Editorial: A better way to schedule final exams

The Office of the Registrar recently released this semester’s final exam schedule, a full six weeks after the beginning of the spring semester. In order to determine this schedule, the registrar’s office uses a computer algorithm to ensure that exams take place in rooms large enough to accommodate student enrollment and to minimize the number of students with overlapping exams. Though the current policy allows the registrar’s office to obtain accurate information on class sizes, the late release of the exam schedule has forced students to spend more money on travel, led to unpredictable and sometimes overly-challenging exam schedules and caused difficulties in making summer plans.

While the best time to buy airline tickets is at least three months in advance, students must currently wait until the sixth week of the semester to find out the date of their last final exam. As a result, many students are forced to pay higher airfare prices than if final exam schedules were released earlier. Moreover, students with difficult exam schedules, such as those with multiple exams back to back, may be unfairly disadvantaged. Had these students been informed of the exam dates earlier, they could have chosen to take some of these classes a different semester. The exam schedule for the spring semester also has a significant impact on dates for summer plans, particularly internship dates that require negotiating in advance: Some employers ask when students can begin internships during the first half of the semester. Depending on the circumstances, the last exam date can have a significant impact on this timetable and students’ plans for the rest of the summer.

To remedy these problems, the registrar’s office should release the final exam schedule by the end of the first week of the semester. Though the office may have a less accurate estimate of course enrollment during the first week of the semester, fluctuations in class sizes in subsequent weeks are unlikely to be large enough to require a change in exam locations. Students who are flying home after exams will find out the dates of their last exams more than three months prior to Dean’s Date and will be able to get better prices on airfare. And since the final exam schedule will be released during the add/drop period, students could factor this information into their course selection. The final exam schedule should not dictate students’ choice of classes, but it may prove useful when deciding which course to drop among those that are equally important to a student’s academic pursuits. Finally, this change would allow students to make more informed decisions about internship dates and travel plans.

While Harvard and Columbia release final exam dates on a timetable similar to Princeton’s, Yale and Stanford release their exam schedules before the semester even begins. While publishing this information before classes even start would be ideal, Princeton should at the very least move to release final exam schedules by the end of the first week of the semester.