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Undergraduates to face hurdles for graduate courses
Published: Friday, November 21st, 2008
Due to a new University policy, undergraduates wishing to register in graduate-level courses now face more obstacles than in recent years, including an extensive form, in-person enrollment at the Registrar’s office and no option to take the course with ...(back to the article)
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This is an unfortunate and unnecessary extra layer of bureaucracy and a silly policy change. As an '08 grad, I know from my own experience that taking graduate seminars is a great way to deepen one's understanding and engagement in issues of substantial interest. But without the PDF option, especially for seniors busy with theses, students may fear taking the risk to their GPA that grad courses could imply. I certainly don't think it's true in most cases that students take grad courses PDF haphazardly. It also seems silly to base a policy decision--even in part--on the mistake of a student who somehow failed to take the time to read his or her course description thoroughly enough to realize it was a half-credit course. Most students don't need course instructors AND deans AND dep reps to understand what a course entails.
Even more, the current system of generally requiring students to get permission from professors works extremely well. It does ensure that the students are aware of the demands of the course, and gives the professors the leeway to decide their policies for admitting undergraduates into their course. Plus, you need to get permission from your adviser anyway (for your course schedule as a whole), so they should be making sure that you are meeting your requirements.
This decision makes the lives of Slavic, Near Eastern,.... Studies majors much more difficult. With a summer in St. Petersburg or at Middlebury College, it's easy to find yourself in a situation where you need to take a graduate course in order to continue with your language studies. Shame on the Malkiel regime for perpetrating this inane decision.
Well what a silly change, but too late! I've already taken a P/D/F graduate course. One of the big secrets at Princeton is that as the course numbers get higher, the courses actually get easier! The material is harder but if you can stomach the more intense learning experience, your actual amount of work, will, if anything, decrease and not increase. The administration is now closing the loophole, but that cow is out of that barn, and munching on some tasty grass yum yum yum.