<p>Just curious, sakky: was it common for MIT or Harvard freshmen to receive the permission of the instructor to enroll in the course on sports management that you mention? Did that include students who were not varsity team members?</p>
<p>Usually “permission of instructor” is a code-phrase for “students the instructor has selected from the set of interested students.” This might not be the case in some places. In the schools with which I am familiar, however, there are typically many more students who want to enroll in the “permission of the instructor” courses than there are spots in the courses.</p>