Waiting

[cjsmith]

I'm still ninth on the waiting list for chem and sixth for bio. It's not looking particularly hopeful. A few of those will probably flunk fall quarter chem or bio and be pulled off the list, but still I'd better come up with a plan B. Anybody need a mobile phone coder for ten to twelve weeks?

What irks me a bit is knowing that within two weeks of the start of classes, at least that many people will have dropped out of these highly desirable classes. I'm amazed at how many people drop classes here! But by that time it will be far too late for anyone new to join. (Sitting in on lecture is one thing, but seats in lab are precisely numbered; I can't stay and watch.) I wish I could somehow petition to get some kind of better status for any student who will actually take the class.

I've heard that the huge influx of students is, in part, from four-year schools whose budget cuts meant fewer classes. I had wondered how I could possibly have gotten in to all my first-quarter classes -- when I must have had lower priority than I did this time -- if there was this much competition. After all, anyone taking chem 1B had to have needed chem 1A first, right? Answer: yes they did, and a large number of them took it elsewhere.

Comments

[ken_r]

Maybe they should start the term making room for a few extra people for labs and such, in anticipation of losing some portion of them and getting down to the number of students they actually want -- though maybe they're already doing that with the current class enrollment limits.

Still, it probably couldn't hurt to talk to the prof about it, and see if he could make an exception (or six, or nine) and find a way to get a few more people into the lab, with the understanding that you'd get the boot if N students don't actually drop out in the first couple of weeks. Maybe an extra lab session, only run for the first couple of weeks, would be practical, and then you all switch into the regular lab session(s) if spaces are available? It would obviously cost the school a little in extra lab supplies, though, as well as prof/TA time.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I suspect they're doing that to the extent they can. There are only so many lab benches, and when they're full, they're full.

It would be up to the dean or maybe even the college administration to do anything differently, especially an extra lab session. (One of the constraints, as I understand it, is rooms.) Me, I'd be willing to pay for the extra lab supplies and all, but... eh well.