I’m currently an incoming freshman, and I hopped on WebReg as soon as my enrollment time opened up. Almost all of the classes I am planning to take are currently full, and I had to waitlist. I was planning to take BILD 4 (of which all available courses are already full), Chem 6A, DOC 1, and Math 20B. I am also planning to take MUS 15, but I was able to enroll for that class. For BILD 4, there are 21 people in front of me on the waitlist, in Chem 6A there are 9 people in front of me, in DOC 1 there are 6 people ahead of me, and in Math 20B there are 11 people ahead of me. Now, I had spoke to an advisor on campus during Triton day, and she said that sometimes UCSD classes show up as full because they reserve space for freshman students, and later on when enrollment opens up, there will be space. Back to my situation, there are a few time slots available with staff listed instead of a professor, am I better off taking those slots rather than waitlisting? Also, taking these classes at different time slots creates a schedule conflict for me, and I won’t be able to take some of the courses I want to take this fall. Should I just stay on the waitlist (and hope everything works out, which resolves my schedule conflict), or just replace these conflicting/overlapping courses with GEs and take the courses later on in the school year?
I would worry about BILD 4 some other time (i.e. next quarter). If there are other timeslots for Chem and Math that don’t conflict with each other, definitely try to take those. You can check the Staff professor for math courses here:
http://math.ucsd.edu/resources/course-websites/
I guess if waitlisting for DOC is your best option, you should do that. Also, if you’re not on the UCSD Class of 2019 Official Student-Run Group on Facebook, you should join that because there are loads of people who are eager to help work out this kind of issue.
Lab classes tend to fill up quickly just in general. You’ll be able to get into it eventually, but you might not be able to do it your very first quarter. Some students have to wait a couple of times before they get to be a high enough priority to get into some high-demand lab classes, so I wouldn’t be too bummed if you don’t get into it your first quarter. It’s not the end of the world. There’s no harm in staying on the waitlist, but it can be hard to get off the waitlist for lab courses unless you’re near the very front.
For CHEM 6A, there seem to be A LOT of open slots available. There are also a decent number of spots open in MATH 20B. Are there really no other times you can enroll in those classes where there is no time conflict? There are also a couple of openings in DOC 1 (as well as times that have a waitlist of 0). Are you sure that NONE of those times work for you at all?
Sometimes, you have to take classes at a time that you don’t prefer or with a professor that you don’t prefer. But it’s really up to you how much you’re willing to risk. I would not recommend hoping to get off the waitlist for three core classes because, well, what if you don’t? If I were you, I would bite the bullet and just pick different times that have openings, but I tend to like to be on the safe side. Alternatively, you could stay on the waitlist for your courses for as long as possible to see what happens, but have in mind, a backup schedule with courses that have openings in them. Keep an eye on the schedule of classes to see if your backup schedule starts to fill up, but you could wait until the last minute before you switch, just in case the classes you want open up.
There is usually movement on the waitlist, but if you’re waitlisted for a class at a popular time and/or with a popular professor, then I wouldn’t rely on it too much. The fact that a few sections have such big waitlists when there are lots of other open sections suggests to me that those are very popular spots and that there might not be that much movement.