This read like a total nightmare:
How much of a problem is this in reality?
It is a big problem for upper-level CS classes (ULCS) - can confirm as many of my friends have faced this pretty recently. CS majors need to take care to plan out their schedules with high intention to avoid getting in a situation where they do not get any of the ULCS classes they want. Also, failing a ULCS class has pretty rough ramifications due to their lack of availability. This is a problem at many schools, however. It is so hard to hire and retain faculty for CS with the current framework used in academia for obvious reasons.
that just sucks … I assume all State Flagships have these problems? UVA? UMASS? UWISC?
That’s one of the arguments for having a secondary entry to major requirement or closing out transfers to certain impacted majors. For better or worse, it eliminates classes being closed out.
Haha that’s funny. I am the Conner in the article, and I can sadly say, yes this is still a major problem at the university. The university has a crazy high percentage of EECS students (something like 1 in 12) and the entire program is overfilled. I definitely vibe with the idea of making it a direct admit school because right now there just simply isn’t enough staff to handle the demand, and then kids are forced to take some random class in place of what they genuinely like to work in.
As for me things ended up working out by the skin of my teeth. I followed my plan of taking barebones credits until I could get into the classes I was actually interested in. This barely worked out.
To make matters worse though, they recently changed the policy on AP credits in a way that is not very well thought out. The new policy is that AP credits are not counted when giving priority to students for selecting classes. This makes sense for credits that are just fluff and don’t count towards anything, and it definitely helps in working towards equity since some schools have few or no AP classes, but they also decided to not include credits that actually counted towards your major. This is a big ol problem for the EECS department as well (likely other departments too, but I’m an EECS major so I’mma keep it from my perspective):
As a student who tested out of the calcs and chem, I needed to register for EECS classes sooner in my time as a student. This worked my first 3 years because I had the same priority as other students with the same major completion. But two weeks before this past registration they dropped the new policy. All of the sudden I’m a senior (16 credits to graduation) with the registering priority of a junior. I was in the same boat again with registering, but I slipped into the class I wanted to, so I’m not that mad.
This new policy definitely makes the department worse for certain kids and impossible for kids who wanna graduate early, and have the credits to do it unless they take fluff courses to increase their priority. Also two annoying things about the new policy: they didn’t stop counting dual enrollment credits from high school, which makes it inconsistent, and they also still charge more money if you hit the 55 credit mark including your APs now sans the registration priority. umich pls.
This is my rant, thank you for reading.
TL;DR the problem still exists, and now is even worse for some students.
Thank you for replying - this is a huge concern for us - coming in as an OOS student, paying the full ticket and not being able to have your selection of courses feels like a rather raw deal 
Seems it’s the same at other non-direct-admit schools - U Wisc, UVA, UT(a) and others …
IMO, this is the second biggest problem a potential CS major faces (acceptance into the major being the biggest). The problem exists almost everywhere where there’s a decent CS program, regardless whether it’s at a public or private U. I only know less than a handful of elite colleges that don’t have this issue at all.
“I only know less than a handful of elite colleges that don’t have this issue at all.”
please don’t keep it a secret 
My daughter so far has only had this problem getting into physics E&M because she was taking it as a freshman with mostly Sophs do by the time freshmen registered there were only a few spots.
She also did have problems last semester getting into one CS class and chose a different one which turned out ok. Part of it has to do with her school, Cornell being in person/hybrid for many of the classes but also the few that were remote had remote students (those who stayed home) all directed to that one class. For next year when she’s a junior she got everything she wanted as well as this semester. Cornell is the same as UM for CS in that it’s only direct admit to Engineering (or Atts and Sciences) and then with certain courses and grades in those courses you can affiliate into the major. It’s great to have the non direct major but i do agree some changes need to be made. One way they can do so is by having a partial direct major and then have a higher standard to declare the major. So require a higher GPA. I can’t remember the minimum right now but if it’s a 3.0 make it a 3.5.
With a son headed to Michigan for Engineering also going into CS this AP change does concern me for the exact reasons mentioned in the prior post above. Many kids come in with tons of dual credit or transfer credit and those will give them priority credit. My son will have anywhere from 24-38 hours of AP credit. But other than paying more $ it doesn’t get him into the classes he needs when he needs them. The “sample” recommended first semester course schedule doesn’t apply to him because he has credit for every one of those classes other than the intro to engineering course. Second semester same deal other than a probable physics (will know in July). Fortunately he’s not interested in graduating early but we also don’t want him to not get into classes. I supposed UM will learn quickly how this policy change affects kids or not. It may be no different really than schools that accept so few AP or at some point not make mich difference. He will get his general credits completed I suppose although I’ve told him maybe he should take some at cc so not only do we pay less but the transfer credits will give him credit toward priority registration for later at least! Ridiculous!
This is an incredibly tough problem to solve with the current mindset in academia on who is qualified to teach, and how they treat those teachers. Universities want people with grad degrees in computing fields to teach CS. They also have few tenured track positions. How can one expect to convince a a person with a PhD in a computing field, who can easily make 500+k working for some proprietary trading firm, to take a job that pays sub 100k with little job security? How can you convince a BS grad in computing, to forgo a year or two of compensation and take on extra debt for grad school when they landed a 150k+ TC job right out of undergrad?
It is really sad because society NEEDS more people studying computing. Cutting down the number of students in computing is not a good thing for the economy and future of our society. Universities are going to have to bite the bullet and put more skin in the game. This means more real professorships, more competitive compensation and perks, and more computing grad programs that are fully funded. This is one of those many instances where the solution IS throwing more money at the problem - a lot more money. The elite universities are in the best (and really only) position to do this.
I just asked my daughter about this since I was with her this weekend. So at Cornell she said it is not a problem getting into the classes if you’re a CS major once you’re affiliated, as I mentioned previously. What she said is a problem are students wanting to minor in CS often have trouble getting into their classes and then usually they get permission to be waived into the class. I guess I can understand that as she is getting a Dyson minor and has now tried for 2 semesters to get into the Finance class she needs and it has been full before her year has even had a chance to enroll. She said event he waitlist is full. Fortunately, she has workarounds to taking other requirements so she doesn’t have to take this one in order but hopefully will get into it for next Spring.