<p>Perhaps I should have titled this "summer of his college panic", but either way..... Son is all frustrated and panicky about not being able to register yet. Entering freshman, didn't go to orientation (too far for us poor folk) and as if it weren't enough that he is having to wait and he keeps thinking of what might be "wrong", we just looked at one of the classes he's required to take and it is closed.
Has anyone had to deal with us? I know sometimes the head of the dept will grant permission to enter a closed class, but realistically is that likely to happen?</p>
<p>At Rice all of the required classes were closed and the advisor was the only one who could register the students. The best thing is to get in touch with the school and find out. Does he have his advisor yet?</p>
<p>Thanks! He just got them today – as a double major he has two. Something else to be confusing to him! lol</p>
<p>Definitely call the advisor for the class he needs to get in - we ran into some problems when we didn’t talk to the “right” people even though we were on campus and went to the music office! Hope it works out! When are you all moving in?</p>
<p>@jeannemar thanks. He left a voicemail today, so maybe we’ll hear tomorrow. We’re moving him in Friday. What about ya’ll? (See, I did my “southern thing” :D)</p>
<p>This is a problem many students encounter in colleges, particularly smaller ones, but it also happens in large universities: the sequence of course offerings and over-crowding sometimes makes it hard to graduate on time, simply because they get locked out of courses they are required to take. It’s important to stay in communication with your advisor and to make a long term plan for when courses will be taken, and to revisit the plan every semester. I know colleges strive to have a good rate of graduation within 4 years, but sometimes I wonder if they are trying to hold on to students for more tuition. Of course, being a double major makes it even more difficult to roster all the required courses. So this situation can serve as an alert for the future.</p>
<p>As for the required freshman class, I’m almost sure the advisor will take care of this for him. </p>
<p>My D was able to go to her freshman orientation at Michigan. She found registration for double degree complex, but her two advisors were hugely helpful. D handled it all so I’m a bit sketchy on details, but I think she ended up needing three advisor “overrides” and one “fix” by the registrar. Her schedule didn’t get finalized until a week after orientation, but the advisors just continued to work with her over email. D was a little stressed at times, but overall really pleased with the process and advising assistance. At the parent session, they said that they work hard to get students into any required classes so a four-year plan is not impacted. Well, five years with the two degrees. So far, so good…</p>
<p>Other D goes to a really tiny school (not music). She’s always working with advisor/professors/registrar to get overrides. She has had situations where they added another section of a course (pretty rare in small school), increased capacity in existing sections (much more common), and allowed her to register for one section but attend another “full” one that fit her schedule better. Some of the kids do complain as the process can feel stressful/challenging, but again at this school it usually works out ok. We have heard of students who have had to take different electives than preferred, but none who have not worked through issues with required classes.</p>
<p>Agree with the advice to have your student regularly work with their advisor - really key. Good luck!</p>
<p>Update – he did get into the class… sort of. The dept. secretary gave her overrides, etc and got everything ready for him to register. But when he goes online to register he gets a message that he’s not allowed to register yet. So all day today we’ve been on the phone with 4 different people who give us different reasons. What it looks like is that someone now hasn’t keyed in his advisors and given him a time. Really? A scheduled time when you’re doing it online? I’m so glad that there weren’t these new-fangled computer thingys back when I was in school. I really am beginning to appreciate the 15 mile sprint across campus to my professors then back to the advisor then back and forth getting approvals… oh well. A new decade, a new headache. 
Thanks everyone.</p>