With yesterday being the last day for non-freshmen undergraduates to drop courses without receiving a dreaded W, the frenzy of adding and dropping for the fall semester has finally wound down.
A new Tufts registration policy took effect in April 2004, giving students a lengthened, three week-long add-drop period. Though many students are grateful, for some, the extra time is still not enough.
Sophomore Shanti Sattler recommends "extending the add-drop period until at least after the first mid-term" for upperclassmen. Sattler said the add-drop period was "just too short" to be used effectively.
Junior Preston Dickey agreed. "I don't really consider it a shopping period," he said. Dickey says he sticks with the classes he chooses in the beginning throughout the semester. He says it is "too difficult" to pick up a class in its second week and catch up with the already-assigned work.
Jo Ann Smith, Acting Registrar of the University, said that students like Dickey can help to solve their problem by changing their initial registration planning and behavior. She encourages more students to take advantage of actual registration time in planning their true schedules.
"Registration in November and April for upcoming terms is a critical time for students," Smith said. As long as students adequately plan out their November and April registrations, she added, the add-drop period's "goal is achieved."
"The add-drop process is for the course you could not get into, or to sit in on a course that you think you may want to add," Smith said.
In addition to the extended length of the add-drop period, other changes to the current system are in the works. According to Smith, the administration is considering more changes to the add-drop system, including the possibility of an online approval process.
Freshman Lauren Kari is happy that she has a lengthened drop period because it gives her more time to "get settled" into her new home and into the new style of classes, but she still feels that the add-drop period isn't long enough.
"It's surprising that the add period comes up so quickly," she said. "It makes sense, but everybody talks about how long the drop period is, so it was surprising."
Kari decided not to use the add-drop process, instead taking Smith's advice and using the registration period as her shopping period. "I researched what I needed for my major and went into registration and used it as a shopping period," she said.
Other students say that the add period is not long enough to coordinate with professors and advisors to get the necessary signatures. Sophomore Caitlin Thompson said she would prefer "an online system where you ask for permission from each professor, and professors check it regularly to give their students permission."
Sometimes, Kari said, the difficulty of a class cannot be judged until after the first exam, which is often in mid-October, after the drop period for all years other than freshmen.
"I feel like the drop period should be longer in order to allow for first mid-term grades to be received," Kari added.
