As the title says, the magic number of courses you are allowed to drop in your undergraduate study is 6. This is a law that was passed by the Texas Legislature back in 2007. Their goal is to punish those who drop and to encourage people to finish their degrees on time. How far is government allowed to shove their foot in the education process? They're encouraging education by restricting it, a policy that contradicts itself. I believe that this policy should be nullified because people are entitled to enroll/withdraw on their own consent.
There are several reasons people may drop a course.
*Severe illnesses/injuries- People don't plan to have life saving surgery or get into a car accident during midterms/finals. Just because people are enrolled at school doesn't make them invulnerable to the possibilities of fate. Thankfully this is one of the exceptions in the policy.
*GPA standards- People aim for a certain GPA for whatever requirements they need to fulfill, such as an internship, scholarship, or if they want to transfer. Students choose to drop courses because they need to aim for higher GPA's, and wont settle with a C or B.
*Personal- People may have other issues to handle with, such as work or the distance they have to travel to get to school. That can affect stress level and time management.
People have their own reasons to drop classes and government is only interfering. They've already passed standard testing (TAKS) and mandatory fitness testing for students from K-12, how much farther will they go? If you want to learn more about the drop policy, read it here.
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*two thumbs up*
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post because each and every single college student has dropped a class and retaken it due to either one of the reasons stated above or other reasons. If the government really wanted to interfere with the amount of class drops/withdrawals then student's shouldn't even be given the option of dropping a course.
I don't see what the problem is for dropping 6+ classes throughout your undergraduate career. Honestly, the policy already states that they are going to charge a student higher for dropping and retaking the course x-amount of times. First off that's more money for the institution and secondly, at least the student is trying.
I think this also ties in with the issue of the government trying to move the "at risk" student's into a private institution. Instead of helping the better understand the material. That also incorporates with class options, like the remedial, intermediate, regular, advance course levels. There are other options rather than interfering with the college crediting system.
Pretty much the state's expecting all or nothing from college students. Pfft, and they have the audacity of referring to us as "the faces of tomorrow."
One of my classmates recently wrote about a law passed a couple of years ago which only allows college students to drop six courses throughout their undergraduate career. My classmate believes "that this policy should be nullified because people are entitled to enroll/withdraw on their own consent." I understand his view point, but I respectfully disagree. If you aren't responsible enough to finish a course then you need to refrain from registering and leave that spot to someone else who is.
ReplyDeleteThere are many reasons a person might drop a course, and the link he provided stated several exceptions to the law including illnesses and even change in job schedules. I think the law is adequate enough at taking into account all the possibilities that may prevent a student from performing well.
It isn't fair to fellow students, professors or the taxpayers for a student to act irresponsibly, fail a test, and then expect everything to be okay because he/she can drop. State schools take a lot of taxpayer money to help cover the cost of a student's education, community colleges especially. The tuition we pay covers a little more than a third of our educational costs, an estimate I found on the ACC website here, found about halfway down the page.
Going to college and making good grades does take a certain amount of maturity, and if you aren't ready at 18 it's okay to take time off and go back when you are. Not only that, there are many resources students can use to help achieve their goals such as free tutoring or counseling.