Cassandra Tognoni | Shop 'til you drop

Harvard starts classes today. Correction, my friend tells, me; they start "shopping."

I have always been jealous of other Ivies' shopping periods. The whole concept sounds so free and fun. Students can register for as many classes as they want and then pick the ones they like best. A friend at Yale signed up for 15 classes, attended four or five a day and at the end of the two-week period, registered for his five favorites.

Whereas, at Penn the routine goes something like this: register for five classes and if you don't like them, change them. If you still have time, that is. Our course registration does allow some freedom in that we can add and drop courses at a whim for two and a half weeks.

Yet the maximum number of courses we can be registered for tops out at five (or six or seven if you are an Engineer or scored a prescription for Adderall). And in order for us to register, a class has to be open on Penn InTouch.

Many students I talked to feel hesitant attending classes that are not open or ones in which they aren't registered, for fear they are wasting their time if they can't end up in the class.

Students aren't able to access Blackboard or webCafe to get more information (such as syllabi or posted readings) about the course without being registered.

Additionally, students feel that oftentimes if they miss the first or second class, they're already at a significant disadvantage with teachers having already signed homework and reading.

College Dean Dennis DeTurck sees no need to change the system: "Our course registration is just a different style of effecting the same thing." He said that just because students aren't registered for a class, doesn't mean they can't engage in "shopping" around.

So, curious to see if there were any reason to remain green-eyed of the Crimson, last Monday, I decided to do a little shopping myself: I attended ten classes (nine of which I was not registered for).

I started the day with CHEM 101: Introduction to Chemistry. I spotted the guy in front of me with a Quantum Mechanics book; I left after five minutes.

After that, it was PSYC 121: Psychology of Learning. Apparently, most learning happens at the beginning of a learning process, and then one should expect diminishing returns. That put me in an optimistic mood for my next eight classes.

During PHIL 026: Philosophy of Space and Time, I wrote three pages of notes on the Basic Thesis of the Pythagorean School. Looking back on them now, I don't understand a word.

GSOC 004, PPE 101, CINE 003, ENGL 009 338, and BIBB 249 generally reminded me that interesting course descriptions or good Penn Course Review numbers in no way guarantee that I will enjoy (or have the ability to pass) a class.

On the other hand, in ARTH 001: Architect and History, when the professor compared women in Ancient Rome to columns ("the life of a column is to stand still and carry patiently the load that was on its head"), I discovered that a brilliant lecturer can illuminate what I would otherwise consider a boring subject.

After 10 hours of exhausting class, I ended the day with a fifth class I am happy with, a couple classes I plan to pre-register for in the future, and a half dozen I will not bother to waste pre-registration on (though I might have otherwise).

Despite its benefits, too many students are not taking full advantage of our course registration period. In surveying students around campus, I found the number of classes they typically attend before finalizing their schedule usually fell in the range of five to seven - less than I did in a day.

Wharton Undergraduate Vice Dean Georgette Chapman Phillips said that allowing students to register for more courses would be "impossible" due to Penn's relatively larger size and four different schools.

That may be true, but Penn should still do more to encourage shopping.

Penn should institute a "soft" registration program where students can sign up for as many classes as they want (in addition to their five or so classes they are "hard" registered for).

Students could gain access to course syllabi, materials, classroom and meeting information, thereby addressing the inconveniences of the current system. Students would attend these classes from day one and switch them out for their "hard" registered courses as space became available.

Maybe then my friends wouldn't call me a loser for going to 10 classes.

Cassandra Tognoni is a Wharton junior from Andover, MA. Her e-mail is tognoni@dailypennsylvanian.com. Skirting the Norm appears on Mondays.

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