Here is a sad story:
11/11, 4 p.m.: "I should sign up for classes."
11/11 7 p.m.: "Huh, I need to take a Nontech to graduate." (later I found out thanks to my wonderful adviser Dawn Strickland that I was mistaken)
11/11 8 p.m.: "Problems in International History sounds FASCINATING. How do I sign up?"
11/11 8:09 p.m.: "Oh no, the deadline to apply to history seminars was November 1st!"
11/11 8:10 p.m.: "trollface."
As a senior, should I have checked the seminar deadline beforehand? Yeah. Would it only take five minutes? Yeah.
However, that's like...five minutes.
The seminar requirements vary quite a lot, each department with its own arcane quirks. Many econ seminars require you to wait in line as early as six in the morning on the first day of classes (or in the case of Gulati's seminar, nearly 24 hours in advance). Barnard has its L-courses (I have no idea what that means). Comp Sci seminars typically merely require a prior course or two and a signature (how I thought it worked with all seminars prior to junior year). Creative writing classes at Barnard require a writing sample. History seminar applications are due November 1st. It's a long list.
Applying for seminars is really confusing and really painful.
Whether it be a Spectrum post in what now appears to be an extinct Chalkboard series, a student council initiative to aggregate all the different seminar rules, or a powerful being (God?) setting a standardized process for all seminars, something has to be done about this problem.
Seminar classes at Columbia, literally, are the biggest reason a sizable minority (possibly a majority) of Columbians came here. And yet the process for applying for one---as I discovered first with History seminars, then with English seminars---is murky.
That has to change.
Mikey Zhong is a Spectrum opinion blogger. He ate at St. Louis Bread Company for breakfast and at Panera Bread for dinner yesterday.
Comments
you can also add a seminar in the new semester if you get permission from the professor and submit it to the department before the formal add/drop date
Good points. I think that CCSC gathering the different rules would be good. However, I do not think that they should be standardized: having different rules for each department gives students in that department the inside track on getting into a seminar in that department.
Except when the department doesn't even email the majors to let them know the rules.
Generally these small group seminars are amazing
Creative writing classes don't go up halfway through Dec. and for some literature classes, I come back from fall break and told I have to sign by the last day of fall break! On a non-school day? Too much confusion!!!!!! Call to order! How do we start attacking this problem?
Also, go Mikey Zhong! Hear, hear!
I have Dawn Strickland too!
Dawn Strickland fan club REPRESENT!
You sure know that Internet culture