<p>Quick Question: I'm an incoming freshman planning to major in physics. I was hoping to take 197 first semester but I heard a rumor that the sections were already full of upperclassmen. Is there actually a chance that I wouldn't get into 197 as a physics major?</p>
<p>There’s only one section of 117 this year as they move everyone to 197…pretty much everyone that wants to get into 197 will, although you may not be able to choose which section.</p>
<p>Its been said time and time again, but if you can, avoid Gibbons. I think its four sections of 197 this year, so that shouldn’t be a problem.</p>
<p>The sections are full right now because they’re limiting it so that upperclassmen don’t steal all the spots.</p>
<p>They’ll open up more seats when freshmen register.</p>
<p>Giant classes like physics, chemstry, calculus and biology are a huge cluster-f*** at the beginning of the semester. Sections will fill up and people who need to take the course for their major will end up on the waitlist, but people in those departments go through the data and manually make sure that sections are appropriately sized and that everyone who needs to take a course gets into it. You won’t always get your first choice of time/professor, though.</p>
<p>Engineers register in the summer, and so will be higher up on the waitlist, and thus more likely to get the “good” sections.</p>
<p>You may want to do an Artsci weekend to register earlier, if getting a good professor is something important to you.</p>
<p>I thought physics majors get preference for 197 anyways? But yeah, it’s pretty unlikely that you won’t get 197.</p>
<p>This doesn’t relate to the physics thing, but it relates to registration. I don’t really know too much about the artsci weekends…I was sort of planning on doing registration during orientation, but if almost everyone else takes care of it during those weekends, will it be a total pain for me? I had planned on skipping the artsci weekends simply because they seemed non-essential, but if I will be screwed for registration by not going, then I guess I had better…
Thoughts?</p>
<p>My roommate registered during orientation because he forgot. He still got into the classes he needed, but his schedule was a bit crappy. </p>
<p>I think that going to artsci weekends probably isn’t necessary, but you probably will get better times (e.g. not 8-9 AM) if you go.</p>
<p>Do note that engineering students register for the summer. Thus courses such as physics 197 will have a waitlist of the best sections of engineers/artsci students. While we can pretty much guarantee you’ll be able to take 197, you’ll probably have bottom choice for the sections…you may end up with a crappy professor or crappy times.</p>
<p>Similarly for Writing 1, most people will have registered for it before orientation, meaning good times will be full, leaving odd times available. These times might be the ones you want, but they may also be the ones you hate. You’ll definitely get the class, but maybe not a good time.</p>
<p>I’m guessing you’ll take Calculus…there are only a few main lesson sections of these, but Calc 1 and 2 have sections led by a TA…again you may get crappy times. If you’re going into Calc 3, there aren’t any TA sections so no need to worry about this.
The rest really depends on what classes you want to take. If they’re large classes with only 1-2 sections, you’ll probably get into whichever section you want. If they’re smaller classes with multiple sections, you’ll probably get crappy sections. If they’re small classes in general, you may not get in at all.</p>
<p>You certainly don’t have to do an artsci weekend, but it will help have “better” times and more options. It really sucks when you have one class, then a two hour break, then another class a couple hours later which is more likely to happen if you register later. </p>
<p>Do you know what classes you want to take? I can help more if you know what you want to take (ideally). List the 4-5 courses and I can give you a guess as to how beneificial artsci weekends might be.</p>
<p>Again, a lot depends on how you feel about certain times. Most freshmen hate classes before 10am, and these times are generally the ones available to people that register during orientation. Personally I couldn’t care…I’m taking a graduate class next semester from 8:30-10:00, and will be done with my day on Tuesdays, Thursdays by 1pm.</p>
<p>generallyrong: There really isn’t a sense of majors for first semester freshmen year. With the way things have changed, pretty much anyone wanting to take 197 will get in, they just might get the bad professors, or bad times. This majors certainly have no control over. </p>
<p>There is only one section of 117, and it’s extremely rare that someone doesn’t get to take a first semester class in Physics, Chem, Math, CSE, etc. The departments will generally always make room for a freshmen in them.</p>