<p>DD did NOT get a satisfactory schedule worked out during BAMA Bound today.</p>
<p>The one good thing: she got into Honors Bio with Dr. Guy Caldwell, so we’re happy with that. She also ended up in Chemistry (she didn’t want to take the honors version). </p>
<p>The only other classes she was able to get into were music. Million Dollar Band, Community Band, and Piano. She wants to sign up for an actual flute lesson. She only has a total of 13 hours. The Community Band is not really a good fit for her, as no auditions are required. She will probably end up dropping it if she can find something else to fit in her schedule</p>
<p>She will be auditioning for the wind ensembles. There’s a possibility she could make Alabama Wind and/or Huxford Symphony Orchestra since a lot of flute players graduated last year and there are more openings than usual. But we won’t know that until right before school starts.</p>
<p>She wasn’t able to sign up for any freshman seminar or any other type of honors classes.</p>
<p>Experienced parents and students, what do we do? Does she just keep trying to log in an find open classes that she’d like to take? Or should she call somebody in the Honors College and try for some sort of override to get into a class she’d like?</p>
<p>I can’t believe that with this being just the second BAMA Bound that it was this difficult for her to get into classes. I know that MDB and the Honors Bio limited her options, but it seems like there should have been greater availability than this.</p>
<p>I’m not an experienced parent, but, that’s never stopped me from weighing in before…</p>
<p>I would suggest that your daughter look over some classes that she would like to take next year and then email the department to see if any more spaces in the class will be opening up over the summer. I would have her look at schedules and see which classes she likes might fit into her schedule. I would then have her target those classes and log on at the time they open new spots in classes for new Bama Bound students. I think NJBama suggested the time was at 1000 CST the second day of Bama Bound sessions. She should be able to get into some class that fits her schedule over the summer without too much trouble. That is the beauty of attending an early Bama Bound. You are now free to tinker with the schedule all summer. They hold back seats in many of the classes and release them for sequential Bama Bound sessions (at least that is what I understand to be true).</p>
<p>Take the sage advice of Douglas Adams - DON’T PANIC</p>
<p>This will work out, probably by the end of June. Have your daughter target classes she would like to get in to and then have her plan on looking for space in the class @ 10 am CST on the second day of future Bama Bound sessions. Next time? 6/3 @ 10 am CST.</p>
<p>Only email the profs for an override as a last resort. It’s way too early in the game to panic or even be discouraged. She’ll get a decent schedule. </p>
<p>Only a few seats in each class get opened for a particular Bama Bound session. Just tell her to relax and not to worry. She can log in on Friday (or the 2nd day of any other BB) morning and see if anything has opened up in the classes she wants.</p>
<p>^^^Congrats on getting into Dr. Caldwell’s class! Son attended this session last summer and his class was full. (Luckily, he got AP for the bio, so no worries).</p>
<p>There will be classes added all through the summer. Don’t know what your girl’s major is, but if she’s in engineering, she can look at the approved humanities, social science electives. Don’t worry if they’re not honors. Have her sign up for something she’s interested in! There are some really neat core electives that are not in honors that she might enjoy!</p>
<p>Don’t worry. We’ll all be shuffling around once the math professors are announced.</p>
<p>When is the next BB? Is it Monday or Tuesday? On the morning of Day 2 of the next BB, look to see if more honors classes/seats have been added. If so, grab one that you want.</p>
<p>More seats/sections open for each BB.</p>
<p>Also…between then and now, regularly check on mybama while kids are tweaking their schedules…especially check late at night and early morn.</p>
<p>There currently are open seats in honors classes…</p>
<p>Lastly…the first semester schedule may not be “perfect” but it’s very likely you will be able to get close to what is wanted…and for future semesters, her schedule will be even better.</p>
<p>*I know that MDB and the Honors Bio limited her options, but it seems like there should have been greater availability than this. *</p>
<p>Since there currently are many seats available in Honors classes…either they just opened this evening because kids are tweaking schedules…or…Million Dollar Band obligations and Honors Bio hours/lab are time conflicts.</p>
<p>Before your daughter left campus, did she have someone with the honors college check her schedule? I know that sounds a bit strange, but perhaps if she did, maybe that person could pull a string or two to get her in a class she wants or needs. My son had that happen his first semester. He thought he had a good schedule, and then he met with his adviser, who really did not like that a math class was not listened. That adviser made a call, and suddenly, a math class was on my son’s schedule. </p>
<p>His schedule still was not perfect, but since that time, he has gotten every class he has wanted, and at the time he wanted.</p>
<p>That said, look for some additional class openings when the AP scores are released in early July.</p>
<p>Next BB starts today so tomorrow morning she should check. My son just returned and had some issues with a closed Calc section but when he got home last night several seats had opened up. No classes till 10 AM now, what a life…</p>
<p>Panic mode is off now. DD was able to tinker with her schedule all last night. It’s not as bad as I actually thought, and it’s even pretty good. She can just take a UH course next semester.</p>
<p>She’s a bio major, so she’s taking Chemistry concurrently with the Honors Bio. She took high school chemistry so she doesn’t have to take college Chemistry to take the Honors Bio, but she does have to take it for her major. Taking Chem this year will make it easier to schedule some higher-level bio classes in sophomore year if she wants. </p>
<p>She has AP credit for 6 hours of comp and 6 for history, so she doesn’t have to worry about scheduling those classes.</p>
<p>She ended up with 15 total credits:</p>
<p>Honors Bio: 4 credits
Chemistry: 4 credits
Flute Class: 1 credit
Piano Class: 1 credit
Million Dollar Band: 1 credit
Music Theory: 4 credits</p>
<p>She may end up with another credit or two from Symphonic Band or Alabama Wind Ensemble/Huxford Symphony. Right now, it appears that Symphonic rehearsal is at the same time as Honors Bio. Unless another section of Bio opens up, she’d have to miss out on Symphonic for fall. But maybe she’ll get lucky and make Alabama Winds and/or Huxford. Those should both work with her schedule. But if she can’t do any of them, there are plenty of other small wind ensembles and chamber music groups in which she can participate.</p>
<p>She’ll have 3 classes that will require actual study. The others will just involve music practice, which she enjoys, so that will be fun to her. She’ll be very music-heavy this semester, but she’s decided that’s a good thing.</p>
<p>She dropped Community Band, but she has a friend who may take it as a for-credit class. She found out she can also just walk up the first day in the fall, and pay $25 to participate as a non-credit activity. (Which I think would mean she could just walk out if her schedule got too intense.) So she’s going to wait to make her final decision on that.</p>
<p>keep checking, DS left BamaBound last year missing a core course for his dbl major/minor (whatever it turns out to be!) and I was panicked. Did an almost total juggle of his schedule over the course of the summer and worked most of it out.
Yesterday the upperclassmen we not allowed access to add/change until 12:15p, so we watched his desired class go from 20 seats open down to 5 then 0… the waitlist drop down function was (is) not working so her emailed the prof., will see what happens. The add/drop function is now open throughout the end of the summer I think, so you can get on like all the others and try and grab your classes as they open for Bama Bound.
Also - I do think you need to be flexible as far as Honors Freshman seminars etc., there are still many of them open and IIRC new ones were added closer to semester last year, but maybe consider a few you hadn’t thought of.
As far as asking prof. for overrides - I’d only do that for core required courses, the profs. usually know if something is opening up and they realize you need your intro courses to proceed.
I know it’s stressful and hard to believe but it will work out by summer’s end.</p>
<p>Another good note: her boyfriend and another very good friend (who’s a pre-med music major, bio minor) are both in her Honors Bio class, so they’ll have a ready-made study group.</p>
<p>She doesn’t really care for chemistry, but another very good friend from high school is taking Honors Chemistry and will live a few doors down from her in the dorm, so she’ll have another source for readily available help if she needs it. (She’s also going to be responsible for keeping a second car key for him, as he has a tendency to lock himself out. She doesn’t have a good sense of direction, so he’s going to be her live GPS system!)</p>
<p>She was thrilled to realize the bio building is a lot closer to the Moody music building than she thought it was, as a couple days she’ll only have 10 minutes to get to Moody. She may need to take her bike to campus after all. (Who wants to run to class in August and September? YUCK!)</p>
<p>This sounds so stressful! Between not knowing who the profs are when you’re signing up for classes and not being able to get classes you need without continuous tweaking all summer, it seems like a really stressful class registration process.</p>
<p>For those of you with upper classman - does it get better? How much better? Is a sophomore still going to be struggling with getting the classes he needs? And once you’re signing up for higher level classes within a major, do you know who the prof is when registering? m2ck - I know your son just graduated with a math major. Was he still signing up for math classes his junior year without knowing who the teacher was?</p>
<p>I think it gets easier, at least for my son, because his major (CS) is small with enough classes at specific times for everyone. It does limit his scheduling other classes as (for example) several of his courses have only one class and you have to be in it.
Unfortunately, due to this he doesn’t really have a choice of instructor, although he is bumping one class to spring because last year looks like a diff. prof. taught in spring.</p>
<p>The only reason DS has had juggling to do this time is because he didn’t think it through thoroughly at advising time and submitted a schedule that was admittedly too difficult. His theory was that he wanted to get to the “meat” of his program so was not scheduling his core classes (HU/W/Nat. Sci. etc.) I was a bit surprised that his advisor didn’t say anything about that. Something to keep in mind (esp. if you are on scholarship) is that coming in with APs gives you extra slack on scheduling, but that eliminates some intro courses that might otherwise help boost your GPA. Starting as a freshman in 300 level Engr/Comp. Sci/Math courses is harder than you would think. That said, he did get exactly what he planned at the time and thus far has not exactly what he wants as his new class but something else he’s pleased enough with.</p>
<p>I think it’s also easier when you aren’t trying to accommodate lots of things in your schedule that are only offered at specific times, and there isn’t much flexibility between the different groups.</p>
<p>Right now, it looks as if there’s only one section for Honors Bio, which is at the same time as the only rehearsal time for Symphonic Band. Unless DD can get a time-turner from Hermione Granger, one of those has to go. And it won’t be Honors Bio!</p>
<p>Plus, for awhile, we were thinking you HAD to or SHOULD have a freshman honors seminar first semester, and that really isn’t a requirement. So once we let go of that, the stress level went down considerably.</p>
<p>DD also decided she wants to see if it would be possible to take her two core literature courses at our local community college next summer, and transfer those credits in. (They’re offered online, and she wouldn’t even need to set foot on campus.) Being able to knock those out would free up some additional time in her schedule in later years. We’re hoping the AP Calculus score will give her credit for MA 125. She’d probably still take at least a statistics course, though, because she’ll need that for research.</p>
<p>*For those of you with upper classman - does it get better? *</p>
<p>It is much easier for second semester frosh. My kids have been able to get their schedules the way they wanted - no problem.</p>
<p>Don’t think that incoming frosh are “tinkering” with their schedules all summer…most are not doing that. As you can see with BamaMom2b…her D’s schedule has been fixed within 24hrs of her first posting. If her D chooses to change it again, that’s her choice, but it won’t take all summer…and she doesn’t have to change it if she doesn’t want to. She had a limitation that she’s in the Million Dollar Band and has Honors Bio…so those time constraints are going to affect what else she can fit into her schedule. But, it all worked out rather quickly.</p>
<p>People do have to be somewhat flexible. Sometimes people want a particular schedule…such as 8-12, no breaks/no classes in the afternoon…Or…all classes on MWF…Or some other parameter. School and life are not always going to be perfectly as you’d like them to be…and sometimes there are blessings when you take a different turn than originally planned.</p>
<p>Scheduling does get better as an upperclassmen or once all your AP/IB/dual enrollment credit is on your transcript. In future semesters, your registration is based on credit hours. So, the more you have, the earlier you will register. </p>
<p>There is one catch to this. While it may be easier to get a class you want, getting it at the time you want could be tough. My son did not have an early morning class the first two years at Alabama. This fall, he has 8 a.m. classes all week. But that is the only time the classes are available for his major.</p>
<p>You don’t actually need any money at Bama Bound. It’s nice to have some in your pocket though if you want to go get a pizza or some wings with a few other kids. Or if you want to pick up a t-shirt or some other trinkets while you’re down there. </p>
<p>I’d say $50 should be plenty. Just only take and spend what you can afford.</p>
<p>Mu son had a great time and did audition for the Million Dollar Band. He did well on the audition just waiting to hear if he made it in officially. As far as his schedule, he really just went with the flow and picked up a course here and there. He is an aerospace engineering major so the band practice does interfer with some of the classes he wanted. But he is not worried. He was just happy to meet other kids and enjoy the whole thing.</p>
<p>Do I think he could/should have a better schedule? You bet. But he did the scheduling himself and since he doesn’t know better he thinks it is fine. Believe me, it will all work out. Since us parents have so much '‘inside info’ I think we tend to dwell on it too much and not let the kids figure it out. I did offer my son guidance but he choose what he wanted. So what if he is getting up early. Such is life.</p>
<p>For all you who have not attended Bama Bound yet, it was great. The University folks are wonderful and gracious. They were helpful and everything was nice. The theme was basically we have to let go and let the kids figure it out. They will and all will be well.</p>
<p>Just got back to South Texas from Bama Bound. It was nice meeting BAMAMom2Be. D got the schedule she wanted at all of the times she wanted. Was able to get into Honors Bio with Dr Caldwell so she was very happy. She was ready to roll when it came time to sign up for classes and by 10:30 on day 2, she was finished with registration and a half an hour later we were headed back towards Texas. Overall, it was a really nice day and a half. Learned a few things I did not know. D was happy and so was I. Now off to a nap!</p>
DD was able to tinker with her schedule all last night. It’s not as bad as I actually thought, and it’s even pretty good. She can just take a UH course next semester.</p>