LibArts vs. Ivy League

Colleges and Universities A-Z Swarthmore College
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Much of this information is available online in the form of the [url=<a href="http://www.swarthmore.edu/Admin/institutional_research/cds.html%5DCommon"&gt;http://www.swarthmore.edu/Admin/institutional_research/cds.html]Common&lt;/a> Data Set<a href="which%20lists%20stats%20on%20class%20sizes">/url</a> and the [url=<a href="http://www.trico.haverford.edu/cgi-bin/courseguide/cgi-bin/search.cgi%5DTriCollege"&gt;http://www.trico.haverford.edu/cgi-bin/courseguide/cgi-bin/search.cgi]TriCollege&lt;/a> Course Guide<a href="which%20includes%20enrollment%20limits">/url</a> but they aren't as readily used as personal experience would be, and can't tell you which things are due to teaching philosophy versus resource limitations (like # of seats in a room).</p>

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<p>Thanks!! All of that was really helpful. I just want to make sure I understand how to use the information on the TriCollege Course Guide-- when I looked at the Psych course "Thinking, Judgement, Decision," it showed PREREG LIM:35 but showed CUR ENR:49--does this mean more people signed up than will be allowed to take the course?</p>

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<p>It is up to the professor to decide how many people he will let in. Usually if there are too many people signed up, there is a lottery. Sometimes for overenrolled classes additional sections are added to allow more people to take the class (this happened last year with "History of the Future" freshmen seminar and "Foundations" art class).</p>

<p>For some classes, however, the decisions are made in a different way - in some cases preference is given to majors or to upper classmen, since underclassmen will be able to take the class later. This particular class is very popular, and is often overenrolled, but as far as I know all the juniors and seniors that signed up are allowed to take it.</p>

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<p>Yes. That probably indicates that the course will end up being "lotteried". Or not. At this point, there may be more people signed up than will actually take the course. In some ways, pre-registration is like a "letter of intent" with actual decisions coming during the shopping period. I imagine that quit a few Swatties pre-register for an extra course.</p>

<p>You are probably better off looking at last Fall or last Spring for more accurate numbers on the Tri-Co site.</p>

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<p>I think only the last spring and next fall info will be up on TriCo site at this point.</p>

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<p><a href="http://www.swarthmore.edu/Admin/registrar/page.phtml?sidebar=registrationinfo&content=depts%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.swarthmore.edu/Admin/registrar/page.phtml?sidebar=registrationinfo&content=depts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Here you can see the lottery info by departments (it workes slightly differently in different departments).</p>

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<p>Thanks, I looked at last spring too and I get the idea.........it seems that they do sometimes let the actual enrollment exceed their intended limits, but the classes are so small anyway, it probably doesn't matter much.</p>

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<p>"it seems that they do sometimes let the actual enrollment exceed their intended limits, but the classes are so small anyway, it probably doesn't matter much"</p>

<p>Yes, you are right.</p>

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<p>InterestedDad. You cannot preregister for an extra course. You can only preregister for 4.5 credits, which is a normal course load. Obviously, this isn't binding, but it does, mostly, guarentee your spot in a few courses. </p>

<p>For Thinking Judgement, and Decision Making, it is a VERY popular course. All rising sophomores were basically kicked out of it because priority was given to juniors and seniors. There are still too many of them signed up, so we will see what happens. . . . . .</p>