"Crashing" classes

<p>So I'm English, coming to UCLA through EAP, and other English people I've spoken to have said that if there's a class you really want or need, you can "crash" it by just turning up each time, and waiting for the professor to let you in or for someone to drop it. There's a class I really want to do, History 97D with A. Silver, but it's full. I've been emailing the professor to ask a couple of questions about it, and he said he'd like to have me in the class, but it's full and he can only let me in if others drop it. Trouble is it's a discussion class and it only has 20 people, so if I just turn up isn't that a bit rude?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>Crash away. No one will ever be able to tell you’re not enrolled.</p>

<p>Yeah, that’s a good strategy if you really want to enroll in the class and don’t want to miss out on the material. Someone will most likely drop within the first couple of weeks, but make a back-up plan to be safe.</p>

<p>So the professor won’t mind even if it’s a small discussion class?</p>

<p>Well if the Professor doesn’t take roll, which is very likely, he might not even realize that anyone is crashing his class.</p>

<p>They’re more likely to take roll if it’s a smaller class, so it might be worth asking for permission in advance. The worst case scenario either way is that you don’t end up in the class, in which case it doesn’t really matter what the professor thinks.</p>

<p>True! Thanks very much everyone.</p>