Graduate Students Express Support for Prior-Term Course Registration

Though Harvard faculty and undergraduates alike have complained about the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ new previous-term course registration model, one constituency largely offered praise: graduate students.

Among Harvard’s 12 graduate schools, students at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences were most impacted by the 2022 decision to move course registration to the middle of the previous term: for two semesters, they have both enrolled in classes earlier and navigated the new system as Teaching Fellows for undergraduate students.

Most GSAS students said the previous-term system allows them to schedule sections and handle other course logistics earlier, before the busy beginning to the semester.

“The change has meant far less headaches,” said Kabl Wilkerson, a fourth-year History Ph.D. candidate and a TF for History 10: “A History of the Present.” According to Wilkerson, graduate students faced difficulties reserving rooms, soliciting student feedback, and coordinating other course logistics under the old registration model.

“We’re already basically good to go in terms of scheduling,” they said. “Students see everything upfront in terms of section times, their availability, and if things don’t work out, they don’t take the class.”

Kenneth S. Alyass, a fifth-year History Ph.D. student, said changing enrollment numbers used to complicate section scheduling.

“Sometimes courses would not get the enrollments that they initially thought they would,” he said. “They already assigned TFs to that, and now the TF has to look for a course relatively late in the semester.”

Still, Adan F. Ramirez, a fifth year Ph.D. candidate in the Romance Languages and Literatures Department, said some grad students still experience uncertainty when applying for TF roles in high-demand courses, which tend to have high freshman enrollment in August.

“So if you could not secure a super early position,” Ramirez said, “you will basically be waiting until the semester start to know what you will be teaching.”

“You will have to apply, be selected, and start teaching, almost like in a matter of two weeks,” he added. “So there was no time to prepare.”

Some other graduate students expressed concern for the impact of previous-term registration on undergraduate students and graduate students looking for electives. Undergraduates have in general given the new system mixed reviews.

Andrew J. Koenig, a sixth-year Ph.D. student in the English Department, noted that pre-semester registration limited the ability to explore different fields of study for first-year students.

“Although it makes scheduling easier for Harvard’s administration and its teaching staff, it comes at the expense of students’ freedom, and it was one of the things that distinguished Harvard, as well as Yale, from peer institutions,” said Koenig, who is a teaching fellow for the first-year course Humanities 10: “A Humanities Colloquium from Homer to Joyce.”

In an emailed statement, FAS spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo declined to address specific criticisms of the new course registration system, but said it was crafted with student voices “represented at every stage” of the process.

Margaret V. Schnabel, a third year Ph.D. student in the English department and a TF for English 178N: “The American Novel Since 1900,” said they noticed continued difficulties and large workloads despite the previous-term change.

“I didn’t get the sense that it decreased the chaos of it all,” they said.

They added that students still scheduled junior and senior tutorials, as well as some labs and discussions, after the semester began, meaning that “everyone’s schedules were still in flux, the same way that they would have been during a shopping period.”

Many graduate students said that pre-term registration did not significantly impact their own course selection. Graduate students have less electives, and typically take seminars in their department.

“I just processed it as one of many administrative decisions,” Schnabel said. “I didn’t think much about it.”

—Staff writer Maeve T. Brennan can be reached at maeve.brennan@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @mtbrennan.

—Staff writer Angelina J. Parker can be reached at angelina.parker@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @angelinajparker.