<p>For prospective applicants to the Freshman class, many colleges emphatically promote the availability of cross-registration. One of best known prgrams is the 5-College Consortium that includes Mt Holyoke and U of Massachusetts-Amherst et al. The other Massachusetts association, the Worcester Consortium, and the Durham NC area agreement, look great on paper. However, a careful read of the individual member colleges' catalogues reveals that it's harder than advertised to get approved for a class at a fellow consortium member institution. Some schools retrict the number of classes taken per term while others limit the opportunity to the junior year. I know a U of North Carolina-CH applicant who is looking forward to taking several courses at Duke. Is she headed for a big dissapointment?</p>
<p>i don't know about the program at duke, but I go to smith and have taken classes at Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke, and Amherst (I've had more than a semester "away" when you add it all up). It's always not easy to schedule classes off campus, especially those that meet every day or for long periods of time--never did get to take whitewater kayaking at hampshire for that reason--and people's feelings about taking 5 college classes definitely depends on their tolerance for taking the bus/ sitting in traffic. I'm very patient about those things and it's worked out fine.</p>