Abbott is right: what this study needed was some longitudinal component that would contextualize these behaviors.

As it is, we know nothing other than some rather bizarre course drops and adds. But who are these students? To what extent do intervening events influence these kinds of decisions? Are they more apt to have full-time, or part-time jobs than those that do not do this? Why couldn’t this study be a little more imaginative, a little more helpful in answering these questions?

Glen McGhee, FHEAP, at 8:35 am EDT on August 21, 2007

Socialist Tendencies

It is truely amazing that Texas legislators had the knowledge about the academic needs of their students to pass a law limiting their choices of course to take or drop. Sort of gives the lie to the myth of student as a consumer. More than a decade ago research in the State in which I worked indicated that the average bachelor’s degree took 146 semester hours (completed or attempted) to obtain. Of course there was a big push to reduce that “waste". Didn’t happen, although there were claims that it did. If only we could have had the wisdom of the Texas legislators to guide us then. Maybe we can test the students before they get to the door and decide which school they should attend and what academic degree they should have. That would reduce waste even further. Wouldn’t it be interesting to apply these same criteria to automobile ownership. We could create boards and comissions to which you could apply after needs and means testing that could decide what kind of, what size, and the kind of propulsion system your car should have. They would determine the number of miles you should be able to drive per year. Oh, and of course they will set the price of all cars based on income and determine how you will pay for it. That would reduce waste of resources too.

Joe Hagy, Retired, at 9:05 am EDT on August 21, 2007

More choices?

Before industries are deregulated, one way to differentiate is by service.

Given change in academia is glacial — IMHO, it is more interesting that there is not more “course shopping.” If there were — there might be more concern about outcomes.

(At this point — insert complaint from academic incumbents that “everything is just fine, so give us the money and shut up.")

Buzz, at 12:25 pm EDT on August 21, 2007

Course Shopping

I teach as an adjunct and am full-time on staff at one of the colleges in the studied district. The thing that always amazes me is that I come into my first class and find that a huge number of students who have registered for or were wait listed for the class don’t show on the first or any succeeding days, but there are always a huge number of students trying to get into the class on the first day. Despite this, as the semester goes on, students simply disappear rather than going through the simple process of withdrawing. We are not permitted to drop students after “census day” (around the third or fourth week of class) and I always point this out in my syllabus and remind students throughout the semester of the various drop dates. Why students would rather get an “F” than a “W” on their transcripts is a total mystery to me, but I seem to be forced to give a large number of Fs at the end of each semester because a student who stopped attending is still listed on my grade sheets.

One way to cut down on the practice of course shopping would be to limit the number of credit hours a student could register for in advance. Because students with an early registration time can effectively tie up classes that later registrants may need to take. This wouldn’t stop a student who signed up for a full-load and then dropped what he or she didn’t like to go into part-time status, but it might free up at least some slots for other students.

Christine Valada, at 1:15 pm EDT on August 21, 2007

Christine Valada hit the veritable nail on the head. Too many students simply “disappear” and far too many more simply never show up at all.

When I started college in 1988, not only did my community college forcibly drop students who never showed up, but they also placed a limit on the number of credits students could enroll for; I even saw this practice carried through grad school! Imagine my surprise to find that policy no longer holds at the universities I teach as an adjunct in.

At one school, a student who missed 1/3 of the classes (and was a late enrollee) actually signed up for 50% more classes than he stayed enrolled in EVERY TERM. If he hadn’t been such a pain, I would never have glanced at his transcript and noted the pattern of over-enrollment. No wonder he thought my class was too much work: He overloaded himself every term (which meant he didn’t have time to do the proper work), then cherry-picked the courses he thought he could do the best in to keep. He was a wasted enrollment in at least 3 courses every term.

Is anyone else tired of students getting in the way of their peers’ education? I think course shopping -IN MODERATION (as the article notes repeatedly)- is good, but there need to be policies with strict limits for the benefit of everyone (whether enrolled student, potentially enrolled student, faculty, or administration).

anon, at 3:20 pm EDT on August 21, 2007

Is There Only One Interpretation?

Does “course shopping” have only one interpretation, or is it likely that it occurs for different reasons? I believe that “course shopping” occurs for different reasons, and that some of these reasons are legitimate. As previously mentioned in another discussion on this subject, it’s my conviction that although I haven’t yet seen students shop for “easy courses” by serial attendance and drop, I have witnessed course withdrawals for all of the following reasons: instructor hostility, (other) student hostility, instructor incompetence, instructor absence, instructor or TA misbehavior (e.g. obvious racial or personal favoritism), (other) student misbehavior (e.g. obvious and widespread cheating), changes in student scheduling, changes in course scheduling, changes in course and degree requirements, course’s lack of correspondence to prerequisite coursework, course’s lack of correspondence to other institutional expectations (e.g. exam competencies), and existence of superior instruction in other course sections.Perhaps, then, this issue might be alleviated in an environment where such issues could be raised without fear of retaliation, where students could make more informed choices to begin with. Unfortunately this condition typically is not often found on college or university campuses. Attempts to bring even severe and documentable dysfunctionality to light usually result in the whistleblowers’ firing or other dismissal, or other charges.

Scrawed, at 8:15 pm EDT on August 21, 2007

Sub-Compact

Just how many 18 year olds know what they want to be next year much less for the rest of their lives?

Bod advised: “The taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for multiple repeats, and the college should not have to shoulder the expense. Having said that, I advised him to exercise his consumer rights to transfer to a local community college where he can start over with a clean slate...again.”

Exactly, Exactly! Restrict her/him to the lower performance sub-compact model and save taxpayers money. But let us do it before they waste those resource on the more valuable and expensive high performance models. (My apologies to the quality two year schools, I was just making a point.)

You see when point A needs to be made it is the students’ school. When point B needs to be made it is the Taxpayers’ school. In truth it is neither, it is only paid for by those two sources (parents included with the students).

Oh yes, and in many, if not most states, moving to a two year school does not “clean the slate” of a student’s academic record. In Texas, for example, it is called the “Lone Star” unitary data system. Schools not sharing data is ancient history.

Joe Hagy, Retired, at 9:50 am EDT on August 22, 2007

What’s the big deal?

I teach at a university in a graduate professional degree program where all courses are required and must be taken in a particular sequence. So, clearly, I do not have the frustrations some have regarding students in and out of added and dropped classes.

My son, however, is a student at a large state university and definitely over enrolls and then drops classes. Why? 1. He went to a community college first and not all the courses counted for anything in the 4 year college — so he’s making up for “lost” credits. To do this he’d like to take something interesting or helpful — not necessarily a course needed for his very intense major. 2. His life changes in the blink of an eye. College doesn’t seem to be the place where I went — four years, in the same surroundings, with the same friends, with a rhythm of its own. Now students are in and out of study depending upon home life pressures, money pressures, and general life pressures. Subsidized financial aid kept me in study — it’s far harder to obtain today. 3. Personal preferences regarding professors and their attitudes at the beginning of classes. — I am very frequently appalled at the stories I hear of how students are greeted at the beginning of a semester. Quite frankly, I would walk out myself. 4. Inadequate advising — for which his university is famous. 5. Fear of being locked out of courses, but unsure which would be the best to take (related to #4).

I could probably go on — but it’s Sunday, and I’ve changed my plans! Away from the computer and out to brunch with my husband! But let’s not get our knickers in a knot about what the students are doing—-until we know how they were forced into those decisions!

Rachel’s M’dai, at 1:40 pm EDT on September 9, 2007