Are classes really full?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
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<p>Looking at the course catalog and so many classes my D wants are full. Is that true? For example, Honors Econ 110 with Aldridge. 30 spots. 30 Actual. 0 Remaining. This is also true with BSC 108 - Yates, Eng 206 with Newell, Geo 101… She can get into CS 102 and GBA 145. Will some of these spots open up? </p>

<p>Not sure what she will be able to sign up for unless she gets a teacher that is ranked horrible on Rate my Professor. Any suggestions? She is done with History, Eng 101 and 102, and Spanish.</p>

<p>Thank you! But I’m not really seeing the advantage of missing school to attend the May 25 Bama Bound.</p>

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<p>Bama holds spots in lots of freshman classes so that upperclassmen can’t take them before BamaBound. Don’t worry, probably all of the classes you’re worried about will open up at the BamaBound session.</p>

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<p>Glad to hear someone else is going to BamaBound on the 25th … DD is looking forward to being on campus again for even a short time.</p>

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<p>The 1XX level classes have seats held back for each Bama Bound. The 2XX+ level classes don’t usually have seats held back.</p>

<p>Yes, you need to go to BB…otherwise your registration hold won’t get lifted! And, right before registration happens, the “hold” will be lifted and seats will open for the frosh.</p>

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<p>I’m just hoping there are some classes still open by the time my kid goes to BB in July.</p>

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<p>My son is a little concerned about the 2xx level classes and getting into those! But we looked last month, then this past weekend some new sections seemed to have been added. So it will probably all work out!</p>

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<p>collegeboom: A word to the wise. Do not believe everything that is said on Rate My Professor. Sometimes, kids trash a professor because they did not earn the grade that they desired or they did not like the assignments, etc. My son said that he was all set not to take a particular Poli Sci professor because of what he had read. Then, his former roommate had the same professor for a different class and loved it. Then, there are times when kids loved a professor, and my son just disliked him/her or the class after reading such glowing reviews.</p>

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<p>Thank you for the support! I was stressing for a bit. I’m sure there will be other options for her. That honors EC class only has one section with the teacher she wants and it’s full. I guess sophomores could have waited to get into that class. </p>

<p>Do you guys know anything about EN 155 freshman seminar that counts as Fine Arts? </p>

<p>Also, what about that chess class for an honors course? Is it time consuming?</p>

<p>She is excited to go back to Tuscaloosa next week! Absolutely loves it there!</p>

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<p>momreads: Thank you for that! You are right. She has talked to some girls that are there and they def disagree on their advice of teachers and classes for her. I am a little OCD over this schedule. Can you tell she is my first one to go off to school! I know, I know… I need to back off and let her figure it out! I’ll try to not be so obsessive!</p>

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<p>Mom reads: my s will be a freshman and poli sci is his minor. Can u recommend some classes? He wanted to take pol101 and pol102 but I don’t know if u need to compete 101 before taking 102?</p>

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<p>collegeboom, my son took EC 110 w/Aldridge (Honors Microeconomics) his first semester at UA (Fall 2010). He registered for the class during the same 'Bama Bound that I believe you’re attending. As is the case presently, the class was limited to 30 students.</p>

<p>My guess is that they show the class being full when they want to block folks from registering, so as to reserve some seats for incoming frosh. Any experts out there who think I’ve got this wrong, please correct me.</p>

<p>This initial registration process is very stressful because of all the unknowns. But it will all work out in the long run. And going forward, for students in the Honors College, priority registration will be the perk that makes course selection a breeze.</p>

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<p>I couldn’t agree more, though we’ve found it helpful when there are a fair number of positive responses that are based on meaningful criteria/variables.</p>

<p>Here’s an article on the validity of RMP. It may surprise some of you, as it did me.</p>

<p>[Validation</a> for RateMyProfessors.com? | Inside Higher Ed](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/04/25/rmp]Validation”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/04/25/rmp)</p>

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<p>"Thank you for the support! I was stressing for a bit. I’m sure there will be other options for her. That honors EC class only has one section with the teacher she wants and it’s full. I guess sophomores could have waited to get into that class. "</p>

<p>Last year, Aldridge taught 2 honors EC 110 sections (30 students each). This year, there are 4 honors sections of that class and there are many open spots. That said, Bama should have held back some seats in EACH section. </p>

<p>I would email Dr. Aldridge and ask if he’s going to be teaching any of the non-honors sections.</p>

<p>"Do you guys know anything about EN 155 freshman seminar that counts as Fine Arts? "</p>

<p>My son LOVED Dr. Louise Cary with Honors Fine Arts and Parody.</p>

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<p>BamamomfromNY: You may want to check the course catalog regarding Political Science 101 and 102. My son did not take either class – he had AP credit from U.S. government (PSC 101) and comparative government (PSC 203). His first poli sci class came during his first semester – PSC 205, which is political theory. He really enjoyed the class, but his professor is no longer at Alabama. He took PSC 334 – government politics Western European in the spring of his freshman year. He enjoyed that class, as well as Southern Politics (316). He also did a study abroad in Belgium and took two poli sci classes there.</p>

<p>collegeboom: Your daughter will choose some great classes, and yes, she will choose that will not be as great. But it’s all part of learning.</p>

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<p>During our red carpet tour of UA my son was invited to sit in on an Honors College course taught by Louise Cary. The title of the course was Southern Values, and all my son could think going in was, “Ugh. This is going to be a snoozer.”</p>

<p>He emerged with a big smile on his face and said, “Wow! Not what I expected. She was great.”</p>

<p>Next semester he’ll be taking Arts and Parody with her. It took two years to get in, but I’m sure it will have been worth the wait. Louise Cary is the bomb.</p>

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<p>Collegeboom…</p>

<p>I encourage you to contact Dr. Helms and voice your concern that seats were not set aside for Honors Econ 110-007 (or any section) for the incoming frosh attending Bama Bound. </p>

<p>I did just send an email to him (see below), but it always helps if they hear from others.</p>

<p><a href=“mailto:bhelms@cba.ua.edu”>bhelms@cba.ua.edu</a></p>

<p>Dear Dr. Helms,</p>

<p>For incoming freshmen to be able to select classes during their Bama Bound sessions, each department is supposed to hold back a large number of 1XX-level seats and release some seats incrementally for each Bama Bound session. * It’s understandable that seats in 2XX+ level courses aren’t held back for incoming freshmen, but seats in each 1XX section are supposed to be held back for freshmen.</p>

<p>That didn’t happen for the Econ 110 classes and it’s a problem for the incoming honors freshmen who would have wanted to take Econ 110-007, the honors version, with Dr. Aldridge. <em>That section is the ONLY morning honors section offered. *Since NO seats were held back for that section, upperclassmen grabbed them all. *</em></p>

<p>Since the other 3 honors sections of EC 110 are being held in the afternoon, those sections still have many openings, but those are less desirable times and often interfere with other courses’ lab requirements. *</p>

<p>There are 120 seats for Honors EC 110 spread over 4 sections (30 seats each). <em>Each section should have had about 15 seats (60 total) set aside to be released incrementally for the 4 Honors Bama Bound session. * *</em></p>

<p>Obviously, it is too late to do anything this year for the Honors Econ 110 sections. *However, one purpose of this email is to provide a heads-up so that 1XX level seats are set aside for future Fall semesters for the freshmen students, especially the honors sections since there are fewer of those.</p>

<p>However, for this summer’s Bama Bounds, seats need to be held back for the non-honors versions of Econ 110. <em>Currently, the morning sections do have some openings, but if seats aren’t held back and released incrementally, then those attending the earlier BB sessions will grab all those spots, which also shouldn’t happen. *</em></p>

<p>Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.</p>

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<p>If you want to know if a class is really “full” or not, simply look at the previous terms and see how many total seats that class/section ended up with. It’s not always 100% accurate but it will give you an indication if seats are being held back or if it’s already at it’s limit. </p>

<p>When you log into mybama just click on “look up classes” in the center box. There you can look at previous class schedules all the way back to 2005. Just be sure to compare fall to fall and spring to spring.</p>

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<p>Also just a little reality here and this isn’t meant to any one person or to be rude. But you’re not always going to get your ideal schedule all the time. There will be classes, certain sections of a class, profs, times etc etc that you want but that are full. This happens especially to incoming freshmen. </p>

<p>Just because you’re on academic scholarship or in honors doesn’t mean The University is supposed to give you special consideration to make sure little johnny or suzy gets exactly what he/she wants. Wait a semester to take the class, take it at a different time, or take a different prof. Kids before you had to do similar and kids after you will in all likelihood do the same. Just the way the world works.</p>

<p>I hope I didn’t offend anyone. But if I did, too bad. Deal with it :-).</p>

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<p>When I was in COllege (and had to walk TWO MILES, UPHILL BOTH WAYS, In the SNOW, from the dorm to campus, etc…)</p>

<p>Almost every freshman had Comm 101 T, TH, SATURDAY at 7AM.</p>

<p>The smart kids signed up for and subsequently dropped ANIMAL HUSBANDRY which had the same time slot and forced the big circa 1975 mainframe to assign them to a different time…but ultimately the PTB figured that scam out.</p>

<p>I often what all those abandoned sheep thought of those missing husbands…</p>

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<p>No doubt their husbands relocated to auburn to shack up with some cows.</p>