<p>So, for those of you who are already in attendance (whose kids are already in attendance) …</p>
<p>Is it true that registering for classes each semester is as easy as it sounds for honors students? Are the desired honors courses and honors seminars as readily available as they were made out to be on our visit? Does having priority registration help you to get the classes you want each semester, including freshman year?</p>
<p>The honors programs and the scholarships at this school are a HUGE draw.</p>
<p>My son wants to major in engineering – but he really loves all subjects and is only looking at colleges where he can continue to learn a breadth of material from all subject areas. He also wants personal, small classes, not the large classes offered at most state universities (for core courses and during freshman and sophomore year).</p>
<p>Bama seems to be a really good fit for him, thanks to the honors program. Prior to discovering Bama, he was focusing his search on a lot of private universities that had liberal arts as well as engineering, so that he could have all that he wanted in his education. Now, he’s found this state school that seems to offer it all, as long as what we’re being told is true.</p>
<p>My son is an entering freshman and had no problem enrolling in 3 honors classes for this semester (Fall 2010): 1 in the Honors College (UH 101: Moral Forum), 1 in Economics, and 1 in English.</p>
<p>Is it true that registering for classes each semester is as easy as it sounds for honors students? Are the desired honors courses and honors seminars as readily available as they were made out to be on our visit? Does having priority registration help you to get the classes you want each semester, including freshman year?</p>
<p>My kids have gotten every class they’ve ever wanted/needed. They do follow their sign up time.</p>
<p>*Enrollment is 29 students in his Econ course, 18 in his English course, and 11 in Moral Forum. Not bad, eh? *</p>
<p>Yes! Take that all those who think you can’t get normal-sized classes at big schools! ;)</p>
<p>My D is also an entering freshman & she also got all the honors classes she wanted:
Intro Italian Honors (15 students)
IHP Freshman Seminar: Culture & Society (15 students)
UH Freshman Seminar: Issues in American Politics (15 students)
She’s also in a 6 week Honors Connection section (10 students)</p>
<p>Her Cultural Anthropology class doesn’t have an honors section & has 160 kids; she chose not to take an honors version of her math class & that has 50 kids. But she’s OK with that; she plans on sitting near the front.</p>
<p>the only class she wanted to take & couldn’t get was an upper level history class. She’s a history major but already had credit for the required 100 & 200 level classes through AP. She figures it will be easy to get in next semester and she didn’t sweat it for the Fall.</p>
<p>the only class she wanted to take & couldn’t get was an upper level history class. She’s a history major but already had credit for the required 100 & 200 level classes through AP. She figures it will be easy to get in next semester and she didn’t sweat it for the Fall.</p>
<p>^^^^^
Is this typical? Is it difficult to get in upper level classes as a freshman?</p>
<p>Catdaddy: since that class was for upper level history majors, and they had registered back in March, it makes sense that it was full. Some folks here had mentioned contacting her dept advisor for an override, but D decided not to do that. She should be able to get into the vast majority of history classes for the Spring semester since honors students have priority registration going forward.</p>
<p>Thanks RobD. I ask because my son would be taking several (if not most) upper level classes as a freshman. My concern is that he would not be able to get in the classes he will need since he will register later compared to upper classmen. Sounds like a dept over ride might work.</p>
<p>International Honors: Culture and Human Experience (IHP 105)
Common Book Experience (UH 120): This class had just 10 or so.
Honors: Alabama Action (UH 103): Since this is a community service project class, there are about 100 freshmen enrolled.
Honors Calculus 145 (He did this as an audit, the class had just 14 students)
Computer-Based Honors 101 and 102: This class had just 18 or so.
Honors: Alabama Action Costa Rica (UH 101): This class featured just seven or eight students.</p>
<p>This year, he will take Computer-Based Honors 201 and 202, as well as Alabama Action Costa Rica.</p>
<p>As for getting the classes that he has wanted, only once did he hope to take another honors class but could not get into it. The class has only 10 or so spots. Although he registered on the second day (the more AP/IB/dual enrollment and UA credits you have, the earlier you register), the students with senior standing got into that course first. That’s all right. If he wants to take it later, he should be able to land a spot easily.</p>
<p>As for his other classes, he has had about 18 or so in his Spanish classes. Alabama tries to keep those classes small so students can master the language. His economics and political science classes had about 60 students. Those classes were at the 200 and 300 levels. He wanted to take a 400-level class this fall, and just needed an override from the professor to secure a spot.</p>
<p>^momreads, were his economics and poli sci classes regular classes or honors classes?
(I thought honors classes were supposed to be limited to 40 students, except for honors seminars which are limited to 15.)</p>
<p>^Oh, okay. Well, then, I would say 60 students is a pretty small class size for core-type courses at a medium-large university. A lot of large schools say that their econ and poli sci courses are their largest courses, at 200 or 300 students!</p>
<p>SimpleLife, I have friends at schools where some econ, poli sci, and math courses have 500+ students. At UA, my largest classes were one of my finance courses with 225 students and a film course with 200 students. The film course met once a week and the finance course was mostly online. Otherwise, my classes have between 10 and 50 students in them. </p>
<p>Every semester, I’ve been able to register for every class I’ve wanted from 100-level courses all the way up to 400-level ones. Priority registration for honors students means that you will have almost every possible course and course section to choose from when it comes time to register for the next semester. Even when I’ve waited until a couple weeks before the start of the semester to register for a course, I’ve been able to get a course section that I am happy with.</p>
<p>I haven’t had any problem getting into classes I want. At times I want is another story, but that is just a fact of life. First semester I had some extra time and I wanted to take a history course. Since I had already taken every AP history, I called the history department, explained that I was an engineering major, and asked if I could be cleared to take an upper-level class. I was transferred to an advising prof, who then said he had spots in his class open (the History of the U.S. Navy), which happened to be the #2 class on my list of courses to take. 1 email later, I was registered for the class.
I was amazed they let a little ol’ freshman engineer take that class first semester, but it was an easy process.</p>
<p>The priority registration for honors students is definitely a nice perk of being in the Honors College. You have a much greater shot of getting the classes, times and profs that you want. It really is great. My “big” classes were nothign compared to what some of my friends at other schools have. My largest class so far would be Thermodynamics with 90-something students and about 20 long distance learners. Math classes average around 50, but only 75% show up on a regular basis. Honors classes are definitely much smaller. I registered for Honors Physics II this semester and Im hoping that will be a smaller course with an interesting prof.</p>
<p>Catdaddy. At worst your son may face a few closed classes his first sem. To combat that he should identify frosh classes he would need. Like fine arts or something for a minor.</p>