Tips for Getting the Classes you Need/Want - Please Post Your Tips!

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Southern California
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<p>Tips for getting the classes you need/want</p>

<p>A poster recently expressed concern that their student was having difficulty getting the classes they needed/wanted. If anyone has tips for getting the courses they need/want, post them!</p>

<p>Here are my tips:</p>

<p>1) Know what courses you need/Make a plan. This may sound simple, but many students wait until they sit down with their advisor before thinking about this. I recommend doing a simple Excel spread sheet with a grid for each (8 semesters for freshmen) semester and a grid for each summer (3 for freshmen) so that you can start planning now to make your summer count (internships, research…). Use your catalog to determine your required courses – start with GEs and then your required major courses (if undecided, concentrate on GEs and add intro courses in areas of interest to sample). Add in electives – you can put them just as “major elective” for now and decide which courses (there is a list of possible electives in the catalog for each major). This will allow you to be flexible, particularly in your first two semesters when you have MANY courses you need. Having everything mapped out allows you to move a course from a later semester to the current one when you are not able to get a course.</p>

<p>2) Visit your advisor regularly. Take your STARS report and your tentative plan. Listen to and take their advice!</p>

<p>3) Have registration priority. THIS is the biggest tip I have. This will not help current students as much as new students, because the ONE way to get registration priority at USC is with UNITS. The strategy is to come in with units (max out AP if possible and/or cc courses while in high school) and take max units (18 per semester) each semester, especially early on. The max a freshman can bring in is 32 units, which may be a combination of AP courses with scores of 4 or 5 and/or up to 16 transferable community college units (semester units) taken before high school graduation. Registration priority includes in-progress units, so if you then take 18 units in your first and second USC semester, you will be classified for registration purposes as a Junior by your second semester and be registering weeks ahead of most freshmen (Junior = 64 units or more, 32+18+18=68 units). <a href="http://www.usc.edu/dept/ARR/registration/faq.html"&gt;http://www.usc.edu/dept/ARR/registration/faq.html&lt;/a> If you don't take the max 18 units in your early semesters, you will never regain the priority you could by taking 18 each in those first two semesters.</p>

<p>4) Embrace the AM. USC students don’t take 8am classes – everyone knows that! As a result, 8am classes are the easiest to get. Just bite the bullet and in your first three semesters, get the courses you need even if you have to get up at 8am.</p>

<p>5) Embrace Fridays. USC students don’t take classes on Fridays – everyone knows that! As a result, Friday courses are the easiest to get. Get those required courses in by taking the available Friday courses in your first three semesters, and you will not only have a stress-free senior year, knowing you have your required courses, you will also have a nice, tight Tuesday, Weds, Thurs schedule that will allow for internships and fun.</p>

<p>6) Use the wait-list. If the course you want is full and you have tried the 8am and Friday options, look to see if there is a wait-list. Put yourself on it. If about 8 or more students are on the wait-list, USC will often open up ANOTHER section to accommodate those students. It might be at 8am and/or on a Friday, but at least you will get the course.</p>

<p>7) Get your D clearance early. Be sure you have all the permissions you need in advance of your registration appointment so your spot isn't filled by someone faster than you.</p>

<p>8) Don’t get hung up on avoiding certain professors. Certainly try for the ones you have heard good things about, but if you need the course, you need the course. Very often students are looking for the “easiest” option – I understand that, but if it is the difference between graduating on-time and having to do a bit more work that others in the same class with another instructor, just bite the bullet (or look at 8am or Friday or put yourself on a waitlist).</p>

<p>9) Go for a tight schedule over taking classes with friends or avoiding 8am/Fridays. Nothing is more exhausting than having your courses spread out here and there with huge gaps between them and no chunks of time for a part-time job, internships, student films, etc. A schedule on Tues, Thurs and 8 am Fridays leaving Mondays, Wednesdays and most of Friday available for internships works better than a spotty schedule using up all of Monday through Thursday.</p>

<p>10) Study previous course listings. Some courses are only available in Spring or in Fall – know which ones and be sure to take them as soon as possible. Know which of your courses have pre-requisites and get them done ASAP. Check to see if you have a capstone course sequence in your senior year – the times are consistent year-to-year so if another required course has a similar schedule, get that out of the way before senior year.</p>

<p>11) Double- count* whenever possible. Some courses may count to satisfy both a major and a general education requirement. Look at this list of general education courses: <a href="https://catalogue.usc.edu/undergraduate/usc-core-general/"&gt;https://catalogue.usc.edu/undergraduate/usc-core-general/&lt;/a> to see if any in your major can be used for GE. Double-counting can add flexibility by opening more space for double majors, minors or just exploring courses of interest. *Currently two of your courses can double count for GE, but USC plans to expand this <a href="http://www.provost.usc.edu/files/2013/01/General-Education-January-2013.pdf"&gt;http://www.provost.usc.edu/files/2013/01/General-Education-January-2013.pdf&lt;/a> and some courses may also double-count for major/minor or major/major combos. </p>

<p>12) If you plan to study abroad, find out early what courses toward your major or minor can be obtained in study abroad and save those courses (in most cases, electives toward your major and/or minor can be obtained – save those electives for study abroad!).</p>

<p>That is all I can think of for now – others, please add your tips!</p>

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<p>1)This one is obvious, but I’ll say it anyway. For those really high demand classes that are usually filled by senior status students, put these classes into your 4 year plan. Plan to take them senior year when you have the highest priority. There are some classes that you will need senior status (or close to it) to get. Get everything else out of the way that you can so you can take those you WANT.
2) Keep searching the class registration to see if a spot opened up in the class, section, lab, you prefer. This does happen over the course of time often as people change their schedules prior to class starting.<br>
3) If you are a new freshman and have gone through registration, you can monitor class openings each time a new orientation session opens up registration slots (the second afternoon of the orientation session, I think). This may allow you to find space in a class that was previously full.</p>

<p>**Certain paths are easier to get the classes you need/want than others. D has never had to take a class before 9 (although always has had some F classes because they are usually MWF type) but she’s taken many larger lecture style science classes. She always was able to get a GE class when she needed it, but not necessarily the most fun/best prof in the specific GE class she wanted. </p>