But other students said they were attracted to the course by that very list.
"I thought it sounded interesting," said Karen A. Gudeman '98 after attending yesterday's lecture. "I'm taking it for the reading."
Elton W. Carter '97 shopped the class and decided not to take it. "It seemed like [Agee Professor of Social Ethics Robert Coles '50] increased the difficulty a lot. Maybe he was sore about a CUE Guide rating."
The course received a difficulty rating of 2.3 in this year's CUE Guide.
Chemistry 5, "Introduction to Principles of Chemistry," also fell, shedding 75 students and placing eighth with 304 courses.
Biological Sciences 2, "Organismic and Evolutionary Biology," placed ninth with 299 students, followed by Biological Science 10, "Introduction to Molecular Biology," which enrolled 291.
"All the enrollments in all the biology classes are down. I don't know the reason," said Otto T. Solbrig, one of the three faculty members who teaches Biological Sciences 2, the enrollment of which is down by 57 from last term.
Math 21a, "Multivariable Calculus," ranked seventh with 310, close to its previous enrollment of 331.
Althougth large class size was one of the primary reasons Harvard dropped from first to third in this year's U.S. News an World Report survey of American colleges and universities, not everyone objects to a large class size.
"It doesn't bother me at all," said Stacey L. Serafini '97, a student in "Warren Court."
"It's not what I expected," said Juan E. Garcia '99, referring to "Justice." "It's kind of strange because [Professor of Government Michael J. Sandel] allows people to speak up in class. You'd think that it would be chaotic, but it's not."
Kernighan said he does not think the large enrollment will hinder his teaching of CS 50.
"We have enough TFs to handle the students at this point," he added, calling the material "a lot of fun."
One of his students, Jason I. Comander '97, said he is looking forwrd to the class. "Some of my worst teachers have been some of the most famous ones. But so far, Professor Kernighan seems like a great teacher.