DD was supposed to graduate in the Fall. To do that she needs a 4000 level course in her major. She is studying abroad and does not have internet access most of the time. Because of that she left me instructions on how to register her for courses. I put her schedule in her SIS planner and sent the Professor of the 4000 level course that she needs to graduate a a request to take the course.
Today I tried to sign up for classes using SIS and it kept saying that it was not her turn to register yet (even though it is the first day and she will be in her last semester???). Finally tonight it allowed me to register but not only is the class full that she wanted (we asked permission to take a month ago on the first day that the Fall schedule came out!), but ALL the 4000 level classes are full. l have never been so mad in my life. What kind of CRAP is it when a kid in their last semester can’t even schedule the classes they need to graduate on the very first day of registration?
It is just one thing after another with this school.
I remember this sort of thing happening to me when I was at UVA. That’s the problem with having so many students and only so many courses to offer. I’d suggest that your daughter email some of the profs teaching those classes now and explaining the situation about graduation. I rarely found myself unable to get into a class that had been full because of the movement on the first and second day. Provided they don’t go past seating capacity a lot of profs will understand and add extra students on to the class if they can. This certainly isn’t an unknown at midsize to large schools like UVA so I’m sure at least one or two will understand.
Thanks for the advice. Since the prof of the one course that fit into the current schedule was told about the circumstances a month ago I am not sure how much good it will do. If she can manage to find another prof to let her in then she will have to lose the courses she already has, and everything else will probably be full.
If she visits the prof in person at the beginning of the semester, that will probably lead to success. My daughter’s advisor rarely returns emails, and she finds that she has to go and see him. This semester his office hours are during another class she is taking and she has had to miss class to go and talk to him.
I wouldn’t wait. I would have her send an email to three professors and clearly explain all of the circumstances. If you don’t get a favorable response from those, I’d try some more.
It’s too bad your daughter didn’t communicate to you her assigned registration time. Any effort to register before is predictably fruitless, as you discovered. The times are assigned based on class and priority, with Echols, Rodman, and other scholars going first within each year. Many students will have enough credits to graduate early, so that threshhold alone would not give one first priority.
It sounds like your daughter had already communicated with the professor of at least one class, so I would be surprised if a follow-up email did not yield results.
She did. She told me Monday. I tried every hour throughout the day on Monday.
@Charliesch and oldUVAgrad Thanks. I finally got her into a poorly reviewed class at the crack of dawn that someone must have dropped. Unfortunately, now that is preventing her from getting another class that she needs to minor. It is ridiculous that a Fourth Year can’t simply choose a class they want within a couple of hours of the registration opening .
There is a specific TIME as well as day assigned to a student for registration, based on priority. You can view the date and time in SIS. Trying every hour before that specified time would indeed be frustrating.
I’m not frustrated with not being able to register earlier in the day. I’m frustrated with not getting any classes she needs to graduate when I tried just a couple of hours after her registration opened
Your OP showed frustration with both the process of not being allowed to register earlier and with the result. Students know to be prepared to register at their assigned time to have the best chance of getting the classes they want. Waiting a couple of hours can be the difference between registering with other fourth-years or with third-years as well. Its still not clear to me that you knew your daughter’s specific registration time.
I agree your result is frustrating, but not entirely surprising when one is trying to register for upper level, smaller seminars, particularly in some fields such as political science which are notoriously difficult to get without contacting the professors. I agree that contacting several will improve your chances of finding a class she wants.
@TV4caster…does she have a friend at school who would be willing to go see the professor in question and explain her circumstances and request? When my kids were students at UVa and had similar circumstances, an in person meeting with the professor (or the academic dean) always produced the desired result. I share your frustration trying to deal with a faceless computer system. I’m sure she’ll get the classes she needs/wants…unlike SIS, the professors are human and will understand the circumstances.
It’s probably common at any large public university. But, I’ve never heard of anyone missing their planned graduation date because they were not able to get in a required class.
What happened when the original professor (the one whose class the daughter really wanted) was contacted? Before the registration began, most likely he did not have any special powers to pre-register her. He probably remembers the student and would be likely to allow her to enroll. There are processes by which professors can allow students into closed courses.
I believe the previous comment is correct. I don’t think professors can save a spot of “pre” register students for their courses. They CAN approve a student to enroll in a course that is showing up as full. I bet she’ll get the class she needs during the first week back.
I’m sorry your daughter put you through this. She could have gone to an internet cafe and taken care of this herself and saved you from worrying.
I’m with Robert. I’ve never heard of someone at UVa failing to graduate on time because of a full class.
I had problems registering my first two years and I came in with almost 60 credits (that was before registration was by class - it was by credits). By 3rd and 4th year I had no problems (other than an administrative problem my 5th year) since registration was by class then credits and I had a lot of credits at that time. The class that gave me trouble, the prof actually registered all of the 4th years manually who needed the class for graduation, it was really nice of him, we were way over capacity and he wasn’t paid more or given an extra TA.
I checked while I was up there today and the prof gets a list of students who are requesting the course where you need instructor permission. The prof then emails the students whom they are going to let in and gives them the code to enter into SIS once their allotted time comes up for registration.
It looks like the dept. head got her registered today for what she needs.
She was in the middle of the desert in Africa.
PS- were you in a black and white dress today at DOTL? I will give you one thing- you can tell you enjoy your job and working for the school. From the a cappella groups to the pep band, it was easy to tell that you were really having fun. I was going to introduce myself but I didn’t want to ruin the good day you were having
PPS- I was looking forward to meeting Cav Dog. Stupid rain.
