Tele-F*CKED 2008, Phase I
First, they lied. Then they were caught. But they never apologized.
For those of you tuning in for the first time this fall, here's a brief rundown:
Boalt students have been assured for years that Tele-BEARS registration times (and the concomitant opportunity take that coveted class, or to score an early slot on the wait-list) were randomized to ensure fairness.
Not so. Students discovered last spring that registration times were in fact issued by student ID number -- the lower your ID number, the earlier you registered. Even worse, the earlier you applied to the UC system (even as an undergrad, and even if you didn't attend), the lower your ID number. The result was that some people (like Armen) enjoyed the prized seminars, classes, and professors every single semester at Boalt, while the rest of us sit through classes like Janitor Law from adjuncts.
We were promised last spring that it would be fixed by this fall. It is true that any twelve year-old with ten minutes and an Excel spreadsheet could randomize 800 numbers, but I just wonder. . ?
If you are a current Boalt student, your Tele-BEARS times are now available at Bear Facts (but not, ironically, at the Tele-BEARS page). Please take this anonymous survey and please tell your comrades to do the same, as we need several hundred responses to ensure an accurate response. We will know by later this week whether they fixed the problem.
For those of you tuning in for the first time this fall, here's a brief rundown:
Boalt students have been assured for years that Tele-BEARS registration times (and the concomitant opportunity take that coveted class, or to score an early slot on the wait-list) were randomized to ensure fairness.
Not so. Students discovered last spring that registration times were in fact issued by student ID number -- the lower your ID number, the earlier you registered. Even worse, the earlier you applied to the UC system (even as an undergrad, and even if you didn't attend), the lower your ID number. The result was that some people (like Armen) enjoyed the prized seminars, classes, and professors every single semester at Boalt, while the rest of us sit through classes like Janitor Law from adjuncts.
We were promised last spring that it would be fixed by this fall. It is true that any twelve year-old with ten minutes and an Excel spreadsheet could randomize 800 numbers, but I just wonder. . ?
If you are a current Boalt student, your Tele-BEARS times are now available at Bear Facts (but not, ironically, at the Tele-BEARS page). Please take this anonymous survey and please tell your comrades to do the same, as we need several hundred responses to ensure an accurate response. We will know by later this week whether they fixed the problem.
Labels: Technology Rants, The Resident Evil
posted by Patrick Bageant at 11:49 AM
33 Comments:
No way. I hope they're not randomized this semester.
Instead, I think they should be listed in *descending order*, in order to compensate those of us who have been screwed solely by our lack of foresight to apply to the UC system early so as to get a better registration time in law school.
I'm just waiting to learn that the Registrar's office has "randomly" paid me back by assigning me to the very last slot.
I'm 10/28 @ 11:30am, applying to UCB for the first time in Fall 2006.
I'm glad to know that I'm probably not registering early, since I decided to extern in the spring...
I applied to the UCs way back in 1993 and again to Boalt in 2002, and my date and time is 10/28 om 9:40. So maybe this old system is (sadly?) no more?
I would like to hear from someone who has not gotten into a class they wanted once all is said and done. In my three years at Boalt (I'm an alum) I never knew anyone who couldn't get into a class they wanted.
Uh, you must not have known the 200 Boalties on Swift's evidence waitlist.
Of course I wasn't one of them. I got into Bundy's CPII to boot. And their joint seminar.
5:18,
Me last spring: CP II.
Me last spring: Con Law GL.
And Armen, I hope you can feel my look right now.
I've never applied to UC before last year, and my appt is 10/28 at 1:10, so maybe they did scramble this year...
Appled to Berkeley undergrad '03
Appointment 10/28 at 1:30
Hmmm... based on my completely unscientific polling of responses in this thread, it seems like maybe they did randomize things. Of course, I'm not holding my breath - we'll see Patrick's actual scientific results, and then I'll make a conclusion.
Applied for undergrad 1999, Telebears assignment 10/28.
Are the people posting about 10/28 2Ls or 3Ls? I'm guessing 2Ls. Because otherwise my slot on 10/27 is great.
Any idea what the earliest 3L registration date is?
what would the course listings look like if the students selected and then the faculty had to teach what had been selected? what classes would need multiple sections to fill our demand?
Your poll doesn't have enough early dates.
My telebears phase 1 appointment is 10/20 and I never applied to Berkeley or any UC school...
Have spring classes been posted yet? The "Courses at Berkeley Law" page shows no spring classes yet . . .
6:30, I can't tell if you are for real or not. (If you are at Boalt, you must have applied to a UC school sometime, right?)
If you are for real, would you fee comfortable emailing me your data? I can't change the survey w/o screwing up the values each answer so far has been coded with, but I'm deathly curious as to how you got an appointment date *8 days* before mine . . .
pbageant AT gmail.com
I'm just guessing and have no idea, if this is the case. But regarding 6:30, I think students who require some kind of accommodations through the dean's office get those really early times. Because Telebears starts for the whole campus like a week earlier than most law students's appointments. And there's always like 2-3 people enrolled in Swift's Evidence or Liu's Con Law, etc. before anyone else has a chance to sign up. I heard it was because of the school accommodating disabilities and such. Of course MAYBE there are just a few randomly early slots and 6:30 is just a ridiculously lucky bastard...
I forgot who the clever devil was that figured out this hack before, but if you want to see the Spring 2009 course listings, all you have to do is click on a subcategory of the Fall 2008 listings, and then modify a couple variables in the URL.
For instance, clicking on Fall 2008's "Business Law" will direct you to the listings for Fall 2008, and the URL will end in:
categoryfield=Business+Law&termCode=D&termYear=2008
Setting the "termCode" to B and the "termYear" to 2009 will bring up Spring 2009's business law class listings.
Right now they haven't categorized all the courses yet, but you can see at least some of the courses that are subcategorized.
If you try the B=D trick, it won't work. The cross-referenced categories point to this semester's course. Right now, only 1L classes are posted for Spring 2009. I think if you try the trick on the "All Categories" list, you'll see:
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/php-programs/courses/courseSearchResults.php?termCode=B&termYear=2009
Ahh... you're absolutely right. I didn't check the individual courses. Oh well. Hopefully the courses will be listed soon... I don't see any reason to actually post the links but to not publish them (the reason the hack would work in the first place), so hopefully they don't make us jump through this hoop.
I'm guessing that perhaps 6:30 read this and so thinks his/her appointment begins on 10/20:
"Dear Student,
It's time to start planning your classes for Spring 2009. Tele-BEARS Phase I for the spring begins October 20 and ends November 11; Phase
II begins November 13 and ends January 11."
Patrick -- GL eventually let everyone in off the waitlist. You fail. Try again.
I have no clue what GL did or not, but that statement is grossly misleading on its own. How many people dropped off the waitlist? How long did he wait before letting everyone in? Yeah sure, maybe he let everyone in off the waitlist...both of them. That doesn't mean the class is oversubscribed during ENROLLMENT.
The question I asked was whether anyone has not gotten into the class they want after all is said and done. Why does it matter whether people dropped off the waitlist or whether GL simply let everyone on the waitlist in? Patrick's answer was inaccurate.
BTW, Armen, don't you have, you know, like a life outside Boalt? Time to let it go dude.
Not to mention that it is certainly possible that Patrick was talking about registering last fall for last spring rather than last spring for this fall.
Well I try to fight idiocy wherever I see it. And people not enrolling in a class because the waitlist is a battalion deep includes people who did not get into a class after all was said and done. Same with those who need to finalize their schedules and cannot afford to stick around until week 9 to find out if they are in a class or not. And as long as we're criticizing people for being at Boalt, allow me to return you the same favor.
7:49, I am an example of someone Armen is referring to. I'm a 3L, and never applied to any UC before 2005 when I applied to Boalt. Consequently, I've been screwed on registration times, and there are a number of classes for which I was on the waitlist but because I was so far down (#54 on Bundy's CPII, for example) I simply dropped off. I think I remember one of my friends telling me that Bundy eventually let in everyone off the waitlist, BUT that was after so many people had already dropped off that it was a much smaller waitlist. So yes, that should count as an example of not getting a class you want. Do you really think that if everyone who wanted a class stayed on the waitlist the professor could continue letting everyone on the waitlist into the class? Doubt it.
7:49, thank you. It's been almost a six weeks since someone anonymously slammed me on nuts and boalts for inconsequential minutia that they somehow managed to get totally wrong.
The gold star goes to Matt, though, for stating the obvious.
Off topic, but how about a post on the 2L/3L job market, from a Boalt perspective?
Like the one here: http://abovethelaw.com/2008/10/fall_recruiting_follow-up.php#comments
Patrick, how's the response rate? When are you going to have some data for us? (not trying to be pushy, just anxious to hear)
No, 9:15, you are not an example of what I was talking about. You "simply dropped off" the waitlist for each class. Had you either stayed on or talked to the professor, I would bet that you would have been let in. In a lot of cases, waiting lists are long because people like to shop for classes.
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