<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I've been reading this forum for the past week and I've noticed some people were suggesting dropping courses to make things easier. Is this allowed in top American schools?</p>
<p>Here in Canada, I'd say our top engineering schools are University of Toronto and University of Waterloo. They don't allow people to drop courses, everyone must have the exact courses as everyone else (except electives).</p>
<p>Whats it like in America?</p>
<p>When people drop required courses, they make it up at a later point. It's only easier because these people would then take longer than 4 years to graduate. I doubt there's much of a difference between Canadian schools and American schools.</p>
<p>
[quote]
It's only easier because these people would then take longer than 4 years to graduate.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Not necessarily. Just because you drop a class doesn't mean you'll have to take extra time. A lot, yeah, but not one or two. If your curriculum is very sequential, I guess you might.</p>
<p>To the OP: Yeah, when people drop classes, it's only for that term. If those classes are required, they retake them later.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Not necessarily. Just because you drop a class doesn't mean you'll have to take extra time. A lot, yeah, but not one or two. If your curriculum is very sequential, I guess you might.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>If you drop a class to make things easier, why would you tack on an extra class in a later semester? Why not just finish the course this semester? Doesn't that defeat the purpose if that was your purpose?</p>
<p>
[quote]
If you drop a class to make things easier, why would you tack on an extra class in a later semester?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>An extra class? You don't necessarily have to do that. One time when I dropped a class it was because I had stupidly decided to take six classes that term, and that was too much. Nothing "extra" involved in subsequent terms.</p>
<p>Usually, at least in my experience, there is some flexibility in scheduling. Even with a fairly rigid curriculum where you can't shuffle things around much, you can just burn an unrestricted elective retaking the class instead of taking an extra class. You probably have one or two unrestricted electives...I think we only had a couple of majors where, assuming you came in with no advanced standing for anything, this wasn't true. </p>
<p>There are many possible reasons to want to take a class in a subsequent term, though. Maybe you realize that Class A and Class B are both extremely difficult and time-consuming, and it was a mistake to take them in the same term, so you push Class B to a subsequent term when you will be taking easier classes.</p>
<p>Hey Ken,</p>
<p>its top canadian schools you can't finish in longer than the standard time. So i guess top american schools are more flexible.</p>