Simplifying wait-lists

A simple addition to the SCORE registration engine could markedly improve the fairness and efficiency of course selection. There will always be enrollment caps on seminars and popular lecture courses, and some students will always be shut out of courses they'd hoped to take. But many students have found that if they email the professor to get on a course "wait-list," they have a reasonable shot at being admitted. The wait-list is, to be sure, a perfectly reasonable way of filling the vacancies that arise when students decide to drop a course. But we don't understand why the current system charges individual professors with managing ad hoc wait-lists for their courses. The more sensible thing would be to integrate the wait-lists with course enrollment on SCORE.

When students are informed by SCORE that a class they want is full, there should be — right then and there — an option to join that course's waitlist. The system would keep of track of the order in which students joined. When a vacancy opens up, the first person registered on the waitlist should automatically receive an email offering them the spot. If that student declines or does not respond within 24 hours, the next person in line would have a chance at it. And so on down the list.

This proposal has two primary virtues. First, it's simpler and easier than the current system. Easier for professors, who will no longer have to keep track of — and respond to — a slew of email requests from students seeking admission to closed classes. And simpler for students, who will be able to join and leave waitlists with a single click.

Second, a waitlist option on SCORE is fairer. Most professors probably offer admission to wait-listed students on a modified first-come, first-serve basis. But once personal emails are introduced, there will always be an element of ambiguity. For instance, students may be deterred from joining a waitlist by the (often mistaken) notion that one needs to know the professor to get in.

Signing up for courses will never be stress-free. But with a minimal technological adjustment, we can streamline the waitlist phase of the process.