About 6,000 students will add and drop courses during the first two weeks of the semester, although students are not guaranteed to get into the classes they want, according to the Office of the Registrar.

Brian Moon, an adjunct instructor for the School of Music, said every semester he is faced with the problem of turning away students who want to add his popular music 109 course, Rock and American Pop Music.

Moon said he does not overload his courses with students and is forced to turn away 70 to 100 students.

“”The problem is that there is no fair way to use a wait list with this much demand,”” Mood said.

Although many general-education classes give priority enrollment to athletes, honors students and those with learning disabilities, Moon said this is unfair both to him and the students.

“”Athletes, honors students and students with learning disabilities comprise a disproportionately large percentage, about 95 percent, of my class,”” Moon said. “”This skewed population creates a lot of problems for me, as invariably, these types of students are the ones that need more assistance through the semester.””

While some professors establish wait lists for their classes, others create their own priority system to accommodate students.

Pat Willerton, an associate professor of political science, said he no longer keeps waiting lists, and he encourages students to operate through the registration system.

“”I generally add students, but I like to limit the number to no more than 10 percent over my class cap,”” Willerton said. “”Those who are on top of matters early in the process are able to do so.””

Despite the various wait-list policies, for many students the process of adding classes can be stressful, said Michelle Nusraty, a junior majoring in nursing and psychology.

Nusraty said she contacts the department in order to get into a course or tries to use a change of schedule form on the first day.

“”I tend to not contact the professor because they seem to not want to deal with the issue, but wait until the first day to give everyone an equal chance,”” Nusraty said.

Katie Gratrix, a criminal justice sophomore, is trying to add a class to fill out her schedule. Gratrix said she is signed up for 13 credits and hopes to get into Sex, Health and AIDS, an INDV 102 course. Gratrix plans to attend class on the first day with a change of schedule form.

Estimates for the number of schedule changes are based on figures from the fall 2005 semester, when 3,982 students added or dropped classes during the first week of school and 2,351 added or dropped the second week, for a total of 6,333.