Random Doesn't Mean Fair
Noah Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 02:44PM This Opinion was submitted by Anne, a 2L at BCLS.
As we approach registration for Spring Classes, I wanted to comment on the current registration system. Aside from its lack of technical sophistication which prevents more than 15 students from registering at once, the random method for assigning registration times is unfair. My undergraduate institution split our 2,400 person freshman class into 2 days allowing everyone to register on their day at 8am. The following semester those who were on the first day registered second, although this didn’t matter much since an equal number of open spots were held for each day. In an ideal world (or just using modern technology), each class, 3Ls and 2Ls, would be able to register at the same time on their specified day.
As we all know, BC assigns each student a registration time between 8am and 4:45pm. The school assures us that this is fair because times are assigned randomly. I realize that even when assigned randomly there will be “winners” and “losers.” While this may be nice for those given 8am and 9am times consistently, those of us with 3pm and 4pm times don’t feel the same way.
Luck shouldn’t be the only determination in who gets the classes that they desire. 97% of classes eventually open up during the summer or winter break. However, those with late registration times are forced to beg, borrow and stalk the registration system to get into desirable classes. Stalking the registration system day-in and day-out gets old quickly and definitely dampers school breaks. We all pay the same tuition, so we should all have an equal opportunity to register for classes.
Second, the ability to register for 17 credits in the initial registration time is absurd. No one takes 17 credits. There is always some uncertainty as to which class you’re actually going to take, so you might register for an extra class. However, the ability to register for extra credits just allows people to hold spots for others. (7 for those on journals who don’t need to worry that the journal spot will close.) This is especially unfair in the Spring when 1Ls have upperclassmen hold spots. I realize people are looking out for their friends, but they’re screwing their classmates.
Therefore, until BC upgrades, the Law school needs to make changes. First, times should be randomly assigned, but with a guarantee of a pre-noon time and a post-noon time for each year. That way, if you’re stuck with a 4:30pm time one semester, the next semester you’ll be guaranteed a time prior to 12pm. Second, registration should be capped at 14 credits until everyone’s initial registration is over. (The same limitation used for limited enrollment classes.) This would allow more equitable results and prevent students from hoarding classes in the initial registration period.
Reader Comments (18)
I would have agreed with this until I got my registration time this semester and it was at 8:30am. Score! :)
(If it makes you hate me less, I had a 4pm registration time last semester).
Screw the man!
who cares what classes you take, just sign up for some random crap and get law school over with. if it aint on the bar exam it doesnt matter anyway.
This is almost as bad as when the administration tried to get rid of the soda machine in the East Wing lounge.
I spoke with Dean Rosselot and she informed me that, incredibly, there's just nothing that she or anybody else could do about it. (Last year, I had a 3:45 registration time, and this year, it's 4:45.)
It's convenient for BC administrators to point the finger at an outdated system run by main campus because it frees them from any accountability whatsoever. Your suggestions, while reasonable and fair would be met with a statement telling you that they're just, like, technologically infeasible.
I find it hard to believe that by the time you graduate, you haven't had an opportunity to take whatever classes you need to take for graduation. If you couldn't get into a class as a 2L, it's unlikely that when you're a 3L you'll have difficulty, with limited exceptions. I'm sure that some of the limited enrollment classes may be unavailable, but almost none of those are necessary to graduate. Everyone by 3L year will have had a chance to take Corporations, Evidence and Con Law 2 - which to me seem to be the ones people are always scrambling over.
Most of the classes that one would consider "core" (Evidence, Secured, Corps., Fed. Courts, Crim. Pro, Tax, T&E, etc.) are offered in large sections that never quite fill past their limit. Yes, some small practical-skills classes fill up, but you can get in the following semester. Although I agree that the system can give the impression of being unfair, it seems to work just fine by and large. I haven't heard of anyone not being able to take a class that they really wanted to in their three years at BC. While we all like to gripe about late registration times, I think this is more "tilting at windmills" than anything else.
Some of these "core" classes do get closed out. For example, both sections of Corporations had wait lists to get in (Quinn had more than 30 extra students trying to get into a class of over 100 seats). Classes like corporations are prerequisites for many upper level classes. So, if an upper level class is offered once a year and you are shut out of a core class because of late registration it may mean you only have one more chance to get into the upper level class or may have to give up on the upper level class if you end up in a clinic 3L year.
Well that is life. You have to choose something else then. If you didn't get into Quinn or Greenfield (trust me I didn't either), you can take Jones next semester. Which still gives you all of 3L year to take the very few classes that require Corps as a prereq.
Obviously there are chances you'll miss a class or here or there you wanted, but the idea this is a pervasive issue is silly. If it were, the administration would have fixed it because people would not be pleased.
And for entering 1Ls, they get a shot at some of these classes 1L year with electives. There is a big difference between getting to take a class you want and getting to take with the professor you want.
Furthermore, the same students shouldn't have to wait a semester to get into a class. (Which is what happens to unlucky students.) The burden should be shifted, so that everyone has an equal opportunity to get what they want or wait a semester/sign-in.
To Anne and "Fairness Needed":
Random is fair. Fair means free from bias. There is no system more free from bias than the random. It may not be ideal, but it is far from unfair. In fact, it may be the more "fair" system.
Compare it to the system that Anne describes: one where everyone had to register at the same time. This creates a feeding frenzy, and in a feeding frenzy, the strong prevail. My undergrad institution used a system much like yours, Anne. It was unfair to the students with slow computers and poor internet connections. When you have several thousand students hitting the system at the same time, those with old hardware or an inferior Internet connection found that the extra few seconds it took them to load the class selection pages often cost them classes. The first semester I moved off campus (and thus off the schools' lightening fast Internet connection), I did not get a single one of the "first choice" classes in open registration.
Surely BC's is a better system, right?
Also, it's now 10:30pm and very few classes are currently closed out. And almost all of them were closed out after the 3Ls registered yesterday and it would not have made any difference what the registration time was for a 2L. I'm sure by 4pm others will have closed, but the fact is that this is not a huge pervasive issue and certainly not one in the Spring.
What do you know...Evidence that everyone was fighting over in the Fall is still open in the Spring. So is Corporations and Con Law 2.
Alum,
Have to disagree with you there. Being free from bias has little to do with this; the word "fair" has little to do with this.
Regardless of whether having one registration time would be better or worse, it would solve at least one of two significant problems with the registration process: some students "holding" classes for others. If all had the same registration time, few students, if any, would be in a position to do this for friends. And, make no mistake: this is a huge phenomenon these days.
If students registered one time over the course of two years, it would seem that registration at one time versus random registration times are both reasonable options, to pick from based on what the administration thought were the most important goals.
We always register on the same day as the rest of our class, and we register with our class four times. For a given year, if registration times were random for the first semester, what's to stop the administration from making sure the next set of registration times were a mirror image? For instance, if registration times were from 9 to 5, and a student got a 2pm time the first time around, doesn't it make sense to give that student a 12pm time the next time around? 10, 4? 5, 9? To me, this seems much, much more fair than allowing the process to be random for each semester.
Personally, I've benefited from the current system; the latest registration time I've ever had is 12:30, and twice registered before 9:30. To not install some sort of safeguard against a student always having a late time, however, seems not to be deliberate, but perhaps a product of laziness.
So, its now 1:30 and the Spring section of Corporations is closed. Its quite possible not to get it until 3L year making it hard to take upper level corporate classes.
The fact that the course is closed is unfortunate, but it doesn't make the sign-up system more or less fair. Regardless, some people would have been unable to enroll in this course. Have no fear though - people will drop Jones class and there will be openings.
I think 3L, above, alludes to the issue here. The problem is not with the registration system; the problem is with the number of class slots. If students are paying $40,000 per year and are unable to finish their three years at BCLS having had an opportunity to take every class they wish (merit-based selections like law review excepted), then that is a problem. And that problem isn't so much one of "fairness" as it is ripping students off. No one should have to pay $120,000 for something that does not fully meet his expectations.
Look at that! I see an opening in Corporations. I know, this means you'll have to periodically check that the closed class you want is open, and will therefor have to expend a little effort to get into the class you want--God forbid. Take it from someone who got in this semester with a 3:00 registration time, and no one holding the class for me.
I would tend to agree with BCLS Alum on his last point, except I know plenty of people who have the option to take things like Corporations or Evidence and didn't want a particular professor and so waited and missed their chance. The # of classes that require corporations as a pre-req are fairly limited and I'm sure if a student pled his/her case to Jones about how they know they want to take these classes, they would get in.
The reality is, resources are limited and frankly I don't want to pay more in tuition so you can get everything you want. There are only so many rooms that fit 90+ students. Sorry. Corporations really seems to be the big issue course as it is a pre-req and fills up quickly. But honestly this is the FOURTH shot we've had at it and it'll be even easier going forward now that you have an option to take it 1L year. Sucks for us, but whatever.