Class availability
Three surveys* of undergraduates (2010, 2011, 2012) reveal that overall availability of classes has
improved with 84% of respondents reporting in winter 2012 that all their classes met a graduation
requirement (or that they were able to
Trends in class availability
enroll in all the classes in their plan). As
100%
shown in the graphic, class availability has
95%
trended upward.
90%
For required major courses and for general
education courses, 92% of students were
successful in getting required courses—
although to do so, they may have
needed to select a non-first choice class.
85%
80%
75%
All classes met requirements
70%
Major classes, incl. not first choice
65%
There have been improvements in
GE classes, incl. not first choice
60%
students’ ability to enroll in their firstWinter'10 Spring'10 Fall'10 Winter'11 Fall'11 Winter'12
choice classes—particularly for general
education courses, where first-choice availability improved from 40% to 53% over this period. Access to
first-choice major courses remained relatively steady over the period at about 63%.
Availability of Major classes by Student Level
(Winter 2010 vs. 2012)
80%
All planned/wanted
classes
60%
At least 1 class wasn't
1st choice
40%
20%
Couldn't take any
Major classes
0%
10
12
FR
10
12
10
SO
12
JR
10
12
As expected, however, access to
courses in the major improves with
student level. But, over the two-year
period, access to courses in the major
improved for lower division students.
At the upper division level, there were
notable differences in class availability
depending upon a student’s major.
SR
As reported on both survey measures—
(i) that all classes met a graduation requirement and (ii) that all classes were “first choice”—juniors in the
social sciences had the most difficulty getting classes. In contrast, juniors in the physical and biological
sciences and engineering had the highest class availability. For seniors, students in the arts and social
sciences had the lowest class availability while seniors in the other divisions had the highest.
24%
16%
23%
Every class met req-ts
Seniors
SOE
65%
All planned/ wanted
classes
Majors
2 div-ns
Majors in
in 2
2 divisions
divisions
74%
67%
PBSci
40%
Arts
52%
Soc Sciences
63%
Humanities
68%
50%
Majors in 2 divisions
2 div-ns
Juniors
SOE
PBSci
61%
25%
28%
25%
33%
21%
30%
45%
Arts
33%
Soc Sciences
32%
39%
Humanities
39%
28%
Able to register for All classes by Division within Level, Fall 2011
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
_____________
* An annual online survey of undergraduate students, CLASS has been a collaboration between students (SUA) and
Institutional Research since 2010. Overall response rates have ranged from 17% in 2012 to 23% in 2011.