Due to space and equipment considerations, the USC Department of Physics and Astronomy cannot overload the laboratory sections.

Students may try to get in to a full laboratory section in two ways:

1. Check the USC web site for possible openings in full laboratory sections on a regular basis both before and after the section’s first meeting. If a space in a laboratory opens up, no paperwork is needed—on-line-register for it.

2. Before a section meets for the first time, sign up for the official waiting list:

Official waiting lists are available in KAP-B16 starting at 8 AM during the first week of the semester on the day that the desired laboratory section meets.

Example: If you are trying to get into a Wednesday 5 PM 135AL laboratory section, you will be able to sign onto the waiting list for that section starting Wednesday morning at 8 AM during the first week of the semester.

Official waiting lists apply to the first meeting of a laboratory section only. Students must sign onto the official waiting list in KAP-B16 before the laboratory section in question meets for the first time. After a laboratory section begins its first session, all waiting lists for that section are no longer valid.

No other waiting list (e.g., talking to a TA, any other list besides the official waiting list in KAP-B16, etc.) is valid.

Signing up for the official waiting list does not guarantee a space in that section. On average between zero and two students on the waiting list get in.

Students on the official waiting list must attend the first session of the laboratory section in question. Failure to attend this first meeting results in removal from the list.

If someone who is registered for any full laboratory section does not arrive within the first 15 minutes or so of the beginning of the section’s first meeting, then those who are on the official waiting list and are in attendance at that time will be allowed to take their place (in official-waiting-list sequential order). It is then the responsibility of the students who are removed from the class to drop their laboratory section through the registration process.

Note that this is a university policy; see the current Schedule of Classes under “Guaranteeing a Space in a Class.”

All PHYS 125, 135, 150, and 160 series laboratories will have their first meeting during the first week of the semester.


*Physics and Astronomy majors only may be exceptions to these policies. Contact the laboratory director if you are a PHYS or ASTR major.