Hello,

I recently got an email from a McMaster Faculty member stating the following

When you login to SOLAR to pick your level 1 courses beginning June 27 at 12:01 am (you do not have to get up at that time, all level 1 science courses are “held” for science students). At that point in time you will NOT be able to choose your core, tutorial or lab for the courses. You will chose the subject, course code, term and day (D) or evening (E).

SOLAR will close after your 7 day window is finished. It will open up again from July 8th to the 29th (when it closes to generate a timetable for each student). SOLAR will release the timetables on August 6 and then reopen (if you have confirmed your payment agreement) on August 8 and on August 12 if you have not. From then on it remains open until September 13 the last day to drop/add courses for term 1.

What does "You will NOT be able to choose your core, tutorial or lab for the courses. You will chose the subject, course code, term and day or evening" mean!?

Was the four hours of course research and constructing this timetable at;
http://www.macinsiders.com/showthrea...ack-79182.html
all for nothing!???? We don't get to choose how our timetables look?!

SOLAR will put you in tutorials and labs such that you have a conflict free timetable. Once the timetables are released in August, you can then go into SOLAR and switch into other tutorials and labs (if they aren't full)

Not to begin you don't. When SOLAR reopens in August you will be able to change the cores, tutorials etc from the ones they automatically give you

Originally Posted by RiskBreaker

Hello,

I recently got an email from a McMaster Faculty member stating the following

What does "You will NOT be able to choose your core, tutorial or lab for the courses. You will chose the subject, course code, term and day or evening" mean!?

Was the four hours of course research and constructing this timetable at;
http://www.macinsiders.com/showthrea...ack-79182.html
all for nothing!???? We don't get to choose how our timetables look?!

Lol yes, the four hours was pretty much all for nothing. You can't adjust your sections until August, after you are automatically assigned sections.
The timetable generator tool is much more useful for upper years when most of your courses have only one section - you need to make sure you pick courses that don't conflict with each other.
Conflicts like that can still happen in first year too, so it's definitely worth checking out, but spending four hours making the "perfect" timetable really isn't necessary, since undoubtedly some of the sections you want will be full and you will have trouble getting in, if you can get in at all.

!!! This is a great disappointment...

Now, the high bridge overlooking a highway looks very, very tempting.

Originally Posted by RiskBreaker

!!! This is a great disappointment...

Now, the high bridge overlooking a highway looks very, very tempting.

Why? It's not like you won 't ever get a chance to adjust your times. You just have to wait until August. And there will always be the chance that the section you want will fill up, but that would have been true even if you could adjust them right now.

Originally Posted by Quiver

Why? It's not like you won 't ever get a chance to adjust your times. You just have to wait until August. And there will always be the chance that the section you want will fill up, but that would have been true even if you could adjust them right now.

I had everything planned; I've created two time tables, the second one was suppose to be a back up in case the first-one had failed somehow (max capacity or last-minute rescheduling on McMaster's behalf) and got feedback for them in these forums. Then I changed them accordingly. I found and wrote down all the labs/tuts that were scheduled parallel to the ones I'd placed in my first time table so that the in case they were full I'd just enter another lab/tut number on right there & then and get it on the exact same spot in my timetable. I looked at the room numbers on the labs/tuts and made sure that they did not numerically range too far from the lecuture/core that occured before it because I believe rooms that are numerically close will also be geographically close (I hope that makes sense?) and I ordered them in closeness as well. Next, I read the how-to-get into SOLAR faster and got the fire-fox ad-don and learned how to use it. I am not a computer person, it was hard to get right. Bottom line, I spent time and energy trying to increase my chances of success; reading an email that says your efforts are all in vain and "we know whats best for you" is disparaging.

- Out to get a chill pill.

Anyway, sorry for the rant.

Originally Posted by RiskBreaker

I had everything planned; I've created two time tables, the second one was suppose to be a back up in case the first-one had failed somehow (max capacity or last-minute rescheduling on McMaster's behalf) and got feedback for them in these forums. Then I changed them accordingly. I found and wrote down all the labs/tuts that were scheduled parallel to the ones I'd placed in my first time table so that the in case they were full I'd just enter another lab/tut number on right there & then and get it on the exact same spot in my timetable. I looked at the room numbers on the labs/tuts and made sure that they did not numerically range too far from the lecuture/core that occured before it because I believe rooms that are numerically close will also be geographically close (I hope that makes sense?) and I ordered them in closeness as well. Next, I read the how-to-get into SOLAR faster and got the fire-fox ad-don and learned how to use it. I am not a computer person, it was hard to get right. Bottom line, I spent time and energy trying to increase my chances of success; reading an email that says your efforts are all in vain and "we know whats best for you" is disparaging.

- Out to get a chill pill.

Anyway, sorry for the rant.

Next time you "have everything planned" your first step should be to make sure that it's actually necessary - the info is available in several places on the Mac website, if you take the time to look

Anyways, what you did seems pretty normal - the only thing unnecessary is caring about the physical locations of the rooms, unless you have mobility issues.

And Quiver's point was that even though you don't need that information now, you will in August.
If you had waited until getting your timetable you could have focused your efforts more efficiently, but that's about it.

Originally Posted by RiskBreaker

I had everything planned; I've created two time tables, the second one was suppose to be a back up in case the first-one had failed somehow (max capacity or last-minute rescheduling on McMaster's behalf) and got feedback for them in these forums. Then I changed them accordingly. I found and wrote down all the labs/tuts that were scheduled parallel to the ones I'd placed in my first time table so that the in case they were full I'd just enter another lab/tut number on right there & then and get it on the exact same spot in my timetable. I looked at the room numbers on the labs/tuts and made sure that they did not numerically range too far from the lecuture/core that occured before it because I believe rooms that are numerically close will also be geographically close (I hope that makes sense?) and I ordered them in closeness as well. Next, I read the how-to-get into SOLAR faster and got the fire-fox ad-don and learned how to use it. I am not a computer person, it was hard to get right. Bottom line, I spent time and energy trying to increase my chances of success; reading an email that says your efforts are all in vain and "we know whats best for you" is disparaging.

- Out to get a chill pill.

Anyway, sorry for the rant.

No, I understand that you put in a lot of work and that you don't want it to be wasted. But it hasn't been wasted. You can still implement your plan; all the email is saying is that you'll have to wait until August to do it. They do generate a timetable for you, but you can change it as you please. McMaster's policies are frustrating as hell, I know. I just think you should try to not be so frustrated when you haven't even been denied your ideal timetable yet. You'll have your shot in a few months.

I did a lot of what you did last year too. Things will probably work out if you're really that anxious and determined. Keep checking in August and you will probably be able to get your ideal timetable that you spent hours on.