Alright as most people have found out by now, electives are far and few between these days at Mac. Courses you thought that would be open and ready to be picked up are now full. I'm just wondering what most people are doing about this. I'm calling office after office trying to get in somewhere but all I get is 'Go to the website'. I'm going into second year commerce and now instead of picking up an elective I'm just gonna take an upper year course. What are you guys doing about this?

Right now, I'm trying to find different courses to take that might contribute to my minor (which were my electives). I've been trying to get into my course forever now, but it's still impossible.. and always will be.

I wish I could take upper year courses, but all the prereqs I need, I'm taking during the year. It's so depressingly ridiculous.

I feel you on that one. I just went through the undergrad calender only to find out the upper year commerce course are full or my pre req runs at the same time. This is gonna be an interesting year.

Originally Posted by AlchemistX

Alright as most people have found out by now, electives are far and few between these days at Mac. Courses you thought that would be open and ready to be picked up are now full. I'm just wondering what most people are doing about this. I'm calling office after office trying to get in somewhere but all I get is 'Go to the website'. I'm going into second year commerce and now instead of picking up an elective I'm just gonna take an upper year course. What are you guys doing about this?

I'm basically doing as you're doing - emailing random people that seem to have some sort of authority over all of this.

I find it funny that McMaster tends to make the most popular electives have the smallest classes. Someone on top clearly doesn't understand that more demand can equal more classes which in tern equals more moniez.

Well the most popular electives are probably taught by one teacher who don't WANT to take more students =/ ..

I think McMaster should let all the students on to choose electives (ie courses from the programme they aren't registered to), it's unfair right now how some upper year students can choose electives first and some last-- you would think that they would be able to design a better system than SOLAR.

It's like they are trying to get people to fill up random other electives that no one actually wants, but are forced to take because everything else is full. =="

Originally Posted by missiu

I think McMaster should let all the students on to choose electives (ie courses from the programme they aren't registered to), it's unfair right now how some upper year students can choose electives first and some last-- you would think that they would be able to design a better system than SOLAR.

Exactly. That's how every other school works - you get a random number and go choose your courses within a time frame. It's better because it's more fair and keeps the server from lagging out since only certain groups of numbers are allowed on at a time. Instead we have this retarded SOLAR system where the server accumulates more and more people as it's opened to other faculties.

Exactly! For example, U of T-- not only do they have that, but they also have waitlists, so some random lucky person doesn't coincidently sign onto SOLAR and get the ONE space that someone might've dropped.

Originally Posted by missiu

Well the most popular electives are probably taught by one teacher who don't WANT to take more students =/ ..

I think McMaster should let all the students on to choose electives (ie courses from the programme they aren't registered to), it's unfair right now how some upper year students can choose electives first and some last-- you would think that they would be able to design a better system than SOLAR.

It's like they are trying to get people to fill up random other electives that no one actually wants, but are forced to take because everything else is full. =="

They desperately need a new system or a new way of letting students pick their course instaed of 10,000 ppl flooding MUGSI in the wee hours of the morning. You think they would listen to use since we pay a crap load to go to school.

I'm honestly just a wreck over this elective business. Even if I wanted to ask some authoritative person to help me out, I don't really have a case to plead since they are only electives and not required.

It's so freaking ridiculous. So many classes only have one core this year too. This is what you get for laying off profs, and for having a shitty system. Thaaanks a lot McMaster.

I think I might be stuck taking an upper year course as well - not too sure if I want to do this as I don't know if I'm sufficiently prepared for the workload or differences in expectations from the professor.

I talked to my cousing today about course selection at UofT and he says the people with the higher GPA get to choose first. Also the thing about the waiting list but that's already been mentioned. I think it makes sense to have course selection function that way. The people that do the best in school should have first choice at their electives, they've probably worked the hardest and deserve it. It'll also get everyone to try above and beyond to attain a high GPA in order to get to choose their electives.

Originally Posted by jhan523

I talked to my cousing today about course selection at UofT and he says the people with the higher GPA get to choose first. Also the thing about the waiting list but that's already been mentioned. I think it makes sense to have course selection function that way. The people that do the best in school should have first choice at their electives, they've probably worked the hardest and deserve it. It'll also get everyone to try above and beyond to attain a high GPA in order to get to choose their electives.

I would consider this system is even worse than Mac's, apart from the wait list system. Somehow this reminds me of the rich getting richer and the poor getting more poor. Why do people with let say 2.8 deserve less of a chance to get into an elective than those with 3.8?

It's an incentive, just like when you sell a certain amount of products you can get a bonus. Just like when you increase production of a company you can get a raise. Just like when you've eaten all your vegetables you can have ice cream.

If you really want it, then you'll try your best to get it. I think it's better than McMaster's system. Why does science get to pick last? In my opinion, McMaster's system is worse than UofTs. Atleast in UofT you can somewhat control when you pick. In McMaster it all depends on your faculty.

Originally Posted by jhan523

It's an incentive, just like when you sell a certain amount of products you can get a bonus. Just like when you increase production of a company you can get a raise. Just like when you've eaten all your vegetables you can have ice cream.

If you really want it, then you'll try your best to get it. I think it's better than McMaster's system. Why does science get to pick last? In my opinion, McMaster's system is worse than UofTs. Atleast in UofT you can somewhat control when you pick. In McMaster it all depends on your faculty.

I'm not sure if UofT's system changed within the past one or two years, but it used to be that they would just put ALL students into a pool and it would be like a draw for times/numbers. So basically, whatever number you got was random.

Which is still more fair than the faculty picking days, since one faculty will always be left with the short end of the stick.. in this case, all electives being LONG full by the time they even get on.

I don't see why students with higher GPA should get to pick first (in the UofT scenario). There can be so many circumstances as to why someone might not perform as well, varying from personal problems/weaknesses to difficulty of a course to ***** from hell TA's who have it in for students. It's incentive yes, but I'm not so sure it's really fair.

Annyway, McMaster's system is shit, I think we can all agree on that. I don't know why science always picks last either. It just all contributes to a frustrating time.

Originally Posted by feonateresa

I don't see why students with higher GPA should get to pick first (in the UofT scenario). There can be so many circumstances as to why someone might not perform as well, varying from personal problems/weaknesses to difficulty of a course to ***** from hell TA's who have it in for students. It's incentive yes, but I'm not so sure it's really fair.

Annyway, McMaster's system is shit, I think we can all agree on that. I don't know why science always picks last either. It just all contributes to a frustrating time.

They actually change the course selection order for faculties every year, so no one ever really knows until it comes out and then they realize how screwed they actually are. It's just frustrating. I feel so unmotivated and completely defeated. *sighh. It's like.. they're forcing me to pay money to take courses I don't even want to take, just because I need a full courseload.