End of July Pittstart session a mistake?

<p>I live about 30 minutes north of Pittsburgh. A few of my friends who are going to Pitt scheduled their Pittstart for end of May and early June. My one friend wanted to go at the end of July, so I scheduled mine in conjunction with his. I'm starting to think that this was a mistake since the classes that I want to take will be full. I want to major in computer science with a minor in possibly political science and would take classes like Calculus and programming. Am I going to get into the classes that I want to take with such a late session?</p>

<p>I would try to go as early as you can as sections will fill up especially the ones with the “good” times or good professors.</p>

<p>Agreed. I would go earlier if at all possible. Still, there are tons of calc class sections and there surely would be some poli sci class available (not sure about programming). I guess the biggest issue is that you will have few options of sections and may have little latitude to fit what you want into a workable schedule. If this happens, be sure to get the classes most critical to your major first so you can graduate on time.</p>

<p>I talked to my friend and we tried to change our date by going on the website. Every date prior to that is full apparently. Oh well, I hope it works out.</p>

<p>It will be okay. There are lots of sections of basic classes. And if you don’t get exactly what you want, you can always check back because people add-drop and spots may open up in the first week or two.</p>

<p>You can also go into the mypitt.edu website and see how many seats are left in the classes you want to take. We put my daughter’s entire schedule together before she went to PITTSTART.</p>

<p>That is fortunate to your make your schedule before PittStart if you are comfortable about making choices without the advice of Pitt. However, meeting with an advisor is very beneficial when making your schedule. My son’s advisor recommended certain classes to take as a business student along with electives. I don’t think it is a good idea to do that without professional guidance, especially as a first semester freshman. Just my opinion,…,…</p>

<p>My daughter attended a May PittStart and had a very productive appointment with her advisor because she worked out a schedule ahead of time. She was able to discuss many options and program details etc…</p>

<p>My daughter is in a learning community. So she only needed to take two additional classes. I am a professional, I went to PITT and I did months of research and made numerous phone calls to prepare for PITTSTART. It is my opinion that walking into an advising session with no idea of where to begin is not a good idea. Her advisor was great and she was grateful for the preparation we did.</p>

<p>good for you !</p>

<p>also, if you had mentioned on your first post what you wrote on your last post, months of research, phone calls… i.e.;“professional advice” then i would have agreed with you in the first place.</p>

<p>I do think you need to walk into your advising session with some idea of what classes you would like to take as the advisors do not have unlimited time to spend with each student. They will try to get you the classes you want and need but be prepare to be flexible with the times.</p>

<p>Yes you are right. In fact, my son knew he wanted to take a psych class and an italian class and he knew he was going to have to take a calc and english class prior to attending PittStart. However, I doubt if the majority of the students and or parents spend months of research and make numerous phone calls to do this. People have different ways of approaching situations like this and do what they think is best. It all works out.</p>

<p>Last year I remember there were complaints from kids who were closed out of certain classes. But if you’re scheduled for a later PittStart and all of the earlier ones are filled, what can you do? Try to be as flexible as possible. I’m sure it will all work out.</p>

<p>From what I understand you should be as likely to get a class or be closed out of a class regardless what Pitt Start session you attend. Last year my daughter did get closed out of some classes last year and was very disappointed. Her advisor explained there are so many seats open for each PittStart and once they are full then you are closed out. The next PittStart session more seats will open up for those students attending that session and again once they fill you are closed out. My D’s advisor did tell her to keep contacting him throughout the summer and see if any spots opened up so she could take the class. Some of the classes she was interested in taking I suspect were filled by incoming sophmores and juniors and therefore there were very seats for freshman. I do recall though that all the freshman composition sections were full when my D attended PittStart in mid July - but she was able to very easily take freshman comp spring semester. In fact Spring semester and this coming fall semester she got every class she wanted and exactly what time she wanted. Good luck!</p>

<p>no don’t worry about that- they put classes on hold for every pittstart session so there will be openings. I think it is better to get a session with your advisor earlier in the day during your pittstart session but they are selected randomly</p>

<p>I am a sophomore at Pitt, I went to a mid-May Pittstart so I did not have any trouble scheduling. However I do have several friends who went to later ones, even the very last session of the summer. For the most part everyone gets the classes they need/want, unless it is a course with only one small section, etc.</p>

<p>Personally, I went into my registration appointment with little research/knowledge because I had been told I would be fulfilling requirements; my advisor pretty much gave me a few choices for each requirement and I picked one. I’m only speaking for mine, other advisors do things differently.</p>

<p>Don’t fret over it too much, most of the classes are bigger intro sections and like someone else said, seats are put on hold for each pittstart.</p>