<p>what's the difference exactly?</p>
<p>Phase I is the period from April 14 to July 15th when all students are given a chance to register for up to 10.5 units of courses for Fall semester. Everyone is given a time slot, to spread out the requests. Seniors get earliest slots, then juniors, etc, but randomly within those levels. Incoming freshmen are given slots based on the CalSO they attend. </p>
<p>Since a person with a late slot would find many sections and classes full, registration is split into the two phases. The idea is that the people who most need or want to get into certain classes have priority, since people put their most critical classes into the first 10.5 units of requests. People who don't care as much won't request the class until the second phase. Students need to plan their strategy for which classes to request in phase I. If a class fills early but is important to you, phase I. If a class is critical to your major and needs to happen in Fall, not later, phase I. </p>
<p>The second phase runs from July 17th to August 17th, with random time slots assigned. Look in Bearfacts for your telebears phase II appointment - it will already be listed even if phase I is hidden until CalSO. This is when you register for the remaining classes you want. </p>
<p>If a class is full, you might be able to waitlist, but those units are counted towards your 10.5 limit for Phase I and towards the max load limit in phase II. </p>
<p>Waitlists are processed and a request might be switched to a confirmed seat at any time. Once Phase II ends, the system is in adjustment mode for a while, where students can drop classes, add new ones, switch sections and try to get cleared from a waitlist. </p>
<p>Thus, Tele-bears actually has three phases - Phase I, Phase II and the Adjustment Phase. </p>
<p>If students could register for all their desired classes all at once, the earliest appointments would give a huge advantage while students with late appointments might miss out on all the classes they need.</p>
<p>Why do some people choose to go on the waiting list for classes that have openings? For example, Psych 2 has 177 openings but there are 33 people on the waiting list.</p>
<p>If you are on the waiting list for the discussion sections, then you are on the waiting list for the lecture</p>
<p>also some seats are reserved for certain majors or academic status (junior, senior,etc)</p>
<p>As flumoxed said, many classes are set up with multiple categories. When you look at a class on the schedule, don't just look at the overall numbers of admitted and waitlist. Click the restrictions link near the bottom of the class listing to see what restrictions exist. You may see a list something like this:</p>
<ol>
<li>Freshmen (Open)</li>
<li>Psychology majors (Open)</li>
<li>Class entry codes (Open)</li>
<li>Open (Full)</li>
</ol>
<p>If a junior tried to register for the class, but was not a declared psych major, they would be waitlisted in the Open category unless they had received a specific class entry code from the instructor or department. A freshman would qualify for the first category and get in.</p>