Received a message from students today exploring the possibility of late dropping ECON1210. As this is a frequently asked question, I would like to share our correspondence below (with the student's identity concealed).
----- Student's message -----
I am currently a year 1 student from XXX Faculty, and I consider possibly taking Finance (which includes this course as part of its requirements) as a minor in the future, so I applied to take ECON1210 as my elective this year. However, including ECON1210, I currently take 6 courses this semester, but I believe I have underestimated the workload required and am now lagging behind in ECON1210 as well as in a few other courses. In particular, the workload/intellectual effort required for ECON1210 is particularly high in my opinion, not to mention the fact that since this is a FIRST SEMESTER course, it is more intense since there is less time for the same amount of content (Sep - Dec VS Jan - May/Jun). I am worried I may not be able to catch up and this will affect my grades. (for ECON1210 it unfortunately already has, I could only manage to get 49% and 61% in the first two quizzes when your standard is an 80% or above).
For your reference, for my Faculty, the first year is a common year where all students take the same core courses, and then we select our majors in the second year. The major selection process is based on GPA and is especially competitive and fierce for the major I am interested in (xxx or above is the average for that major), so I am concerned that I may not be able to get in if my grades are affected.
Therefore, after careful consideration, I have unfortunately decided I wish to drop this course if possible. However, I do not think this is the end of the road. I am still interested in possibly pursuing a minor in Finance, so instead I will maybe (re)take this course in the future. (Year 2).
So once again I ask, if possible, to drop ECON1210. I very much apologize for any inconveniences caused.
-------
------ My reply -----
Understood your difficulty perfectly. I had foreseen this coming for some students. That is why, in my first lecture, I told students that if they were in their first year, they should not be taking more than 5 courses. During the add-drop period, I had repeatedly advised students to think about the difficulty of our course and the workload, and drop the course while they still can.
Late dropping a course is a complicated process and there are so much uncertainty whether the late drop application will be approved because approval has to be done by various level of administration and the process can easily take two to three weeks. And, after the various steps of approval, we often do NOT approve late drop applications. See my teaching journal on my views on late drop.
http://kafuwong.econ.hku.hk/teaching/journal/index.php?s=&e=&m=141&\#141
My best advice is to re-plan your life of the first semester. Cut back as much as possible all the activities that is not study-related. Then, try to maximize your efficiency of your study effort by following the design of the course and the advice of teachers. When you have difficulty learning on any course, talk to the teachers or TAs for help immediately. The worst thing to do is panic and then spend a lot of time thinking about obtaining late drop approval. As panic and late drop approval requires effort and time, spending time on such things means that you will have less time for your study. At the end, your performance in the courses (GPA, if you like to think about GPA) will be even worse than the case if you had not panic and had not spent the time applying for late drop – not just on the course you plan to late drop but on all the courses of the same semester.
If you insist on applying for late drop, please try to apply through your home faculty. They will then forward your application to me. I must tell you, I often do not approve late drop request.
-----
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