Seniors struggle to fulfill grad requirements

Senior spring — and its leisurely days on the green — might seem further away for seniors with graduation requirements to knock off.

According to several departments, there are still seniors seeking to enroll in core classes, spanning from the Living World sector requirement to a second semester language course.

“There weren’t many options this semester for Living World,” explained College senior Adam Behrens, who searched all last week before finding space in a science class. “I had requested the class during pre-registration and am not sure why priority wasn’t given to seniors with the sector unfulfilled.”

Requirement-fulfilling classes currently filled to capacity this semester include “Introduction to Experimental Psychology”, “Introduction to Linguistics” and the liberal-arts friendly Formal Reasoning course, “Ideas in Mathematics.”

“A Survey of the Universe” professor Mark Devlin returned from winter break this year to find a class in which 40 out of 94 registered students were seniors.

According to Assistant Dean for Academic Advising Hocine Fetni, the College audits the senior class one summer before graduation, sending out notifications of outstanding degree requirements to each student. The proportion of seniors seeking to fulfill requirements this year, he said, does not mark a rise from previous years.

Though there are “students who may wait until the last minute to enroll in a required course and fulfill their degree requirements,” Fenti wrote in an e-mail, the numbers are still very small.

“By September, a senior knows exactly what he or she has to do complete the degree,” Fenti said. “Seniors often plan in advance for their requirements and don’t end up shut out of a [required] course.”

Several undergraduate departments are issuing permits this week to handle exceptional circumstances.

In addition to naming study abroad and health reasons, students also cite a general “dread” of taking core lecture classes after accomplishing more in-depth academic work in their chosen field.

A Wharton and College senior, who wished to remain anonymous, said “I don’t know what I would’ve done” had he not gotten into Psychology 001 this semester after a week spent trying.

In general, Devlin encourages students for the first two days to ‘show up,’ though the offer isn’t extended beyond the initial lectures.

“I won’t just be ‘letting people in if they show up’” after a certain point, he wrote.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.