CUE Improved, Say Smattering

For years, Harvard students have turned to the Committee on Undergraduate Education Course Evaluation Guide (known to its friends as the CUE guide) for descriptions and in-depth analysis of the classes offered in the coming year.

While the CUE guide has always served as a helpful supplement to the Courses of Instruction and to Shopping Period, there has also been a stigma associated with its presentation of student comments.

The thought had crossed the minds of many CUE guide readers at one time or another: the words “a large majority” mean, in fact, absolutely nothing.

Fortunately, students reading the CUE guide this year will not have to worry that the instructor’s ability, the preparation required or the helpfulness of the reading will be measured by poorly defined quantities or fractions.

Students will never again have to read the words “a large minority of respondents praise,” “just over two fifths of evaluators feel,” “several note,” “just under one fourth deem,” “a small number marvel” or “a handful state” without the assurance that the phrase is preceded by the number of students and succeeded by the percentage of respondents who actually praise, feel, note, deem, marvel or state.

This is a welcome change to the CUE guide, and the many students who use the comments presented in the guide will be grateful for the added clarity. By better organizing the CUE’s invaluable information, the publishers have offered helpful insight into the minds of fellow Harvard students. It is also reassuring that no longer will a small majority find the CUE guide difficult to decipher, nor will a preponderance (let alone a “smattering”) believe it to be confusing.

Finally, while this change is a great first step to making the guide more user-friendly, another splendid way to improve the CUE guide immediately comes to mind: indexing the courses on the basis of “Workload” and “Difficulty.”