Why are waivers not available until the first day of classes?

We don't give closed class waivers for (almost) anything until the beginning of classes. This is because we prefer to solve students' scheduling problems by opening new sections (if we can find the personnel to teach them) or, in some cases, by raising caps on existing sections, and often students can adjust their schedules and solve the problem on their own. You should periodically check to see if there are new sections or new seats available (also, students may have dropped the class). This way we only consider waivers for students who, by the beginning of classes, have still not been able to solve their problem. Students who need a particular class to graduate that semester will always be helped at that time.

Please understand that there are caps on classes for a reason, to keep the class at a reasonable size, and to keep the enrollment in different sections of the same course approximately even. Often the cap is set to the room capacity and more students will simply not fit.