Just some feedback from a parent with a student in the CS program at Stevens-
The school is engineering heavy so the CS program is small to begin with. But something that has bothered me in the past several semesters is that the kids will pick their schedule, and something will be wrong, necessitating last minute class changes.
For example freshmen year there was something about a wrong math class in the schedule that had to be fixed by the advisor when they arrived on campus. Then another time they accidentally scheduled only one section of a particular class for CS majors and lots of people were shut out. They eventually realized the error and added another section, but it was unnecessarily chaotic and stressful for the students.
This last time, over the summer they realized that a certain professor could not teach a required class…in August. My son got an email stating the new class time, which conflicted with a certain class which he really wanted and had scheduled early on. He had to drop that class and find another. Caused a lot of stress.
One of the reasons we chose Stevens was because we thought that, as a private school, it would be easier to schedule classes. We weren’t expecting it to be so difficult. Why am I paying all this money to get all this aggravation? I could get the same aggravation from Rutgers at 1/3 the price.
So sorry to hear about the scheduling problems. My husband is a dean at a private university about the size of Stevens and he says that your son should go talk to his adviser and/or the department chair who oversees computer science. Have him show that not getting a certain course(s) will delay his graduation or will negatively impacting his experience. That will get your son on the adviser’s/chair’s radar and that where Steven’s small size will work to your son’s advantage. The chair will be made aware of problems and can keep an eye on your son’s progress.
Another idea is for your son can do an independent study of the course he’s missing/really wanted to take. My husband is not only a dean but teaches a niche subject which some students can use towards graduation, and regularly does independent studies with students, especially if it means the student will graduate on time.
From what I see from my husband’s university where courses are planned 18 months in advance, the best course plans come unraveled just weeks before school begins - they get too many students and have to scramble for instructors so they can add more sections, or too few enroll and they have to cancel sections. In any case, good luck to your son and I hope scheduling goes better next semester.
Thanks for the tips. The first two incidents seemed to be carelessness. The last one seemed to be beyond Stevens’ control. In any case it was stressful for the students.
As for your last point, I understand certain classes being more popular than others but classes that are required for the major should have adequate availability every semester as they know how many students are in that major.
He’s doing fine, he likes it, he has some good instructors. Biggest drawback as I have mentioned before is that because the CS dept is rather small (although it is growing) sometimes it can be hard to get certain classes, or the class may conflict with a desired elective but you have to take it at that time period because it is the only time that fits. It helps if you are in the honors program (you register earlier).