What students, faculty think about course add/drop period

Approximately two weeks ago, the University closed its “add/drop” period for the fall semester — a period of time in which undergraduate students can adjust their schedules without affecting their transcripts. 

For the Fall 2022 semester, the add/drop period ran from September 6, the first day of classes, to September 15. Three students spoke about their experiences with dropping classes and shared their thoughts on its utility. 

Khushbu Patel, a School of Environmental and Biological Sciences senior, said she used the add/drop function to drop a class this semester after gauging the course’s assignments. She said the class would have been interesting to take but stressful given its workload.

“I’m glad I dropped it because I already feel overwhelmed (with) the other classes I’m taking, and it was a morning class,” she said. 

Patel said add/drop should be extended to allow students to attend more class sessions so that they can actually experience how the class will run for the remainder of the semester.

She said the current add/drop period only allows students to attend two classes, with one of them only going over the syllabus.

“How am I supposed to decide if I want to take a class for the entire semester based on just two class meetings?” she said. 

Sean Devasahayam, a Rutgers Business School junior, and Janhavi Narain, a School of Arts and Sciences senior, similarly said that they have found the add/drop period to be beneficial and would like for it to be longer than it currently is.

Devasahayam said that the period should be extended by a week to give students the ability to experience an extra one or two sessions.

“I feel like the current time that we have just isn’t enough to know for sure, especially if a class is canceled during add/drop, which has happened to me multiple times,” he said.

Narain said that extending the current add/drop period could also benefit the University’s average grade point average by allowing students to determine which classes they enjoy more. 

Gita Sharma, an assistant professor of professional practice in the Department of Accounting and Information Systems, said she thinks the University currently offers a sufficient amount of time for students to add and drop classes, and extending the amount of time can prove challenging for professors in multiple ways. 

She said that prolonging add/drop can affect the class time students have to learn and cause them to miss early assignments, quizzes and discussion posts, as well as delay their access to course materials.

Students either joining or leaving classes further into the semester through add/drop also affects how other students operate when assigned to group projects, Sharma said.

To aid students through the period, she said the University can send more emails to remind students about the period and demonstrate the difference between the add/drop durations for undergraduate and graduate students. 

While undergraduate students could drop courses without receiving a “W” on their transcript until September 15, graduate students were able to do so until September 19, according to the Rutgers registrar's academic calendar. 

Undergraduates can drop courses and receive a “W” on their transcripts up until October 31, while graduate students’ dates to do so depend on their school.