Please Sign Up For Another Section.
After weeks of preparation and revision, Dylan’s schedule was finally done. He’d registered for classes; he’d gotten classes he needed and didn’t hate. He even got a schedule that allowed him to sleep in.
The day after registration, which was also the final day of registration for freshmen, Dylan got a note.
Dear Student,
You are currently signed up for CEI 1220 with Mark Volman, but due to your major and the content covered in the course, you need to take a session with a different professor. Please sign up for another section instead.
Dylan texted me a screenshot of that email, with these words:
i want to die
Not only would Dylan be losing the professor who founded the Turtles, but he would also be losing his finished schedule.
At the very least, Dylan had to give up Sociology in order to take the new section of the class for his major. He was also justifiably angry that there was no mention of this requirement in the course catalog.
And now, everything was full. Every section of Sociology was full. Every backup class from his list was full. There were no available math or science classes, except one section of Computer Science.
what about computer science? you’re going to need it anyway
i mean yeah i guess if thats all i can do
He plunked in the registration number for Computer Science. An error message popped up: You are prohibited from taking this class due to requisite or testing requirements.
From all the studying I’d done, I remembered that Dylan’s SAT math score was too high to allow him to take Computer Science. But I didn’t go into that with him right then, because he still had to do something about his schedule.
He searched. I searched. We scoured the web for a class he might need that was not only at 8 a.m. But all the classes were full.
Or so it seemed.
I tried a different tack: I looked at the options for fine arts classes that were not related to music. Since Dylan so prefers music classes, he had not even considered any other fine arts options.
One of the classes was called, The Theatre Experience. It wasn’t a history class, and instead explored the creation of a show from start to finish. Since Dylan had done theater productions for six years in a row, I’d been afraid he might be bored with it – and hadn’t even mentioned it to him.
Before I said anything, I checked: there were spaces available! Best of all, it was at the exact same time as his prior class had been, so he wouldn’t have to switch anything else around.
omg do you want to take theatre?
maybe – what is it – is it like history of theatre or
fine arts requirement: ‘Designed to provide students with a basic understanding of the process of theatrical production from conception to execution to evaluation.’
okay yeah that sounds good
Dylan registered for The Theatre Experience.
So once again, he had a schedule.
Dylan was still angry, as was I, about losing Mark Volman. But what he really wanted, he said, was Introduction to Sociology. He said he was looking forward to that class. And he wasn’t keen on public relations, although it would have fulfilled the same requirement for him.
Astoundingly, when writing this blog post, I stumbled upon an opening in the Sociology class he wanted – one available slot – that fit in place of his public relations class.
So now, Dylan is taking his long-lost Sociology class, too.
Sigh.