Once it hits one minute past midnight on June 29th... and it becomes June 30th... its first come first serve. If an elective course you wanted to take becomes full... then its too bad, and you have to pick another one.

or if there happens to be two core sections of a course you want...and you were hoping to avoid the 8:30 but the other is full...

because one is still offered you're stuck in the 8:30

unless you pick another elective.. and then before the drop and add day, you keep checking constantly to see if anyone drops. then you might have a chance to get a spot. but be warned that when school starts, its hard to get on to SOLAR during the day, it will be full all the time. Until you sit there constantly and refresh and click or you stay up late at night to see if you can get on.
Other than that, if its full, then too bad. :( take that elective another year.

I always go on at EXACTLY midnight to sign up for my courses to avoid disappointment.

I emailed an advisor from the Faculty of Science (I'm doing Life Sci I next year) with some questions about how it works when you register on SOLAR. One of the things she told me is that on June 30th basically all I'm going to be doing is choosing what 10 courses I want and then I will be assigned core, tutorial and lab times. Is this actually true?
That would kind of suck. I would much rather be able to choose my own times provided I can register early enough that they aren't full.

Last year everyone was allowed to pick their own tutorials and labs, and we are still under the assumption that the same is true for next year.

If that's what they are saying then yes, it is.

They would be better informed than students would.

I was in Science I last year, and when I went to the academic advising session, we were told that although we were responsible for making sure that all the courses we chose, including the labs and tutorials, when we registered on SOLAR we were only to select the courses and which term we wanted to take them in. Then, we were assigned to core/lab/tutorial sections. After the timetables were released, you could fiddle around with everything to get a more ideal timetable, but it all depended on which sections were still open.

I don't know if this changes once you're in upper years?

It was the same for us as upper years last year as well.

But typically we have far less tutorials so it makes fiddling easier.

Originally Posted by Daisydawne18

Im just hoping that for some great reason all of the classes will work in a schedule together without major breaks.. Heres hoping!!!! hahaha

One thing to think about if in res/close to mac is that breaks in a schedule can be a godsend if well placed (if commuting, breaks can be a BIG time waster). I had 6 straight hours of lectures every friday term 2 last year. Good use od time in theory, but not once I got there...

Also, if you plan a 1 hour break before a lab or marked tutorial it can be really helpful to get prepared. One better is what I had term one: Physics lecture, one hour break, physics lab or tutorial (depending on the week). During this one hour break I was able to o over the lab/pre lab with my professsor one on one, catch up on physics homework I needed to know for the marked tutorial, or visit the physics help centre. Definately worth getting done a little later another day to have that break.

2nd term: any break over one hour was used for napping.

Does anyone know when we choose our core, labs and tutorials? For 3rd year eng, we picked the courses but it didnt give us drop downs yet...

You pick them after your timetable gets auto generated in August. They auto pick tutorials for you and make sure they don't conflict. Then if you want to change them you can go into solar and do so.

Nope.

Maybe once everyone (all years) are allowed on again?

they are auto generated. At the end of July, SOLAR closes for all students to prepare student’s personal timetables and it picks your tutorials/labs then. The Payment Agreement will remain open and must be completed in order to make changes to your timetable. You then get your timetable with all of your assigned tutorial sections and can go into SOLAR to alter them.

Chad,
Regarding the sections, do upper year students will get their timetable randomly generated as well? Or is it just for first year students?

It's for everyone...

I have a feeling they have reverted back to the old method that they had the year before last and all previous years.