This is part of our 2021 Unofficial Orientation Series. A quick reminder that you can check out the welcome post here and past years’ series here.

Disclaimer: While the tips introduced in this post can be applied universally, you should remember that your odds of getting into a class depend primarily not on your effort, but on the professor’s policies and how popular the class is (and, also, maybe how lucky you are). It’s pretty much impossible to convince a professor of an extremely popular class who simply won’t go over the limit to accept you into their class, even if you do absolutely everything right. But, trying can’t hurt, right?

Hello, and welcome to today’s episode of Unofficial Orientation. The focus of today’s episode will be mainly on the devil known as drop/add. If you don’t know what that is (seriously, how do you not know what that is yet?), the folks at the registrar’s office have provided this overview. During this period, students are able to add or drop pretty much any class to their schedule, regardless of the limits posed by pre-reg (however, your faculty advisor will have to approve an extension in your credit limit if you go above 4 credits). I also highly recommend you check out this FAQ, also kindly prepared by the registrar’s office, as a way to get the basics down before proceeding. This post will not be doing much explaining of Drop/Add itself. It will, however, try to warn you, innocent, unassuming frosh, about the reality of this brutal race and offer some insights (read: randomly gathered knowledge that may have been the results of embarrassing behaviors of the author (and past authors)).

If reading long articles is not your thing, scroll down to the bottom for a TL;DR.

This is an update of un meli-melo’s post which was an update of Jackson‘s post from 2015, which was an update of skorn‘s post from 2014. Which was an update of DaPope‘s post from 2013. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, or some shit like that, right?

This is part of our 2021 Unofficial Orientation Series. A quick reminder that you can check out the welcome post here and past years’ series here.

Take a nice deep breath in, at this point you’re either on-campus or just days away.  The excitement is tangible, new campus, new room, new people.  Before you get too wrapped up in your new freedom let’s talk about the real excitement: Your courses, the splendid garden that is Wesmaps, and what this year might be like academically.

I myself remember being confused by the process of choosing and then actually signing up for that class during my first semester so hopefully, this post provides a little clarity in the whole subject (and not the opposite).  Worst comes to worst just remember that most first-year classes are fairly big and your chances of getting into them are pretty high.

On that happy note, let’s dive right into this abyss!