This one’s personal for me. As a Cornell alum, I’m proud of my school for taking this step:
The College of Engineering Deans announced a change this past month in the amount of credits in which undergraduate students can enroll, beginning in the fall 2022 semester. Previously, the max credit limit per semester was 23, but under the new policy students will be limited to 20 credits.
I am no engineer brainiac . I was a Business, Management & Marketing major. But many of my friends studied in the college of engineering & even back then, I saw the burnout happening.
Here’s the reality – many ppl are competitive & driven. Give them a chance to accomplish something sooner or faster than “expected,” or what is customary, & they work themselves to exhaustion. It’s seen & felt like a badge of honor despite what it does to us.
Think abt the society we live in – it’s not just Engineers at an Ivy League institution.
Let hockey players get more ice time & they’re knocking down the door to get in. Allow a head coach to stay in their office & watch more film & they’ll be up till all hrs of the night scouting. Let a partner at an accounting firm check every decimal point & take on more clients, & they will.
For an institution to say – we looked at the data, & (here’s the reality), while we would make more $ allowing more credit hrs to be taken in a semester (the revenue of 3 X the 13% of engineering students who took 23 hrs last semester), we have to cap this at 20 bc anything above that is not healthy – it’s too much to take on.
I’ve been critical of my alma mater. Back in 2018 when we did campus visits & selected 15 schools, 14 were coordinated thru their athletic dept in conjunction w their counseling dept. Cornell was the only school that punted at the last min & asked that it be a student-led event, instead of a University-sponsored one. That’s punting responsibility (in my opinion), especially when so many schools from USC to Towson to Indiana raised their hand & said yes, we need this.
Sometimes programs need limits to stop humans from burning out. Proud of CU for taking this big step.