From Tuesday, April 18 to Thursday, April 20, upwards of 14,000 permission to enroll requests (colloquially referred to as PERMs) were submitted by students across the Claremont Colleges as they registered for the over 2,000 courses that will be offered in the fall of 2024.
Limited course availability caused students to struggle to get into courses they want — and need — to take during pre registration last week.
One such course, Beginning Wheel Throwing (ART015), offered by Pitzer College, amassed over 100 PERMs across all offered sections before the start of registration.
According to the course’s instructor professor Timothy Berg, one reason for the class’s high number of PERMs is the popular draw to the creative process of wheel throwing.
“I understand the lure that this activity can have for people, especially when one watches someone adept at doing so,” he said in an email to TSL. “It can be magical seeing something go from an inert mass to a recognizable object in only a few moments and then to see it further transformed into a beautifully glazed piece of functional art.”
Berg reads each of the PERMs from the dozens of students who want to add the class, also taking care to read any follow-up emails he receives. This year, Berg even created a spreadsheet to manage which students he accepted into the course.
“There are many interested students and it would be nice if I could offer more sections of this course,” Berg said. “But there are many limiting factors such as budget, space and facilities (i.e. kilns).”
Beginning Wheel Throwing is not the only creative course constrained by such limiting factors. In fact, eight out of the 10 courses with the highest PERM counts (compared to available seats) are offered by the art departments of Pitzer, Scripps and Pomona Colleges.
Mehana Collins PZ ’27, one student whose ART015 PERM was accepted, shared her enthusiasm about the course.
“I’m so excited,” she said. “Registering for Beginning Wheel Throwing is like the biggest success of college so far.”
Art courses were not the only ones to receive an influx of PERMs last week. Two courses — “Intermediate Microeconomics” at Claremont McKenna College (CMC) and “Organic Chemistry” offered by Keck Sciences — that are required for economics and biology majors received over 150 PERMs each among all sections by the end of registration.
Despite successfully registering for ART015, Collins didn’t have the same luck with Organic Chemistry, with all sections being closed by her 2:30 p.m. registration time on April 18. She expressed frustration about how this may affect her future plans.
“I’m a chem major and I’m on the pre-med track,” she said. “If I don’t do [Organic Chemistry] right now, I can’t do either of those.”
Since registration reopened on Monday, April 22, Collins has been accepted into an Organic Chemistry lecture but remained unable to register for Organic Chemistry Lab or Calculus III, both of which are requirements for her major.
Though her course registration experience was exasperating, Collins said she takes comfort in the success of her Beginning Wheel Throwing PERM.
“Sometimes when I need a pick-me-up, I look at all of the PERMs for that class,” Collins said. “And I’m just like, I’m the one that got it.”
For some students like Elisa Booth CM ’27, course registration was a much more positive experience.
“My registration went very well considering my [4 p.m.] time,” Booth said in an email to TSL. “I am extremely excited to take literally every single one of my courses!”
Booth, a prospective environment, economics and politics major, sent seven PERMs in total. While only three of those were accepted, she was able to get into all of her top choice classes.
She attributed this success to the support she received from her advisor and first-year mentors at CMC.
“My advisor, professor Jason Keller, was especially incredibly helpful, meeting with me for multiple hours over the course of the week leading up to course [registration],” Booth said. “He even helped me create a new plan an hour before my registration time when I changed my mind last minute.”
For students still trying to get in classes, Berg offered a final piece of advice from a faculty perspective.
“My best advice is to be persistent,” Berg said. “Send a PERM, write an email, show up the first week of class to see if any room opens up.”
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