From the start of freshman year, students are encouraged to take courses in small departments, to expand our horizons and to take risks. One of the most obvious ways to encourage students to venture into new academic territory is to facilitate rather than discourage such exploration. Students need a viable period in which they can attend a variety of classes during the first week of each semester. While the Registrar's office grants a two-week period when students can swap courses free of charge, this semblance to what other universities refer to as a "shopping period" is only an illusion.
The argument against "shopping periods" is that pre-course registration enables the Registrar's office to more easily anticipate permanent enrollment numbers and make classroom assignments. But the current system also has disadvantages. Students who wish to peruse a few courses in a single day are often unable to do so. It is impossible to enroll in more than six courses both due to SCORE's enrollment limit and a student's inability to simultaneously enroll in two courses that have overlapping schedules. Students who are not officially registered in courses they may wish to take are placed at an automatic disadvantage when syllabi are emailed to enrolled-students or posted online through Blackboard.
Perhaps the greatest hindrance to student flexibility in course selection is the expectation of many professors during their first meeting times. Many professors leading Monday-Wednesday seminars want students to prepare readings for the first class. For many courses, this means releasing syllabi during freshman week and Intersession. For courses that meet early on Monday morning, completing required readings for the first session may compel students to purchase textbooks before they are certain they will be taking a course.
The easiest way to eliminate Princeton's "shopping period" paradox is to encourage professors to create a welcoming environment during their first class session. Whether a student is attending a course for 15 minutes because he or she wishes to sit in on another interesting course that meets at the same time or because that student has been placed on the waitlist, it is unreasonable to expect students to complete work before the term has started. Perhaps, as we have suggested in the past, Princeton should consider the implementation of a more effective academic schedule that might allow the course-swapping period to be a more functional feature at the start of each semester.
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