Opinion: The Case for Extending the Add/Drop Period
Two weeks is not enough time for students to determine if their courses are right for them.
(Qianshan Weng via Washington Square News)
New York City, NY — by Molly Koch
This story was originally published on New York University’s Washington Square News.
I remember thinking that I had a perfect schedule during course registration last semester, but I was plainly mistaken and found myself wanting to change course after the first few weeks of classes. New classes and professors always bring a level of uncertainty to each semester, which NYU could help students navigate better if it gave them more time to change their schedules without facing consequences.
As of now, NYU gives students around two weeks to add or drop classes in their schedules — the deadline just passed on Sept. 18. Two weeks might be enough for some students to determine whether they like their classes and professors, but it can be difficult to know the true nature of a course until more time has passed. A small extension to the add/drop period, say to three weeks instead of two, would help reduce pressure on students and give them the flexibility to find classes with a good fit.
During the initial two weeks of the semester, classes mostly consist of covering the syllabus and light reading to give students an idea of a course’s content. Some classes might not even meet until the start of the second week due to the academic calendar, meaning students actually have even less time to decide whether to change their enrollment.
While syllabi can help students get the gist of a class, they can sometimes be misleading. We’ve all taken a class where the workload seemed much lighter than it turned out to be, a situation that can be avoided if students have more time to try a course out. Syllabi are also sometimes changed early in a course, leaving students no way out of a class that might no longer be covering content they are interested in.
Read the rest of the story at Washington Square News.