An increased number of students said they are struggling with getting into the classes they need for spring quarter because of the growing number of spots allotted for priority and first-pass courses that are restricted to students in certain majors.
As a result, some spring classes may primarily encompass students from within the major.
Upper-division classes in the more popular fields tend to be closed to non-majors, and students and administrators said the restriction is hard on students with interdisciplinary majors, such as global studies and international development studies.
Interdisciplinary majors often include requirements from various departments, such as political science and psychology ““ two examples of majors which have fully restricted upper-division courses.
Paul Padilla, an undergraduate counselor for the history department, which closes its classes to non-majors during first passes, said the restrictions exist to ensure there is enough space for history students.
“Classes are crowded. The department made the decision a couple years ago to restrict upper-division classes to majors only on the first pass,” Padilla said.
The enrollment restriction is mostly limited to humanities majors, while enforced requisites on science courses are usually lower-division prerequisites.
Students who are considering switching majors, or who have minors that require classes in impacted fields, often face similar problems that students with interdisciplinary majors do.
Mimi Newton, a fourth-year applied mathematics student, said she encountered many problems last quarter while enrolling.
“I had to enroll in classes I knew I wasn’t going to take, then go to the class I wasn’t enrolled in, and get the professors to add me.”
She said her applied fields are political science and statistics, which requires that she take upper-division courses in those two areas in addition to mathematics, which make the major restrictions particularly problematic.
“It’s just very frustrating, because (the class) actually is a requirement for my major, so I don’t need it less than anyone else to graduate,” she said.
Marcelo Vazquez, a student affairs officer for the art history department, said less-crowded majors often do not impose those kinds of enrollment restrictions.
“For art history, we’re not an impacted major, so we don’t have a shortage of classes. If students want to change into the art history major, they can do so at the upper-division level,” he said.
UCLA undergraduates sometimes struggle to graduate in four years while simultaneously using their time in college to explore different interests, which may include taking classes from different majors, said Annie Adams, a third-year political science student.
“Now that I’m taking upper-division political science courses, it sometimes is appealing to take classes that aren’t political science, things that interest me besides political science,” she said.
However, it is not always easy to find classes outside of the designated concentration.
“Most of them are restricted, at least until second pass. And by second pass, they’re full,” Adams said.
With enrollment season well underway for spring quarter, many academic advisers said they have been inundated with queries from students about upper-division courses.
Armita Parvizi, an academic counselor for the International Development Studies Interdepartmental Degree Program, said the restrictions are problematic for IDS students because they are required to take classes from other departments.
But Parvizi noted that many other departments drop the majors-only restriction after first pass, and added that if students still cannot enroll in a class they need, IDS administrators sometimes try to work with the other department.
“Students have opportunities to take courses from a variety of departments,” she said. “(We are) willing to request placement in a course on behalf of the student, but enrollment is at the discretion of the instructor or department.”
Not all departments will make an enrollment request for their students. Some students are required to fend for themselves when it comes to enrolling in classes outside of their majors.
“My department will not help us enroll; they don’t take responsibility for it. There’s no way they would help me get in,” Newton said.