Let us shop

Three weeks down and nine weeks left. However you look at it, the spring semester is progressing quickly — midterms are almost in sight. Yet for the many students who chose to "shop classes" — that is attend more classes than they intend to take — the past few weeks may have been the hardest.

Because many professors hold labs and precepts during the first week of classes, some students are left scrambling to make up assignments. The Registrar Office's $45 fee for course changes made after the second week of the term exacerbates this stress by forcing students to decide on a course schedule, often after attending only one or two classes in a particular course. These policies add up to a system that pressures students to select and stick with courses on the basis of a 200-word course description. It does little to facilitate more informed course choices.

These problems, however, are easily remedied. The Registrar need only push its fee deadline back one week to allow a three-week grace period. This would give students a second weekend that they could use to stew over their final decisions. In addition, the University should discourage professors from holding precepts or labs until the second week of the semester to give students time to visit other classes and prevent them from falling behind early in the semester.

Our criticisms notwithstanding, the point could be made that, given Princeton's 12 week semester, every class is essential, and it is therefore necessary for professors to hit the ground running. While this is a legitimate concern, it should not be permitted to preclude students' ability to shop courses. It is, however, perhaps something that the University should consider while it is developing a new academic calendar.

Many of our peer institutions have already put in place systems that allow students to shop for courses. There is no reason why Princeton cannot do the same. Creating a more genuine shopping period would engender a learning process based more on informed choices. It would reward students for being thoughtful about the courses in which they want to enroll.