Probably the biggest part of College is of course, the classes. One of the benefits of looking at Amherst and other small schools is the small class sizes, and that was a huge draw for me. One hesitation I did have though, was: do the small classes mean that I’ll struggle to get into the popular ones? I’ll discuss that in this blog alleviate or at least address that concern for all you out there who are feeling like I was. Also, to you newly admitted ED students, I’ll start by giving you a rundown of what you might expect (loosely, they might not do it the exact same way) over the summer.
To begin, I’ll touch upon your first semester of your first-year because it’s going to be different than the rest. For my class who just experienced this over the summer, we were assigned a time slot on a day in August before move-in. Before that day, you are given access to a list of all the classes and times, and asked to make a mock schedule either on your own or with your advisor. If you chose to make your own, you’d still need it approved by your advisor before registering. This also gave us time to apply to skip introductory classes we might have fulfilled during high school with AP or other College equivalent programs. The process was easy and made it so that I could take the classes I wanted without having to retake ones I had already. Then, once your schedule was approved by your advisor, we’d have to wait for the aforementioned day and time slot we were given. Then once your time came you could register. Classes were first come, first serve though, and if a class you had wanted was full, they had staff in the Zoom meeting who would help you find a replacement or reach out to the professor.
That sounds like a lot, but they really spaced the process out and gave you time to consult professors and advisors and consider your options. The first come first serve process is only for fall of your first year however, and it works a bit differently (If you’re curious about that feel free to reach out to me I put my email at the bottom of the page). Now that I went through the process, I’ll address: will you get the classes you want? In my experience, almost always yes– but don’t hold me to that. I’ve luckily gotten into all the classes I’ve tried for so far, but there are always exceptions. There are always the super popular courses, usually introductory ones or extremely popular topics that people struggle to get into, but there is another system in place that if I would have known about it would have alleviated some of my worry. Some of these popular classes, especially introductory ones, will of course run both semesters, and each semester will prioritize a different class/group of students. For example, fall semester might prioritize second years and prospective majors, so you might not get into it if you’re an incoming first-year, but that spring semester section may prioritize first-years. So, in short, there are ways to help you get the classes you want, you may just need to be a bit patient! Even if you don’t get into that class, we have tons of courses running each semester in every area of study so if you’re anything like me you’ll struggle to decide what classes NOT to take, and not which ones you want to.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to reach out like I said, or for any reason, my email is jdesmond28@amherst.edu