By: Lubaba Mahmud, Peak Associate
“Here we go again,” I sighed as I opened the email about my enrolment appointment last month. I scrolled through the Fall 2021 list to see what courses were available. Of course, mySchedule wasn’t ready until June 28, even though enrolment would begin on July 5. As a visual planner and a full-time co-op student with limited time, this was already frustrating.
But that was just the beginning. I looked for an upper-division required course and was surprised to see the name of the professor and course syllabus were still missing from the course’s description. Okay, move on, let’s see some electives. There were very few that fit my schedule and applied for my concentration. I found a rare course that seemed really interesting — but it had no grading scheme again! Fabulous.
It’s really difficult to choose courses without the grading scheme. Without it, students have limited options to play to their strengths and keep up their GPA. I, for one, try to steer clear of exams with a lot of weight attached to them, especially after remote learning difficulties. I prefer assignments and essays since they actually help improve vital skills like research and writing.
We’re just asking for some basic information, SFU. It’s ironic that we’re always told to plan ahead as students, when we don’t have access to a lot of important information required for said planning.
