I was waitlisted for a Freshman Fundamentals Course that every freshman at Chapman is required to take. I’m second on the waitlist and I don’t really have a plan B. I realize now that I should have enrolled in a few backup courses, but I was overwhelmed and confused by the online registration originally and just enrolled in what I needed to take. Classes don’t start for another month so I still have time, and I plan on showing up to the class even if I don’t get off the waitlist, but I’m still worried. What are my chances of getting into the class (class sizes are small since it’s a private school). And though I plan on showing up early to the first class, it’s going to be hard since the class I have before that is across campus and ends 15 minutes before my waitlisted class begins. Should I be contacting someone about my problem now or keep waiting?
I doubt if anyone can tell you definitively what to. I know my son didn’t get into his first choice FFC class 3 years ago.But who knows you might meet your best friend for life in the class that is now available.
When I was a college student many years ago professors did not let you enroll in their class until the end of the class when they knew how many students showed up. So I would not worry about showing up early the first day of class (although please read the Administration’s suggestion arriving early shown below).
I guess the problem is you are not allowed to sign up for two Freshman Fundamentals Courses and drop the one you don’t want; is this the case? If you were able to enroll in another back up Freshman Fundamentals Course now that is still available that you might like that works with your schedule in case you don’t get in off the wait list that would be a good idea. You would have until Friday, September 11 to drop any courses you don’t want without record of enrollment.
They may open new Freshman Fundamentals Courses closer to the start of school. Keep checking. Have a great school year; everything will work out in the end.
Just in case you did not see the following this is what the administration will tell you if contact them:
Chapman University Academic Advising Center What To Do If Your Desired Class Is Full…
If a course you would like to take is listed as full or waitlisted on WebAdvisor, follow these steps:
PLACE YOURSELF ON THE WAITLIST – If this course is crucial not only to your schedule but to your program degree requirements. If you make it off the waitlist and in to the class you will receive an email from the registrar telling you that you can register in the class. You must register for the class within 24 hours; you will not be placed in the course automatically. Do not waitlist for courses that are at scheduled at the same time as courses you are registered in.
HAVE A PLAN “B.” - Choose another course that you are willing to take in case you cannot get in to your first choice.
HAVE A FLEXIBLE SCHEDULE. Be willing to rearrange your schedule if courses don’t work out as planned.
FREQUENTLY CHECK “MANAGE MY WAITLIST LIST” ON WEBADVISOR. This will help you determine: a. If you’re very close to being added to the section. b. If there are too many students on the waitlist. Use your judgment and be honest with yourself. If you are #25 on a waitlist for a class with only 20 seats, chances may be quite slim that you will get in.
ON THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS- If you are still on the waitlist, please be ready to petition for the course using the following steps. a. Show up early! b. Be patient with the professor and understand priority will be given to upper division students, and students in the major or minor. c. Have your ADD/DROP form ready. This can be picked up the Registrar’s office or downloaded from their website at http://www.chapman.edu/RegOffice/ . d. Get the appropriate signatures on your ADD/DROP form. The instructor or Chair of the Department must sign to waive the class size limit (if the course is listed as closed or full on WebAdvisor). The instructor and department chair signatures are needed for freshmen (0-29 credits earned) to add an upper division course (Upper division language and history courses can be taken by Freshmen without needing signatures depending on eligibility. 6) DO NOT E-MAIL THE PROFESSOR TO ADD YOU. Instructors cannot add students to the class until the first day of the semester, when the waitlists are turned off. Follow the instructions above to try and get added. Please do not flood your instructor’s email box with requests!
Sukahjoy - I keep seeing you posting about WebAdvisor. There is no WebAdvisor at Chapman anymore - they have switched to mychapman.edu and no one down there seems to really know how it works. So the WebAdvisor help pages are useless.
MioMyo, I don’t know what to tell you about the waitlist. My daughter actually got added from a waitlist because the honors program suddenly opened more seats in the class - this might happen with the FFCs. Right now all the FFC sections are full, and they have to let you in somewhere. (You would think they would have a handle on how many freshmen are coming and would have enough seats open, but yeah.) From what I understand, if you have another section of the same course in your schedule you will not be automatically registered when you hit the top of the waitlist, but I can’t confirm that this is really true because we weren’t in that situation. You might want to ask your academic advisor (if you can figure out who it is - no one seems to have one listed on mychapman) if they have any advice.
OK, thank you guys. I emailed my advisor (they’re listed on their site based on major) and he told me a few sections of GE to look into. I picked out about 10 classes from there, but all the ones I tried to enroll into I got wait listed for. So as of now, I’m enrolled into 4 classes, and wait listed (in the top two positions for each) for three classes and hoping to get into 1-2 of them. At this point, everything is pretty much wait listed so I guess I just have to wait Any further advice?
Also, spaamie1, it’s a relief to hear that WebAdvisor isn’t at chapman any more. I spent over an hour the other day getting frustrated as I couldn’t log into it- now I know why.
Any further advice?