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

[jupiter29.livejournal.com]

Wow, what an annoying situation. I'm sorry for all your frustration. I had a couple of similar situations, but Temple was pretty good about arranging enough sections to handle everybody. Or maybe I was just lucky in the first couple of years when it would be an issue. :) But I think you're probably right on that the influx of four year students doesn't help, plus two year schools likely struggle with this more than four year schools anyway, if students don't bother to declare concentrations and just take the classes they need.

None of that helps, of course, so I hope you are able to work something out. It would stink to take a semester off, though luckily you have skills that would probably fit in well somewhere.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It would indeed stink to take a semester off, though if I'm brutally honest, the concept of completing all this in two years was quite ambitious anyway and I knew that going in. I can legitimately be surprised that things are so different for winter quarter than they were for fall, but I can't whine that this glitch costs me a year. I likely would have needed the extra year no matter what.

[jupiter29.livejournal.com]

You may safely whine as far as *I* am concerned. :) It is reasonable to add time to your studies for reasons like classes not being offered or completely full or not doing well or whatever. But to have to add time because the various departments all scheduled their classes in conflict with each other is rather silly and disappointing. :(

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Well, true. I dislike inefficiency, especially preventable inefficiency. But when all's said and done, I'm taking charity here (people who pay tons of money for their schooling don't have these problems) and you know what they say about who can't be choosers. I'll make it work out. :-)