As You Think About SLACs...Limited Number of Courses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will never understand why anyone choose a school with so few students, so few professors, so few classes, so few options. And they are usually in the middle of the woods. And it's typically cold. Four years of that. And people choose this. Baffling.

If you know, you know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I'm not here for a judgement on my parenting. She does talk to her advisor, but I am telling you that they are very hands off. The college has a lot more people majoring in the humanities than STEM, so I think it is easier for them to get the courses they need because a lot of them are very broad.

I'm not interested in a critique of my parenting. This is literally just a heads up to parents considering small colleges.

Also, 18 and 19 year olds are not always very savvy about understanding the best way to maximize their courses to meet college requirements and their majors and other interests they have. My daughter didn't understand that she could "double dip" on two requirements and meet both through taking one class and the school didn't make that clear to her. Doing that leaves another course open in her schedule down the line for a class she really wants to take that isn't just to meet college requirements.

We don’t need this kind of advice from you or anyone else. We’re not idiots. Smaller schools mean fewer course offering. Duh. Last I checked the four year graduation rates at SLACs were generally higher than larger schools, so the students are obviously managing to get the classes they need.

No reason to treat educated adults like idiots, and no reason to helicopter over your own kid so damned much either.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, OP. I appreciate your post. I, similarly, do not understand the weird hostility on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you, OP. I appreciate your post. I, similarly, do not understand the weird hostility on DCUM.

Look, it’s a silly post. I have never heard of a college large or small where every student can register for any class that they want whenever they want. No college has infinite resources of course offerings. OP isn’t telling anyone anything new. What’s weird is that she’s so involved in her kid’s course registration. I’ve never heard of any parent doing THAT before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you, OP. I appreciate your post. I, similarly, do not understand the weird hostility on DCUM.

Look, it’s a silly post. I have never heard of a college large or small where every student can register for any class that they want whenever they want. No college has infinite resources of course offerings. OP isn’t telling anyone anything new. What’s weird is that she’s so involved in her kid’s course registration. I’ve never heard of any parent doing THAT before.

DP. Even if all that is true, I think OP intended to help. Maybe just skip threads that you don’t find useful? The tone was a bit much.

[Anonymous]

My kid is doing two majors and one minor in a SLAC now. They never ran into any problem with selecting courses. The advisors and professors always made it possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is doing two majors and one minor in a SLAC now. They never ran into any problem with selecting courses. The advisors and professors always made it possible.

Congrats! That’s great. Others may have a different experience.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP - totally on your side. Thanks for trying to flag something you hadn’t thought about until getting to the other side. Judgy people suck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m OP. I will never get the weird hostility on this site. My kid is happy at her school. But getting the right classes at the right times is definitely an issue. I didn’t write to complain or solve the problem. I only wrote because this is something I never thought about and i thought it would be helpful to parents of juniors and seniors. People are free to have other experiences. I would love to helicopter but she cut that out quick. This is a different issue that really could not be resolved easily. When you need a required class that is a prerequisite for other classes but the one section is at the same time as another course you need for a requirement (like language) it can be an issue. We are making it work but it can be frustrating.

Thanks for sharing your perspective, OP. I found it helpful to consider. Quick question - can anyone access a college’s course catalogue? I tried once for a particular school and it required a school ID. But maybe I didn’t try hard enough to find it another way?

As for the hostility on this site, my best advice is to tap out of this thread. You shared information you would have liked to have when evaluating schools, and I and others appreciate it! But beyond that, the more you try to explain yourself, the more you feed the trolls and the more we continue to hear from them ….

[Anonymous]

Instead of making a generalization about SLACs, OP should just name the school DD attends. That would be helpful

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Instead of making a generalization about SLACs, OP should just name the school DD attends. That would be helpful

Agree but don’t hold your breath

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you, OP. I appreciate your post. I, similarly, do not understand the weird hostility on DCUM.

Look, it’s a silly post. I have never heard of a college large or small where every student can register for any class that they want whenever they want. No college has infinite resources of course offerings. OP isn’t telling anyone anything new. What’s weird is that she’s so involved in her kid’s course registration. I’ve never heard of any parent doing THAT before.

+1. And, if DD is seeing an advisor, as OP
says later in the thread, and they are not helpful, then they need a new counselor! OP's kid (not OP!) needs to request a switch to one who knows how to help with registration for pre-meds. Problem solved! (OP you are paying a fortune for this SLAC. Teach your kid how to problem solve! Sitting back and complaining here doesn't help you or your daughter. The SLAC can't fix a problem it doesn't know about.

FWIW, my SLAC had dedicated counselors for the sciences, pre-law and pre-med.

[Anonymous]

Wow, some of those responses were hostile. I do agree limited course offerings can be a concern at small schools although overcrowding/limited access to some classes can also be an issue at big schools.

One of my kids is at a SLAC and one at a huge school. I did have concerns about limited classes at some SLACs for some majors and it was something we considered in the search. DD ended up at a school where her major is one of the biggest on campus so they do have a good amount of classes. Still, sometimes she has to make choices because classes she wants may only have one section and it's the same time as another class. She figures it out and her advisor sounds helpful. Another thing that reassured us is that the school is very flexible and has a pledge that if you are unable to finish in 4 years because of something that is their issue - like class scheduling - then the 5th year is free. So, they are flexible about satisfying requirements and will open up space as needed. So far, DD is on track (junior).

DS at a huge school has run into scheduling challenges too and sometimes can only meet a requirement by taking an online class, which he doesn't like. But, again, he's worked it out.

Back when I went to a big state university, there was a system of rotating registration priority and students knew that if you had the lowest registration priority you were unlikely to get any classes you actually needed in that quarter so we scheduled internships or study abroad during that time.

I'd be surprised if there is any college where you can always take exactly what you want, when you want, in the format that you want. But, at least with gen eds, I think my kids have both benefitted from having to take a class that they might not have considered if not for scheduling issues. It's exposed them to topics that they wouldn't otherwise have learned about. I think that's part of the serendipity of college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of making a generalization about SLACs, OP should just name the school DD attends. That would be helpful

Agree but don’t hold your breath

DS attends Williams but really doesn't have this problem. His first semester, he complained that there were too many good choices to choose from. Any LAC won't be a good fit if you are looking for hyper-specific early specialized course selection, but most college students don't know enough to even desire this. If a senior physics and classics major can find enough courses for contentment, I'm sure most other majors have ample opportunity.

[Anonymous]

A potential problem at small schools can happen when one develops a specialized interest in a particular subject area for which no major or no courses are offered.

Many LACs publish faculty rosters and course offerings that are wildly inaccurate in order to give the appearance of having a variety of professors in each dept. and of offering a wide array of courses in each major.

One small LAC lost almost all of its econ profs suddenly, but the school's website falsely claimed to have over a dozen econ profs even though it really only had one or two.