Is this normal procedure for a four-year school?

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At my community college, everyone was allowed to register for the next semester's classes at once. I always pounced on the registration website the very second it opened, and was always one of the very first students to sign up. I always got exactly the classes I wanted/needed, and just as importantly, I knew months in advance what my schedule was going to be, and I could plan appointments and other non-school things in advance.

At the university, I wasn't allowed to register for the Spring 2010 semester until a week and a half after registration opened. This "pecking order" has to do with the number of credit hours students already have. As a result, two classes I need are closed, and of course, that had a domino effect on the other classes I signed up for. People keep asking me what courses I’m taking in the spring, and with less than a week to go, I can’t answer that question. It’s absolutely 0% my fault, too, because I registered literally the very minute they allowed me to do so.

Like many Aspies, uncertainty is very upsetting to me. One of the reasons I haven't been able to relax during winter break is that the whole time, and even at this late date, I have NO IDEA what my schedule is going to look like.

1) I still have to get online every day to see if a seat opened up in [class that I need]. If it does, I will have to decide which of the "not-my-first-choice" courses I have signed up for to discard.

2) I still have to get online every day to see if a seat opened up in [another class I need]. If it does, I will have to decide which of the "not-my-first-choice" courses I have signed up for to discard. In addition, there are four sections available for that class, so it’s all going to depend on which section a seat opens up in.

3) I still haven’t heard yet if my for-credit research project will be accepted by this certain special program (long story). While the project is a definite go, the course number it will come under depends on whether or not the special program accepts it. Without a course number, I cannot officially register for this yet.

4) For another of my classes, the time and place are “arranged,” whatever that means. I still haven’t heard any details. I also don’t even know for sure if this class is going to actually run.

5) As I said, all of this will have a "domino effect" on my choice of other classes. I have figured out TEN different ways this could play out. This also means that I will be getting my textbooks, figuring out my daily routines, etc. at the very last minute. NOT good.

I have done all the asking and checking around that I can on these matters. All I can do now is wait. With everything else going on in my life, I certainly don't need this added stress. Is this a pretty normal way for university registration to operate?

No kidding, I reapplied for spring 2010 term for biopsych and it wont tell me whether I got the classes or not, only saying confirmation of enrollment but not letting me actually enroll in any classes, and Ive been waiting for 3 months for their response and they wont even give it to me, not even over the phone, they just keep saying we need to continue evaluation... The uncertainty is actually killing me and I almost feel like Im being rejected based upon psychiatric/neurological disability because I have the required GPA to enter the spring term (and they know about my disabilities) yet they wont give me an answer, and others that are normal, and 'have sex, drink, party, have a good time, etc' are all getting in but me who has to struggle so much with everyday life cant even get the spring term. Honestly, this is why Im not religious, because I feel that if there really was a God, he wouldnt allow for this kind of unfairness.

Hi - Yes, this is VERY common. There will be, often, select groups (athletes, persons with disabilities, graduating seniors, special programs majors) who get first shot at classes. Then it typically goes by rank. Not all schools do this, but a large number of them do. In more exclusive schools, where you go by cohorts (that is, you're expected to take specific courses each year) the school usually has a place available for you in the courses your cohort would take. But I think that is, overall, pretty rare in the USA.

"Arranged" usually means you'll work with the professor to set up a schedule, or there will be times announced at the class for special meetings.

In the University at which I work, students are put on waitlists for courses that are full. On a given date at the end of the second week of classes the computer system goes through and checks to see who has not paid their fees and drops those students, or checks to see if any students have pulled out of a course and then it automatically seeds people off the waitlist into the course. Some departments request that waitlists be ordered by seniority, some simply go by the time/date stamp on when you put yourself on the waitlist. Either way, you have to go to every class meeting if you want any chance of getting into a course, even if you're not enrolled, until the waitlist seeds. Sometimes you get in, sometimes you do not. Your chances are better the more seniority you have, as the school is doing its best to get you graduated to free up your place for another student.

If it makes you feel any better at all (not that it should), when I went to State here in California back in the 1990s we put down the courses we wanted on a scantron sheet. We were allowed to request six courses, in order of importance. Then we mailed it in and the computer ran all the scantrons in at the same time. We received a list of our enrolled courses a few days before the semester started. At that point we had to go to a large bulletin board that had lists of "open" classes still accepting students, go to the respective departments, ask for an "add" card for the class, and take it to the Registrar's for processing before someone else got the place. The first several days of each term were a madhouse.

In the four years it took me to get my last two years' of courses done, I rarely got more than two of the classes I initially asked for in any given semester (four was the minimum to keep "full-time" status). One semester I got none. To keep my financial aid I had to be a full-time student, so I ended up taking lots of bizarre and pretty much pointless courses. One semester I had children's lit (Winnie the Pooh), an upper-division writing course, an experimental lab course designed for people who would eventually teach kindergarten, and fencing, archery, and yoga. Aside from being able to give Errol Flynn a run for his money when I got through with the semester, the only course I could use for my degree was the writing course. What a waste! And I calculate it cost me well over $10,000 in student loans to cover the time I was taking courses I didn't need or want, but had to take to remain a full-time student and not have my loans go into repayment status.....

It is very nerve-wracking, yes. Unfortunately, life tends to be like this, so it's best to just prioritize your courses by their future impact as prerequisites and keep trying. Best of luck with it!

PS If you have a firm diagnosis of Aspergers/Autism, check with the disabled students office. Perhaps you can use the diagnosis to get a "priority" slot at your school - if it's an option, use it.

As a retired college professor, I can tell you that the sort of registration scheme you descirbe is quite common. The rationale is that persons who are closer to graduation are more settled in what their course of study is going to be and are more likely to suffer a delay in graduation date if they cannot get certain specific courses.

Hopefully any delay you are suffering is based on how far along in your program you are and not just on how many credits you have at that particular university. That would amount to mistreatment in my opinion, since closeness to graduation is the primary justification for the scheme.

I can tell you that in engineering courses where I taught, a student's course of study was nearly totally prescribed from the first day they were a freshman with only some flexibility in required elective courses in fields like social science, humanities etc. There was also some flexibility for how students wanted to specialize within the degree program. But the faculty planned to make enough space available because they knew how many students were currently enrolled in the prerequisites and how many were likely to pass the prerequisites. We even tried to allow enrollment overrides whenever we could to allow a student to get back on track after having to repeat a course.

However one thing that I had to pound into underclassmen was the need to plan ahead and incorporate flexibility and how to replan after something messed up their plans. The point I would make to sophomores was that they needed to sit down and take about 2 hours or so to chart out every course they needed or wanted to take from sophomore through graduation. I pointed out that making a poor choice could delay their graduation by a year and considering that they would be paying for schooling for another year instead of earning that nice starting salary as an engineer that the two hours spent planning it right could save them the $70,000 that was the sum of what an extra year at the U would cost and that year's salary, so it would be the last chance to earn $35,000 per hour for their effort. And if there was no way based on what they had already taken to avoid that extra year, at least they could plan what other advanced courses they could fit in so that they could better prepare themselves and hopefully land an even better paying job.

Oh, well, I suspect that as the economy gets tighter and university budgets get smller you will see more and more of these inconveniences.

Nan, your post has been extremely helpful. Thanks so much. I wish someone had told me in advance to expect this. I didn't have this problem my first semester because I had to take mostly the 100- and 200-level courses that were specific to my program that could not be taken at the community college. Now that I need all upper-division classes, the problem has surfaced.

My school does not have waitlists. Students just have to keep checking online on a regular basis and grab a spot if it opens.

That Scantron thing sounds like a nightmare. I am glad that I don't have to do that (although it doesn't make me feel better that you had to do it).

Yes, I already have the feeling that I will not be graduating when I thought I would be, and that I too will be taking a lot of extra classes that aren't needed in order to stay full-time. At least I am blessed with curiosity about many things, so I doubt I will ever be forced to take a class that I am totally uninterested in.

BTW, that is cool that you mentioned the disability office. Although I am DXed and I do get accommodations as needed, priority registration is not offered as one of them. However, perhaps another student at another school could make that work for them!

riverspark

I don't believe you stated what your field of study was, or if you did , I missed it. But in the Engineering departments that I taught, there was a requirement that all students see their faculty advisor once per semester for advising on regstration. The engineering curricula are so tight with required courses, that the engineering accrediting agency (Accrediting Board for Engineering and Technology,ABET) requires it for accredited programs. The end result is that the academic advisor faculty member has a lot of clout. As a result we could often advocate for students and get them an override, we often could approach the professor teaching the course and make the request personally. We were especially inclined to do so for our better, more serious and more capable students because we knew that they would not frivolously drop a course we got them into by our extra effort. So I don't know how it is in your field, but if you have a faculty advisor who is a professor and not just a grad student, you might see if they can pull any strings for you. And yes, we made this extra effort when not getting in a particular class would have an adverse economic impact or work a hardship on a student.

P.S. (off topic note:)
Did I mention that engineering is a field that many aspies gravitate to, and thrive in. I had plenty of both diagnosed and undiagnosed (but obvious) aspies in my classes. In engineering, geeky is cool, especially when you get some of the best grades in the class. It is amazing how many friends a geek can have when they are the go-to-guy/gal, because they have the focus to grasp complex concepts before the others do . They are also in high demand for team projects .

outlander, my field of study is Environmental Science (and my main focus is on freshwater aquatic ecosystems). Yes, everyone has to see a faculty advisor at least once per semester, too. My advisor is already doing everything he can. I have talked directly to the instructors of the classes as well. The instructors were extremely nice, they understood my situation, and our conversations were interesting and enjoyable. The fact of the matter is, when there are, say, only 48 pieces of expensive equipment available for use, there can only be 48 students in the class. There just isn't anything the professor, the advisor, or the student can do about that. (Although I do have to wonder, since I was told that both these classes are extremely popular and/or required and the school has known for years that every semester there will be way more interested students than there are seats, why they don't add equipment and sections to accommodate the demand. Apparently this situation existed long before the current recession; something could have been done about it then.)

As for the other situations I described in my OP, everything that can be done has been done, and it's just a matter of waiting for people's decisions to be handed down. The best thing I can do right now is learn things from this thread and pass the knowledge on to others.

I've had several people suggest engineering to me, but I investigated the field and it didn't seem to be a very good match for this nature/biology person. Even environmental engineering doesn't fit me well. However, I do appreciate your input. I know some engineers and engineering students (and they do have a lot of Aspie traits). They do seem to enjoy their jobs and studies very much.

Thanks so much for your input. I am finding it to be very informative; I also am very appreciative of the fact that a retired professor is still taking the time to help out students. It makes me feel good that you care.

Hey, you were ahead of your time--my university actually has an online class schedule planner that lets students map out, save, and print color-coded potential schedule scenarios.

I just got some REALLY GREAT news about an hour ago: One of the classes I needed DID add a section, and I am in!! ! I am so thrilled!

Much of my schedule remains up in the air, but at least I know for sure that I will be taking Watershed Management. Not only is it a required course, but it's the one I wanted to take the most. It is nice to have a little of the stress taken off me.

Posting here took stress off me as well, in addition to being a good way to learn about how things work. I can't thank everyone enough.