<p>I think that particular fiasco was caused by S’s failure to realize that there was a new requirement issued while he was abroad. He already had settled on his courses for the semester when he was told by the Dean that he needed to fulfill this requirement. So his schedule was already set and he had a very limited range of courses from which to choose one that would fit into that particular time slot.
To be sure, the fiasco was caused by his failure to read the newsletter that announced or reminded students of that requirement back in September. But still, as I said, he ended up in a class that he was unsuited for. There was no way he could have talked his way into the class he did want: there were 7 other students and the prof made it clear that he could not let only one more student and not let in the other 7. Well, it’s water under the bridge.</p>
<p>Anyway, what is interesting to me is that some profs positively welcome shopping, as apparently do a majority of the Harvard faculty that shot down the elimination of the shopping period. Others obviously do not.</p>
<p>^^^^^Thank you DonnaL! I am thrilled to know I’m not alone! I don’t know how I missed this one, but as my DD has my car this week and there are people working in our house, I guess I have nothing better to do than cozy up with a good CC thread. </p>
<p>I wonder if the teeth falling out of the mouth dream is in there too, lol.</p>
<p>Over-registering, along with adding and dropping at the beginning of a semester… in my opinion these are all forms shopping, some more subtle than others. For various reasons, students find it helpful to compare classes and everything may not be finalized until the first week or two of the semester has gone by.</p>
<p>It did not sound to me like the student in the original story was waltzing in and out of classes at will. He was considering several classes, had a time conflict, handled it in what he felt was a logical manner, and was surprised by the professor’s policy. We don’t have enough details regarding the size of the class and how disruptive the student was to really make a judgement about his attitude.</p>
<p>Btw, I have had both those nightmares (forgetting to drop a class and teeth falling out) many times!</p>
<p>I do that almost every quarter. I dropped a class last quarter because the professor came across as very pretentious in the syllabus. Very much “I know everything there is to know about this subject! <em>flounce</em>” It was an online class, so I never actually met the man. But later I met several students who’d taken the class from him previously (not online) and they confirmed my suspicions.</p>
<p>My observation has been that a “shopping period” does not ordinarily try to attend multiple classes in the same time slot. Rather, the student typically signs up or identifies more classes than he/she would typically enroll in, all at different time slots. (The computer enrollment system generally won’t allow the student to sign up for classes with conflicting times in any case). So the student might start the semester signed up for, say, 28 units - and spent a very busy week or two attending all the classes at different times, and then dropping all but those he wants to keep. </p>
<p>I can see a situation where the student walks into a class he has signed up for, realizes 15 minutes into the lecture that the course is not what he wants, and then walks out, checks the schedule, and decides to look in at another class. So I don’t see anything all that wrong about walking in late on the first day of class. (though I can see why the prof was particularly offended at the idea that his was the third class on the student’s to-do list).</p>
<p>However, the Prof runs the show and has every right to ask the latecomer to leave. Where the student really went wrong, IMHO, was that there was only one proper thing to say to the prof in an email, if any email was sent-- an apology (along the lines of “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb your class.”). </p>
<p>So in my eyes, walking in an hour late to the first class was a minor faux pas. Sending an email that was anything other than a very courteous apology was a far more egregious and ill-considered breach of etiquette.</p>
<p>^^My NYU kid could not have done that strategy of signing up for more classes than she would be taking. NYU has a max of 18 credits per semester that you can pre-register or register for. In her program, 10 of those credits are required courses with NO choice…you are automatically in those courses to be in that program. The remaining two courses, four credits each, have some choice. She had to pre-register for those about five months in advance. If she wanted to try another class instead, she would have gone to the class and asked the professor ahead of time, since she wasn’t signed up for it.</p>