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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This must be school dependent. My daughter is also at a SLAC - she meets with her adviser before pre-registration, goes over the classes she is interested in and, together, they come up with her schedule. She then pre-registers - if a class is overenrolled, she reaches out directly to the professor and, so far, things have always worked out - once they added an extra section for the extra students. One time she took a class a semester later than she originally intended, but then she was able to choose a course she really loved instead. Another time, she was supposed to take a level 1 course in one department, but was able to substitute something else by writing to the department head. Her friends at larger schools regularly complain about getting shut out of classes, but the difference at her very small school seems to be the access to professors and department heads, and the school's flexibility. While I agree there are issues with some schools and the oversubscribing of certain majors (eg, Pomona and CS), overall I can say her experience at a SLAC has been excellent and she has yet to hit a brick wall with faculty or administration - it seems like everyone there is very willing to help resolve any issues.

This is exactly dc’s experience at Pomona. Way less space issues due to the 5 colleges there, but she has to meet with her advisor to get approved for course schedules and her advisor has emailed a prof to defend her getting into a class, without the pre reps. This is all school dependent.

From what I’ve heard, the Claremont colleges aren’t a liberal arts college- just a university that doesn’t like being called so.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This must be school dependent. My daughter is also at a SLAC - she meets with her adviser before pre-registration, goes over the classes she is interested in and, together, they come up with her schedule. She then pre-registers - if a class is overenrolled, she reaches out directly to the professor and, so far, things have always worked out - once they added an extra section for the extra students. One time she took a class a semester later than she originally intended, but then she was able to choose a course she really loved instead. Another time, she was supposed to take a level 1 course in one department, but was able to substitute something else by writing to the department head. Her friends at larger schools regularly complain about getting shut out of classes, but the difference at her very small school seems to be the access to professors and department heads, and the school's flexibility. While I agree there are issues with some schools and the oversubscribing of certain majors (eg, Pomona and CS), overall I can say her experience at a SLAC has been excellent and she has yet to hit a brick wall with faculty or administration - it seems like everyone there is very willing to help resolve any issues.

This is exactly dc’s experience at Pomona. Way less space issues due to the 5 colleges there, but she has to meet with her advisor to get approved for course schedules and her advisor has emailed a prof to defend her getting into a class, without the pre reps. This is all school dependent.

Anonymous wrote:This must be school dependent. My daughter is also at a SLAC - she meets with her adviser before pre-registration, goes over the classes she is interested in and, together, they come up with her schedule. She then pre-registers - if a class is overenrolled, she reaches out directly to the professor and, so far, things have always worked out - once they added an extra section for the extra students. One time she took a class a semester later than she originally intended, but then she was able to choose a course she really loved instead. Another time, she was supposed to take a level 1 course in one department, but was able to substitute something else by writing to the department head. Her friends at larger schools regularly complain about getting shut out of classes, but the difference at her very small school seems to be the access to professors and department heads, and the school's flexibility. While I agree there are issues with some schools and the oversubscribing of certain majors (eg, Pomona and CS), overall I can say her experience at a SLAC has been excellent and she has yet to hit a brick wall with faculty or administration - it seems like everyone there is very willing to help resolve any issues.