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Outta here; Dropping courses can be a useful option, but don't get used to it

By Caylie Sadin, Source: Tribune Media Services

Sitting in your first class at college is a thrilling experience. All at once, it becomes real. You made it. You are really here.

And then the professor starts talking. As he or she outlines the class, the assignments and the readings, you get a sinking feeling. This isn’t what you expected at all.

For one reason or another — it’s a lecture class instead of a discussion class, there is a paper due every single week on top of 300 pages of reading, or even that the way the professor is teaching just doesn’t mesh with how you learn— this is definitely not the class for you. So what do you do?

Drop it.

Dropping a class isn’t as scary as it sounds. The college has about a two week period to allow students to drop a class that they don’t like without having the dreaded “W” (for withdrawal) show up on their transcript. Even the campus bookstore gives the student two weeks in which they can return the textbook for its full value.

Once you decide to drop the class, start looking for a new class that day so that you can have a class to replace the old one with. When you find that replacement, email the professor of the new class immediately and ask about what they have covered, so that you can quickly get up to speed.

But make sure to do all of this quickly, the first day of class if possible. If you wait until the last moment to drop a class and add a new one, you will be behind on the assignments and readings for the new class. That will make the switch even more stressful.

Sometimes dropping a class is out of the question. If it’s a class that you absolutely need in order to graduate, you will just have to muddle through. And dropping classes left and right is usually not a good idea. Sometimes teachers are harsh in the first couple of classes to scare off slackers. If you dropped it, you might have missed the best class of your life.

But staying in a class that makes you miserable will probably lead to a lower grade and a higher stress and burnout level, not to mention that your friends and family might grow tired of you complaining about this awful class that you hate.

In the future, a good way to avoid classes that won’t suit you is to find other people who have taken the class or the teacher and ask them about it. If you don’t know anyone who has taken the class, there are websites like ratemyprofessor.com, where students share their opinions of past professors.

Though make sure to take these sites with a grain of salt. Sometimes people are a bit unreasonable on them. And usually only the people that had a really bad time or a really good time in the class will use these sites, so the reviews are often skewed.

© 2011, Tribune Media Services