How well that would work depends on how necessary the prerequisite is in terms of actual content of the prerequisite course being needed for the next course.
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Most of the time the professor in the dept knew the students that were planning to take upper level classes. So even if the knowledge from the required prerequisite wasnāt completely in place they would let students in who they knew could handle the work.
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My one son attends a large school but is in a small program. For most programs, regardless of size, after first year, courses are offered either fall or winter, not both, and for his department specifically they also donāt offer courses in the spring/summer semester. For many departments itās common for upper year electives to be offered on rotation every other year. It means that you need to plan your course sequences very carefully and hope you donāt end up with a scheduling conflict. Also since S19ās department is so small thereās also only one section offered per course which makes scheduling even more challenging.
It depends on the college. Thereās a great deal of variations from one extreme (i.e. strictly enforcing prerequisite rules) to the other (i.e. practically no hard rules at all). My S, for example, was at a college where no prerequisite rule is enforced. He could take any courses, disregarding their prerequisites (which he did a fair number of times), or even take the second course in a sequence without ever taking the first (which he also did). The students are expected to learn the necessary contents of prerequisite courses on their own and get up to speed.
At most colleges, the instructor can waive prerequisites for a particular course. However, I do stress canāit isnāt something that should be relied upon.
(There may be limitsāsome colleges may forbid doing that for gen-ed courses, for example, or individual departments may not allow itābut for the most part, yes, itās still possible.)
On the same note, my kids at two different large universities (30K+ students) asked for a class that wasnāt listed as an option for their major, to be allowed. In both cases, they were approved for the substitution.
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@dfbdfb and @Shelby_Balik summed up a lot of what happens in my department at my LAC. Iām the only professor that offers courses in a specific area, and if I donāt teach the course, it doesnāt get taught. I have a one-course release due to a program I help lead, so that leaves even less room to teach these subjects. Everyone in my department has to teach some of the collegeās gen-ed courses, so I usually only have 2-3 courses I can offer each year that are upper-level for our majors or mid-level for anyone.
Next fall I was slated to teach a course I havenāt taught in two years, but when we looked at the progression for our graduating majors next year, we realized we needed to offer another senior seminar. With two professors heading to sabbatical, I now need to switch one of my planned courses to fill the gap so our seniors can graduate. Although non-majors are welcome to take the course, itās rare to have a student opt in to a senior seminar as an elective. So now my planned mid-level course on a special topic that draws lots of non-majors and majors alike will be shuttered for an intense senior seminar. Sigh.
One final thought: professors like to keep things interesting and teach new courses. Most of us have a passion for our field and want to introduce students to new subjects. Designing and teaching new courses also keeps us fresh and engaged, and it helps guard against stagnation and burnout. Contrary to what you may hear about faculty focusing only on research, there are a lot of us that actually enjoy teaching.
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Logistics also play a role. A class may be offered, but its time slot might conflict with another class that has to be taken (a needed pre-requisite, a class in a sequence, or an associated lab or recitation for another class).
A studentās registration priority in a given quarter or semester can make it impossible to get into a class. It can just be bad luck that a near-the-bottom registration slot occurs in the semester the rare class is offered. Classes can fill before students get their turn to sign up.
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Cross-registration can help. I took a course at Carolina almost every semester while I was an undergrad at Duke and found it very convenient. Sometimes it was because I wanted to take a course that wasnāt offered at Duke that semester, and other times it was a topic that wasnāt taught at Duke at all.
Itās not uncommon for departments in a consortium to coordinate upper-level and graduate courses to avoid too much overlap in course offerings.