Postpone the Drop Deadline

Yesterday was the fifth Monday of the semester, the last day to add or drop a course at Harvard. Of course, switching into a new class after missing four weeks of coursework is challenging, and it seems reasonable that the University would limit any additions after that time period. However, there is no similarly compelling reason for why courses must be dropped before such an early date.

Having an early course drop deadline leads to student anxiety. Through my role as a sophomore advisor and entryway tutor, I’ve had many conversations with students who must decide whether or not to take a class before they fully understand the course’s demands. While resident tutors encourage advisees not to overextend themselves, this policy hampers students’ ability to balance their classes, because the four weeks of class before the add/drop deadline are not always representative of the rest of the semester. Often, the first midterm occurs just after the deadline, locking students into the course even if they realize it’s not for them. Furthermore, students can have anxiety over whether or not to drop a course or possibly end up with “withdraw” on their transcript if they take two additional weeks to decide.

Even more importantly, an early drop deadline discourages students from trying new topics. With more flexibility, students can try out new classes and take a deep dive into the topic before deciding if they want to stick with it. This exploration promotes intellectual growth and should be central to any liberal arts college experience. We are always trying to teach students to take ownership over their learning, but an early drop deadline often forces them to take the safer path.

Instead, Harvard should move its drop deadline later into the semester, and there is precedent from peer institutions to do so. I did my undergraduate studies at Brown University, where students can drop a course until the last day of classes for the semester. I’m now a researcher at MIT, where students can drop courses until a few weeks prior to the last day of classes. While I would vote for a similar policy here, I understand that these may be too extreme for Harvard. I think it is entirely reasonable that Harvard could postpone the drop deadline to the seventh Monday (six weeks into school) or later, and the withdraw deadline could be further postponed or even eliminated.

Of course, there are also reasons for having the drop deadline where it is. One key reason is for administrative purposes such as finalizing course teaching staff. When I was a graduate student here at Harvard, I was on the teaching staff of several classes of various sizes, and it would have been disruptive if many students left partway through the semester. It would be even more disruptive in seminar-type courses, where participation from and interaction with fellow students are integral to learning. Yet in my experience, most students finalize their course schedule well in advance of the drop deadline (I never took advantage of the policy at Brown). Additionally, the teaching staff can be finalized after four weeks even if some students drop the course later in the semester. Brown and MIT can serve as models to develop systems that work.

There is also room for gaming the system with a later drop deadline, by taking five classes and dropping the one where you have the lowest grade. However, since students cannot register for more than five courses without their Resident Dean’s approval, and students are still required to complete 32 courses to graduate, these extended policies would not cause widespread adding and dropping. Brown did find that 40 percent of their drops occur in the last two weeks of classes, which would be disruptive to courses but could be avoided with a mid-semester drop deadline. Moreover, the students who would benefit the most from a later drop deadline are students who are experiencing extenuating circumstances that the University should strive to help.

A later drop deadline empowers students to take control of their academic career by taking a course on a topic in which they may not be confident, and thus it would encourage healthy risk taking and promote intellectual growth. For example, a friend of mine at Brown took a political science course one fall semester, but it ended up being too challenging when combined with his four other science courses. He dropped it after Thanksgiving. He likely would not have taken it at all if the drop deadline was earlier in the semester. Yet, the later deadline allowed him to explore a new area of academic thought, and he learned a lot more about the topic than he would have otherwise. Isn’t learning and growth the entire point of coming to college?

Katherine R. Phillips is a Resident Tutor in Winthrop House.