Students Use Add/Drop Period To Shop

For Hannah A. Nunez ’15, shopping week did not end on Friday.

“Shopping week is short. You’re just getting into the stuff in the second lecture,” Nunez said. When she found herself torn between two courses at the end of the week, she chose to sign up for both.

“I just really wanted to get more into the lectures to see what the material really was—I decided to add them both and drop one later,” she said.

Nunez was one of many students who took advantage of the period in which students can add and drop courses without penalty to extend shopping week past its official bounds. Last year, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Registrar Michael P. Burke told The Crimson that almost 2,100 courses were added and dropped by the no-fee deadline.

“I wanted this semester to kind of expand my horizons and try out different concentrations,” Nunez said. “I really wanted to just try a bunch of different classes.”

This week, Nunez ultimately decided to drop Sociology 25: “Sociology of Organizations.”

“I liked the first two lectures, but this past week I really found that I don’t like the readings and I don’t like the topic,” she said.

Other students used the add/drop period to make their way into classes that held late lotteries.

Tony Ho ’14, who dropped Computer Science 248: “Advanced Design of VLSI Circuits and Systems,” said that he left the class because he successfully lotteried into Societies of the World 24: “Global Health Challenges: Complexities of Evidence-Based Policy.”

“I switched because I needed a Gen Ed, and once I got into Societies of the World [24], I just felt better doing that,” he said.

Ho added that he thought dropping the computer science course would also make his semester less challenging.

“I think, overall, it’s probably going to be a lighter work load,” he said.

Samuel F. Himel ’12, the chair of the Undergraduate Council’s Education Committee, said that he did not find it surprising that many students continue to change their schedules after they first turn in their study cards. He added that the Council has considered advocating an extension of the addw/drop period beyond the fifth Monday of the term, when students currently can modify their schedules for a ten dollar fee.

“It’s not clear to me that a lot of courses even have assessments before the fifth Monday,” said Himel, a former beneficiary of the add/drop period himself.

“A lot of peer institutions have much later drop deadlines,” he said.

—Staff Writer Mercer R. Cook can be reached at mcook@college.harvard.edu.