Drops increase with midterm drop day

Drop day arrived last Friday, marking the last chance for students to withdraw from classes this semester. However, this drop day came eight weeks into the semester, a later date than students have seen before. Students dropped more course than usual.

The new academic school calendar, adopted this past summer, also now allows students to receive midterm grades two weeks prior to the final drop day.

Proposed by the Institute Undergraduate Curriculum Committee in March 2004, the schedule allows students to drop a class through the middle of the semester, two weeks later than in previous terms. The Academic Senate approved the policy in May 2004.

Registrar Jo McIver ran through the numbers of dropped courses among undergraduate and graduate students, indicating an increase evident from the later drop date.

“The total for this year was 3,472.Last year it was 2,776,” she said, comparing Fall ‘04 with Spring ‘04. Students who withdrew from all classes were not included in this total.

She noted that in addition to drop day, the date for progress report distribution has also changed. “We’ve changed two variables. It will be hard to compare the total from last year to this year,” she said. The data may also be skewed by the increased size of the freshman class.

The new drop date now matches the final drop day procedures of both Georgia State University and the University of Georgia. Both institutions allow students to drop classes until the middle of the term.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology allows students to drop classes until 10 weeks into the semester. At the California Institute of Technology students can drop classes eight weeks into the term, just before the distribution of midterm grades.

Some students find the class withdrawal date change helpful in their decision-making processes. “It gives me more information on whether I’ll do well in the class. It definitely helps,” said Stephanie Tolbert, junior Chemical Engineering major.

Chris Dalbec, a junior in Electrical Engineering, also likes the change. “I think it’s a step in the right direction. It makes it easier for the students to know whether or not to continue in that class. Since drop day is later in the [semester], we students know an even larger portion of our grade, which makes the decision of whether to drop or not to drop a lot easier.”

Despite the date change, some students say there is still an increase in tests and exams close to the new class withdrawal date.

Nishitha Andra, a sophomore Chemical Engineering major, said, “It’s a little hectic towards the drop date. Definitely an increase in number [of tests].” Andra said, however, that the increase in work may have other causes. “It could be the course load that’s changing.”

Graduate students do not appear to have been affected by the change. When asked if he has seen a difference in course load, Susheel Sukhtankar said, “Not at all. I didn’t even know about it.” Sukhtankar is working toward a Master’s degree in Bioinformatics. “For grad students, [the date change] is totally unheard of,” said Gail Rosen, a Ph.D. student in the Electrical Engineering department. “I didn’t know about it."