<p>I read somewhere that students in the Five Colleges do not cross register between colleges until at least the spring semester of freshman year. Does this mean cross registering as a fall freshman is prohibited or simply discouraged? For Amherst College specifically, does anyone have experience with this?</p>
<p>I am a first year student at Smith College and can respond to your question as to Smith’s policy on Five College registration during the first year. As a first year student you cannot register for a Five College Class outside of your home college during the first semester. Usually, most students who wish to register for Five College classes do so for sophomore year and thereafter. The process of registration for Five College classes at Smith is simple but priority for class registration is given to the home institution’s students first. Some classes require the professor’s prior written approval to register. Some classes may be over enrolled in which case you can e-mail the professsor, attend the first day of class and request that they permit you to register for the class using a form from that intitution that permits the professor to admit you to the class even though the enrollment cap has been reached. As a computer science major the Five College consortium makes available 90-100 classes within the computer science field allowing specialized focus into a particular area of interest.Any further questions please feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>As an Amherst student, it is my understanding that first year students are not allowed to enroll in Five College courses until their second semester. Part of that decision is practical, as the previous poster explained—it can be difficult to enroll in another college’s classes if one has not pre-registered. In addition, the college wants its students to become familiar with the campus, student body, and faculty before taking classes elsewhere. Of course, students can still participate in Five College activities, organizations, and groups during their first semester.</p>