“It’s not a matter of what you want, but it’s a matter of “what you get””
Perhaps we then have different experiences...
Perhaps we then have different experiences...
Apparently so. I know that you had to really "juggle" things. You would start with those things that you "absolutely had to have" for this quarter. You know... things that were done in order from Fall to Winter to Spring ... and they wouldn't be offered outside of that sequence. If you missed one of those classes, you had to wait until one year later to get it. You definitely didn't want that to happen. That would really mess up your four-year curriculum.
Then you would have your various electives, certain ones you had to get in certain "departments" -- but sometimes they wouldn't be offered but one or two quarters, and then you had to balance that out with the future electives, too. And then you had to have certain upper level classes, but if you didn't get the pre-requisites for thos upper level ones, and still had to take the pre-requisites, then you were really screwed for when the upper level ones had to be taken.
So, you had to juggle and juggle every quarter. You would get some messed up schedules because of how your electives would pan out with what were pre-requisites for your coming "upper level courses" in another year or two and then that you had to get your "sequences" in, too (like the Fall, Winter, Spring sequences that were only offered in that order once a year).
There were a number of times when the class was full and no more student would be allowed and I had to beg professors to allow me in. Hopefully I wouldn't have a "class conflict" from another class, or I could give up on that course.
So, yes... definitely ... you got "what you could get" -- not ever "what you wanted".
This was all done because of a student having to meet a "four-year degree" course... which had so many electives, so many mandatory classes and then, you had to get your "pre-requisites" in before you could take your "upper level courses", too. Either you did all that, or else -- you were not going to make your four-year course... you might end up taking 4-1/2 years or 5 years, instead. I guess if you didn't care about that and wanted to go five years, then you could let things slide and not care about getting this course or that course, this quarter or else you had to wait until "next year" to get it and that would throw everything off.