lab only two semesters after taking it. I will have to wait (at least) one year before I can take organic II unless seats open up.

Anyone else have problems like this or is USF the devil?

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[EpiPEN]

I vote devil

 

[daaarn]

I've had this happen, so I just went and talked with the lab/course instructor and explained my case. They're usually pretty agreeable to letting "extra" people in b/c more times than not, some people end up dropping early or not even bother showing up. So if I were, go talk w/ the instructors and see if they could let you in or put you on some kind of a waitlist.

 

[Doctorverardoll]

My undergrad has some weird system as well for choosing classes, but lab and lectures had to be taken concurrently. Even still people would get locked out of labs. Is there a head lab instructor you can kiss up too and squeeze ya into it sooner.

 

[mdgator]

UF was similar...if you didn't register the very first available day for certain classes, they were gone. I agree with the previous poster who said that you should go talk to the instructor(s). A lot of them will try to help you if they can. I once called one of my old professors for a friend, and she put my friend in the class right away. And once a lab instructor just stuck me in the back of the full class in a folding chair and told me just to wait until someone dropped. By the second week, I was sitting at a lab bench.

 

[Natasha029]

Ouch!

I know at my wonderful massive public U; the athletes and what not get priority. I was considering doing cheerleading again just to get the damn athlete preference (and a small stipend too)

I know labs are hard to override as opposed to a lecture, you can always squeeze an extra desk but it's hard to squeeze an extra bunsen burner or whatever.

That sucks. Talk to the department.. you never know.. wait list? Can you cross-enroll at another local U or comm college to get that one credit?
There's got to be a way.

 

[Jolie South]

there were issues like that at my school. they gave you access to registration based on credit hours and some random alphabet order.

since i was ahead of my classmates creditwise, i didn't have a problem until senior year when i needed to take some classes in my major to graduate. in any case, i wasn't alone. we all showed up to the first class day and presented our problem to the professor. she somehow got us all enrolled.

if you're being delayed by a year because of this, i would definitely try to talk to someone at your school, maybe your major advisor or something like that. explain that you're a pre-med and that you want to take these classes so that you can prepare for the mcat and apply to med school before you graduate.

 

[skyeblue0610]

My school has a weird system too. We register by class and have to wake up at 6am to register on our day. Last year my alarm went off at 6:15am and one of the classes I wanted as all fullthankfully later in the week people were switching stuff and it had some open spots again

 

[Vihsadas]

The student caps at my school were never hard and fast. Usually you could talk to the professor or an adviser and get permission to join the class as overflow. It would suck if your schools was very strict about this. I would hope that if you explained that you wanted to take the OrgI lab while the material is still fresh in your head that they would let you in the class.

 

[BTC]

If you don't get into a class, just go the first day and talk to the teacher. Esp. for these big science classes, there is almost a 100% chance someone will drop within the first week.