Final Draft Solution Essay: Drop the Drop Date

Before a student enrolls in a college course the only information they know about the course is what they read from the course description and hear from friends and other students. To fully understand the requirements of the course one must actually experience it first hand. The first few weeks of class is not enough time to fully understand what the course will be like; one needs to take at least one major test and try one major project to get the full experience. Although the drop date for dropping classes is set to give students time to asses whether they are prepared for the course that they are enrolled in, the college administration should push the drop date back further because it would give students enough time to fully experience the requirements of the class, to test out what the class is like, and to decide if they should drop the class or not in a larger time frame.

At the University of Alaska Fairbanks the drop date to drop classes is two weeks after the beginning of the semester. A drop date is the date in which one can withdrawal from a course and receive a full refund. There are also later drop dates that give a partial refund or no refund. Two weeks does not give the students enrolled enough time to see the whole picture of what the course is like and what is required of the student to complete the course and learn the material. Since most classes only meet three to four times a week, based on the current drop date system, students only have about seven classes to decide whether they are prepared to take the course and can handle the requirements.

A solution to the drop date being to early in the semester is to move it back or to eliminate it. One might argue that this solution would be a hassle for teachers and administrators but students pay a lot of money for college, therefore the college should cater to the needs of the students, not the other way around. Also, for students, balancing education and ones personal life proposes a challenge. Unforeseen events can take place in a student’s life that hinders their ability to complete a course and force them to withdrawal. If the date a student withdraws is past the drop date they loose hundreds of dollars. A student should not be penalized for having to withdraw or drop a class. Students should be able to drop classes with no financial consequence if they are in situation that dictates for them to drop a class. If the drop date was just simply moved back the student-body of UAF would greatly benefit because then students would not be forced to take courses they registered for that they were unknowingly not qualified to take. This would raise the average GPA at UAF and increase the graduation rate, which would intern raise the universities national standing. By moving the drop date back further and possibly eliminating it the students and the university as a whole will benefit greatly.

An example of how a drop date that is set too soon affects a student is a student failing a course because they were not prepared to take it. Consider a student that enrolls in a math class. The first two weeks are a review of the pervious level of math. The student will do well during this time and decided that they are able to take the class. Then the drop date passes and new information is taught in the class. The student becomes overwhelmed by the new information and ends up falling behind and possibly failing the course because of it. If the drop date had been later in the semester the student would have had enough time to asses that they were not qualified for the course and could have switched into a lower level of math; because the drop date was set too soon they are stuck in a course that they are not qualified to take. This situation applies to all the subjects being taught at UAF.

The purpose of a drop date is to give students a time frame of when to make their final decisions in the courses chose to enroll in. A drop date that is set too soon has drastic effects on student and their education process. The University needs to cater to the needs of student and reassess the withdrawal and drop dates to fit the needs of the student body. UAF has a high failure rate and a low graduation rate, if the drop dates were properly assigned this would increase the number of student that pass classes and make it graduation.