Lafayette College is increasing their student population size over the next several years. It can be extremely difficult to get into classes. While it was a problem before, it has gotten worse. They claim they have small class sizes which they strictly adhere to but they also don’t offer additional sections to make up for the increased student population. More and more students are getting closed out of classes. I’ve also had classes canceled just prior to the start of my fall semester each year leaving me to scramble to find something else to take at the last minute because most classes have already filled during the regular registration period. While they seem to be still able to graduate students on time, students are left to take classes they are not really interested in to finish. Professors who have 18 students in a class won’t even increase to say 20 or 22. Instead they say they will let you into their class once you are a senior. This is just kicking the can down the road. You can’t take every class you need your senior year. And for all this they are charging $73,926 in 2020-2021. The other really obnoxious thing the registrar office does is even if you get up really early to register and actually get into the class you need and at a time you want it at, the registrar sometimes will move you to the other section. Why? – because if one section has say 12 students and the other section has 20, they will attempt to even out the number of students in each section so one professor doesn’t have more students than the other. This can make it difficult to avoid a terrible professor. They completely ignore what you feel is best to schedule classes that work at a time that’s right for you and will move you. The registration system has been known to crash while everyone tries to register at the same time. Seriously, unless things change, know what you will be facing if you choose Lafayette and the registration frustration. For what they charge students, no one should have to deal with this.
Don’t blame you for wanting to vent. My D graduated from Laf a few years ago and I’m a huge fan of the school based on her expereince. I do agree that the school must take care to increase the number of classes/professors to stay in line with the increasing student population.
FWIW , my D did expereince some of the same scheduling issues a few years ago (before the class size started to increase) and was able to get them resolved in her favor. Here are the examples I can think of where being proactive helped her with registration issues.
– Once the Registrar did move her section to even out the class sizes – she emailed the Registrar with a coherent rationale as to why she chose the section she signed up for and they moved her back to the one she originally scheduled. She didn’t just say she liked the prof. better …that probably wouldn’t have done it…but she cited the need for a block of time two or three times/week to do research with a professor and moving the class would not have leave her with the block of time she needed.
–She also did get a professor to let her into a small upper level class junior year. She first email the professor and then sat in his and waited for him – she discussed her long-term schedule and why it was important for her to take the class junior year (basically so she wouldn’t have too many lab classes senior year) and he let her in with no issue.
One downside of a LAC was that one has to be careful when scheduling especially since not every class is offered every semester etc.
Just know that virtually every school has some kind of scheduling issues.
Hope your overall experience at the school is a good one!
Hi! I am a 2015 alum of Lafayette (and a college admission professional elsewhere). My brother is a 2019 alum, so I’ve been staying pretty current. Neither my brother nor I ever encountered any major difficulty getting into classes…but when things didn’t work out as we wanted, we found success in approaching the professors teaching the class. Many professors allow you to enroll in their course, even if it’s technically over the limit. It can never hurt to reach out! Reaching out is among the first words of advice I give to new college students.
Anyway, I hope you’re enjoying Lafayette otherwise!
Interesting, Lafayette’s sites indicate that it enrolled 61 fewer first-year students this year than last. If Lafayette’s intent had been to grow, it may be approaching stability at this time.
https://about.lafayette.edu/lafayette-at-a-glance/class-profile/
Reached out to 2 professors during this registration session within 5 minutes of registration opening. Both responded they would not be taking any students off the waitlist. Maybe it’s an issue by major. Not sure. But I’ve not found professors to be very accommodating. Some don’t even respond to emails about adding their class. Maybe they are feeling the pinch of the college adding more students. But nearly every semester I’ve had a problem. Whether cancelled classes, closed out of classes, professors not responding, etc. So many classes have long waitlists too. It seems to be a systemic problem.
What are you studying ?
I would bring this up to your academic advisor as an issue – perhaps he/she can forward your comments on to administration or the department head. Not sure if it will do any good but IMO it is worth making a comment.
merc81 - for the class of 2022, the acceptance was way over enrolled. Lafayette actually hoped some students would get off other waitlists and change their mind about coming. Seems they did get a better handle on the number of enrolled students for 2023 but they are still planning and increase to 2900 from where they started at 2500.
happy1 - sadly my advisor warned me I probably would not get into the one class I really needed and would get pushed to next year. Was spot on. I am hoping that Lafayette has staff that follows these boards. Because profs are giving flat out no’s to adding from the waitlist. It feels as if the profs are not in tune with the planned growth because they won’t take more students from the waitlist and additional sections are not being added. It’s very frustrating and frankly it sucks.
Last year they were over-enrolled. More kids accepted than they had planned. So dont look at it as a drop to the current year freshman.
@TheaterBuff: Thanks, that (reply #7) makes sense. Not incidentally, your original post seems intended to serve a broader purpose than to express your personal frustrations. Maybe some systemic changes are needed at Lafayette, to which you rightly have called attention.
Anecdotal, but my Laf '21 student has not faced any of these issues. She has gotten every class she has attempted. Maybe it is a difference of majors.