Does Your School Give 3Ls Registration Preference? Forum

[roguebear]

Hi all. I'm a current student at NYU and the rising 3L class was informed this year that the school is getting rid of any preference that 3Ls had in registering for courses. This is going to hit our class particularly hard as we were at a disadvantage last year and won't have an advantage this year.

A friend and I are attempting to draft a letter to the student affairs office protesting this change. I was hoping that I could include some information on other schools and could use some help from TLSers. If you're willing (either through post or PM) it would be very helpful if you could say what school you go to, whether it gives 3Ls preference, and how it does that (E.g. early registration, bidding points, lottery preference, etc.).

I really appreciate the help.

[kalvano]

I go to SMU. They break registration down by credit hours...the more you have, the sooner you can register. Registration takes place over 3 days, and 3L's get to go first to assure that they can get the classes they need to graduate.

Why you would do it any other way is plain silly.

[ChattTNdt]

I go to SMU. They break registration down by credit hours...the more you have, the sooner you can register. Registration takes place over 3 days, and 3L's get to go first to assure that they can get the classes they need to graduate.

Why you would do it any other way is plain silly.

Same here, @ LSU

[arhmcpo]

@ Pepperdine. pretty sure 3Ls get to register a day or days in advance of 2L's; we definitely have a heavy preference for 3L's, just makes sense no?

[vidhartha]

Michigan here - Priority given by amount of credits completed, so 3Ls are definitely given preference. But to even things up, the school allots each student a total of 2 priorities to use during registration. When a student uses a priority, it puts them at the top of the registration list for whichever class they chose to use it on, regardless of year. Allows 2Ls to get into a small seminar that they wouldn't otherwise be able to, but obviously limited to 2 throughout the entire 3 years.

[BarbellDreams]

I go to Pitt and we have 3L priority. The 3L's get to start registering like 3 days before the 2L's do. We also have a bunch of classes that say "3L priority" but I am not exactly sure what that even means.

[usuaggie]

Oregon. each class broken down into 3 times: early, middle, and late. your 2L yr and 3L yr time flip flop. so
if 2L yr you go at 8 am you go at 5 pm 3L
if 2L yr you go at noon, you go at noon again 3L.
if 2L yr you go at 5 pm, you go at 10 am 3L.

So 1/3 of 2Ls and 1/3 of 3Ls are registering at any given time.
you can only register for 8 credits in this period.
The next day, you can register for as many as you want.

The waitlist is a random drawing for high demand classes.

[Arrow]

3L's at Boalt get priority too, in that they get to register for classes before 2L's do.

However, even though the school/student affairs is removing preference, I can imagine that professors will still give 3L's preference, right? Professors often have some leeway in deciding who gets to take their class, and if you explain that you really want to take their class because of so and so interest and that this is your last semester, I feel like most professors will understand your plight and give you preference. This is definitely true at my school, or at least it has been for me. I definitely realize that the change will make it harder, but it just might mean you have to be more aggressive in bugging professors.

[RW65]

At St. John's 3Ls get 4 days to register and make schedule adjustments. After that, the 2Ls register.

[kings84_wr]

3l's at UCLA get no priority (except for certain Clinics and special classes). its lottery based on 4 different groupings.

[XxSpyKEx]

Hi all. I'm a current student at NYU and the rising 3L class was informed this year that the school is getting rid of any preference that 3Ls had in registering for courses.

This is one the dumbest things I have ever heard. 3Ls should have priority in registration because it's your last semester, and if you have classes you still need to take in order to graduate (e.g. maybe you still have to take a seminar to fulfill the upper level writing requirement), you might not be able to get into the classes you need in order to graduate. Furthermore, the closer you are to graduation, the lesser the number of courses you can potentially take, while fulfilling graduation requirements. That is, entering 2L, you haven't taken anything but your 1L required courses, so you can take anything, but entering 3L, you already took somewhere around 30 upper level credits, so the selection of classes you have to choose from is slimmer (since you can't retake classes you already took). I think those arguments are the typical ones made for giving 3Ls a preference in terms of registration.

[king3780]

3l's at UCLA get no priority (except for certain Clinics and special classes). its lottery based on 4 different groupings.

This is roughly what Rutgers-Newark does... everyone registers at the same time and then a lottery with preferences going to 3Ls over 2Ls for most classes that are overbooked.

[03121202698008]

Yes, though at Michigan 1L/2L get two priorities that override the preference for courses you really want. (Of course, a 3L with priority would probably beat you but not guaranteed...all the priorities go in one pool which gets first shot at the course by lottery if not enough seats.)

The priorities are useful for getting into something that's a pre-req and popular.

[Cavalier]

UVA gives 3Ls priority to fill their schedules, then 2Ls fill their schedules, then 1Ls get the scraps for their spring semester electives.

I'm surprised NYU would make such a change. You should definitely draft a letter.

[roguebear]

Thanks for all the info. They do give us the ability to get one preference if we want to take a seminar to write our A-paper for graduation, but otherwise they want to remove it. The class 2012 is pretty frustrated also b/c the change means that we get the worst of both worlds. As 2Ls, we weren't on equal footing with 3Ls to get classes so lost out on some. And now as 3Ls we won't get the bump that screwed us as 2Ls.

[Renzo]

Thanks for all the info. They do give us the ability to get one preference if we want to take a seminar to write our A-paper for graduation, but otherwise they want to remove it. The class 2012 is pretty frustrated also b/c the change means that we get the worst of both worlds. As 2Ls, we weren't on equal footing with 3Ls to get classes so lost out on some. And now as 3Ls we won't get the bump that screwed us as 2Ls.

And, I might add, they decided to make this change before we rising 3Ls were enrolled, then didn't tell us about it until the last minute. A a bare minimum the could have said, "now guys, remember that you're getting cheated next year, so don't plan on using your 3L advantage to get a popular class next year--try to get it as a 2L."


It's absurd. They are just obsessed with the idea of a "true auction" system; nevermind that a "true auction" is stupid in the circumstances.