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They do at ours as well (athletes and honor students). I think the logic behind it is that athletes have a less flexible schedule than non athlete students.</p>
<p>I’ve seen priority registration for athletes, honor students, special needs students, seniors, reserved seats for freshmen, reserved seats for majors, etc. My department promises to overload any graduating senior into a required course if not taking it would delay their graduation.</p>
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I disagree from experience, but obviously your experience is much vaster than mine.</p>
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<p>The idea is that if a course is required for a certain major, those declared in that major can reasonably be given first pick of the seats in that course over non-majors who do not need that specific course to graduate on time. E.g. give economics majors priority for economics courses, history majors priority for history courses, etc… Economics majors looking for history courses, or history majors looking for economics courses, as free or breadth electives can then pick whatever seats are free in the courses after the majors in those subjects have gotten the courses that they need.</p>
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<p>In some cases, athletes and students with disabilities do get priority registration due to their other scheduling constraints.</p>
<p>I know that when I went to college 30 years ago in that type of situation, you would approach the professor for an override. I think it would have been worth the time to try that.</p>
<p>I just noticed at DS’s mid sized science oriented research U, 1st year physics for majors is waitlist only. A physics major really does need to take this first year in order to get the two year introductory sequence done then take the upper level required courses over the last two years. While the specific ‘prerequisite’ sequences at his school only stretch to 6 semesters at most (CM1 – E&M – CM2 – Modern Physics – Quantum I – Quantum II is the longest string), the requirements for a major really are pretty specifically designed to be done over 4 years in a pretty rigid sequence.</p>
<p>I expect that if there were an aspiring physics major that was not yet in the class, they would make room for him/her. At $50K/year, I would be pretty upset if we were looking at a 5th year for inability to get in a 1st year physics class.</p>
<p>At Florida Atlantic University music majors have a pretty specific sequence.</p>
<p>Music Theory 1>Music Theory 2>Music Theory 3>Music Theory 4 and MT 1/3 are only offered in the fall and MT 2/4 in the spring.</p>
<p>MT 3>History of Music of Western Civilization 1>History of Music of Western Civilization 2 and the history sequence starts in the spring. Conducting 1/2 follows the same pattern.</p>
<p>Sooooo…if a student fails MT1 they are not able to complete their core curriculum in 4 years. End of story.</p>
<p>The university used to offer MT 1/2 every semester but had to cut back because of budget cuts.</p>
<p>This is a related thread</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-san-diego/1384324-lower-division-prereqs-not-available.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-san-diego/1384324-lower-division-prereqs-not-available.html</a></p>
<p>"So almost all the upper division VIS classes require two of VIS 1,2,3,111 and they are each offered only one time throughout the year. VIS 1 is the only class offered this fall my first semester there as a Transfer. VIS 1 also happens to be full in every class. How am I suppose to take any Major requirements when they require lower division classes that I need but they aren’t available or are full when they are available? Also this means I wont be able to take VIS 1 until next year when I should be half way through all my upper division requirements, "</p>
<p>This situation has existed ever since I was in college. That’s 40 by my count. And things have not changed at all in this regard. Usually, a student can get an override if s/he is persistent, knows how to approach the professor, goes to the classes even when not officially in there, and IF it isn’t the time of course where there is a one to one correspondence with equipment. Some lab courses, for example, simply won’t let more than a certain number of students in the room. </p>
<p>It’s not just the big universities that have this issue. In fact, this can be a huge problem for those studying some unusual subject at a small school where perhaps a given course is only taught once a year and is necessary for a certain discipline. Some of such schools might do an independent study, if the student is known to the professor or department to be serious about the subject and far along in it, but usually that is the case for freshmen or sophomores, which truly can be limiting.</p>
<p>It’s hard to prepare for this. Kids come up with the most unexpected changes in venues and can pick a school with no idea as to what direction they will go. By the time the problem develops,even transferring will often add another year onto the college years.</p>