Course registration dates should be based on GPA + Credits Remaining

So long as you're above average, which I believe 3.x implies, you're better off this way than you are currently.

And as for making it harder for students facing difficulty, I don't know if that's really the case. If someone is having trouble with their courseload for whatever reason (I am 100% sympathetic btw), will it really matter to them if they can't enroll into 5 highly sought after upper year courses? In fact, it may even help by limiting how much they can put on their plate.

And you may say that it makes it harder to get all the requirements to graduate, but I don't think that's true either. For most BSc General majors, you need four 300 level courses and one 400 level course. If you're really struggling through your degree, you probably don't want to make yourself take too much more than that anyways. If you're in your 3rd year, you still get preference over the first and second years, so you should still be able to nab a few 300 levels. And in your 4th year, most courses will not have filled up just from other 4th years. And if one course is stopping you from graduating, you can always talk with someone at the department and they'll typically let you in somewhere.

This isn't really "punching down" because it doesn't stop struggling students from enrolling in the courses they need, it may just make it a little bit harder to bite off more than they can chew.

/r/uAlberta Thread Parent