Why I hate to SCORE

Five a.m. to 8 a.m. If you are a college student, you should never see these hours of the day . . . unless you are a lunatic or on a team with morning practice. I guess, in this case, you are also a lunatic. In any case, these hours are sacred to the hearts — and eyelids — of 90 percent of college students. As college students, we work and/or party late into the night and often choose to sleep late into the day.

As students, we take full advantage of the fact that we can sometimes schedule our earliest class around noon, that we have semesters without Friday classes and that Princeton professors do not take attendance during lectures. Granted, there are nights in college when we have to study and write papers, but when we can sleep, we do. We are wise. We love to sleep and realize that when we go to medical school, work in investment banks or enter the real world in some other way, we just ain't gonna get much sleep. Forget Z's, our alphabet is going to end at Y.

And then came SCORE (Student Course Online Registration Engine). Normally, when I think of the word "score," I think pleasant thoughts. These thoughts are typically related to success in athletic or female-related endeavors. How dare such a pleasant looking acronym represent such a horrendous phrase! Blasphemy!

Now when I think of the word "SCORE," I think of caps lock. I also think of unnecessary clicks, of frozen web browsers and of a collective groan echoing through the hallway. But most dreadfully, I think of the horror that is 7 a.m.

It's almost comical watching the AIM Buddy List window around 6:55 as away messages disappear about as quickly as Cottage bicker classes of late (zing!). Groggy instant messages of "I hate this ****" and "My computer is frozen!" flash across computer screens. It really is ridiculous. At seven in the morning, I'm so delirious, I can barely figure out how to turn my screeching alarm clock off let alone remember what classes I want to take. I guarantee you I will accidentally sign up for a 9 a.m. Chinese course before I graduate.

The question is whether SCORE really needs to begin at 7 a.m. Alex Thorn '07 does not think so. Says Thorn, "Is 7 a.m. really the most optimal time to have SCORE? I guess they figure that nobody is busy at that time. They're wrong though. I am busy. I'm busy sleeping." It is true that starting SCORE during the day or evening might be unfair, as students have classes and various extracurricular commitments. However, why not start SCORE at midnight? After all, midnight is the official start of a new day and is well before most students go to bed for the night.

Better yet, why does class registration need to be based on a first-come, first-serve basis? Instead of the present system, SCORE could offer students in each class a 12 or 24-hour window during which they could sign up for classes. If enrollment for a given course exceeded the course limit, then slots could be awarded randomly. By adopting this method, SCORE would no longer become a clicking race, flexibility would be increased greatly and we college students would not lose the sleep we cherish so dearly.

Admittedly, this issue is not one of earth-shattering importance — SCORE occurs twice a year and students can go right back to sleep after twenty minutes of pain. Heck, I managed to go back to bed until noon this past Wednesday after I completed my registration. It really does feel like an accomplishment each weekday that I manage to be in my pajamas in the p.m. hours! Still, course registration does not need to be a stressful experience. With a few minor changes, students might actually not despise the opportunity to SCORE. Neel Gehani is a sophomore from Summit, N.J. He can be reached at ngehani@princeton.edu.