“@Lea111’s kid had particularly bad luck w/r/t getting classes last fall but IIRC she had completely waived Core Math and was attempting to substitute in a major course that she had received special approval for - all that apparently sent the algorithm into a tailspin.”
That’s not why her failure to get SOSC happened. She had placed out of Calc 151 and 152 (so placed out of Core math requirement, and could theoretically major in psychology, if she wanted). And she had AP’d out of foreign language. So they didn’t actually give her many options for classes she COULD pre-register for or get into without the consent of her advisor - the list is very short for first year, first quarter - just Core classes and a short list of intro courses. Of the 2 on that short list that she was interested in, one was already full when first years got to pre-register.
She originally did end up getting into 3 courses from pre-registration (you get to say whether you want 3 or 4, and she said 3). What she was trying to get was HUM, SOSC, and a non-major science class. The other intro class was a backup, and she listed it as 4th priority. But she got HUM, a non-major science class, and the third intro class, even though the third intro’s priority was lower than SOSC. (I assume that having the backup class didn’t keep her from SOSC, but I don’t know this.)
This schedule would have been fine. At the time, she would have preferred to get the SOSC going, but that didn’t happen. She could have stayed with the HUM, core science, and intro class that pre-registration gave her. I think it wouldn’t have been a very challenging schedule, esp with only taking 3 classes, but it would have been fine.
But she decided to push herself to take a small seminar class, that turned out to be 2/3 full with 3rd and 4th years and a grad student. She had to do a bunch of administrative work to get into that class, which I won’t go into, but it was time-consuming and a a little stressful. This was so even though the prof had given her consent over the summer to take the class. This was because the class wasn’t on the list of classes that first years can pre-register for, and they can’t request consent officially until classes started. But she kept at it, surprisingly, and did get in.
So she ended up taking HUM, the non-major science class, and the unusual, challenging but not especially time-consuming seminar with upperclassmen. It was a great schedule.
Anyway, her failure to get SOSC in pre-registration, despite listing 9 sections of it (the max allowed) had nothing to do with the seminar she ended up getting into - that happened later. She did put the science core class in as a priority over SOSC (1 HUM, 2 science 3 SOSC 4 backup intro class). There was a logistical reason for that I don’t exactly remember now, and also she wanted to spread her four science core classes over different quarters. And the SOSC classes she listed were not ones likely to be less popular (not 9:30 a.m. and earlier). So it’s possible if she had done something different, listed SOSC as 2nd priority, she could have gotten a traditional SOSC class before all of those classes filled up. But there’s no way to know that - the algorithm is mysterious. And no one had suggested that first years have trouble getting into any SOSC class - it was the school itself that suggested listing up to 9 SOSC sections and in fact limited you to 9 SOSC sections, which seemed to indicate that would be enough. I wish I could give advice to families of class of 2022 to put SOSC and priority #2 if that’s what you want. But who knows if it will work out the same for them? Maybe they still won’t get SOSC but also won’t get their third ranked class either …
But to clarify - the failure to get SOSC had nothing to do with DD’s special approval class, since that couldn’t even be requested during pre-registration.
The hardest part for DD with scheduling this year is that she has some priority for Core classes, but not enough Core classes to fill her schedule, especially given that second years (with higher priority) snap up the hard-to-get-into small arts core classes, and given that she couldn’t get into SOSC and probably shouldn’t take CIV as a a first year. As it was, the only Core classes she could take this year were 3 quarters of HUM, 3 quarters of science, and 1 quarter of arts core that she managed to get into during pre-registration this quarter (good luck on that one!). She only has to take 2 CIV, 3 SOSC, and 1 science left to go though, so the problem is less that she didn’t get enough Core classes in this year, and more that it’s been hard for her to fill her schedule, given her low priority for non-Core classes.
But, with a lot of work and some stress, it’s worked out. It’s turned out that she’s taken a seminar filled with fourth years each quarter - one that’s semi-popular and required consent during a period in which it was oversubscribed, one not-yet-popular-with-[good]-new-prof, one extremely popular and requiring a huge amount of checking during add/drop (200 times a day for a week) to get into. All of these classes have turned out to be very, very good for her. But it does increase the work and stress of getting into classes. She also took a fourth non-core class this year, an interesting intro class. So 7 core classes and 4 non-core classes. Given how hard it was to fill her schedule, I’m especially glad that she chose first quarter to take only 3 courses; that was the best time for it. Due to AP credit, she could now take only 3 classes every quarter from 2nd to 4th year, if she wanted. But she will probably register for 4 courses from here on out, unless there’s some scheduling problem that makes putting down 4 more likely to keep her out of classes she wants. Or she can’t find enough great classes that can make up a 4-class schedule (not because there aren’t enough classes like that at Chicago - far from it! - but because you can’t always get in to great classes and/or classes conflict with one another).
) that concerned the advisors. She didn’t mind at all, it seemed to be the correct placement, she thought it was well taught and provided sufficient tutorial support, and it allows her to pursue Econ. if she wants to. I wouldn’t get hung up on what the Math dept. might or might not think about the sequence. She opted to trust the placement and wasn’t disappointed (other than observing there were kids in there who probably should have been in the higher sequence).
The purpose is to help you learn to think critically and write - we’ve been told that any of them are good for that goal. Sometimes it’s good to foray into an entirely new field - for instance, if you are determined to be a Stats or Economics major, taking something OTHER than SSI might be an interesting way to expand the brain a bit. On the other hand, if you are double majoring in Philosophy and Poly Sci, “Classics” might be overkill so take SSI instead. Fun to mix it up a bit!