Events Editor Isabel Sepúlveda is back and fighty-er than ever.

We’re all Ivy League Students™ here at Columbia University in the City of New York. It means, no matter how much we pretend to be flippant and memey on columbia buy sell memes, most of us curl up into a tiny ball of sadness and rage when something threatens our precious GPAs. That’s why everyone was so heartbroken when CULPA was down during shopping period; we know it wasn’t because students were looking for professors guaranteed to “challenge them intellectually” by generations of Barnumbia students before them. There’s literally a website called EZACU for the more numerically inclined.

For better or for worse, we’re all trying to keep our GPAs up for our future law/med/grad school applications, fellowships, and Goldman Sachs internships. Sometimes (especially when you can’t trawl CULPA for the Calc professor with the highest A-ranges) you just have to stick it out for the first few weeks and see how it goes. That’s literally what the drop deadline is for. However, how am I supposed to maximize my schedule for the best chance to be both intellectually stimulated and still receive a good grade if I literally have no grades before that deadline?

For example, this semester the drop deadline for (as far as I know) everyone who isn’t a SEAS student is Tuesday, October 8th. My first essay for my English lecture is due two days later on October 10. Even the optional response for seminar that’s due the week before probably won’t be graded before I have to make this decision. My midterms for other classes are two weeks later, on October 21 and 22. Aside from one class with regular homework grades, I’ll have literally no grades to use to figure out of Class A or B will make or break my semester.

I don’t want to be lazy and only take super easy, non-stimulating classes but also, I’d like to go to grad school someday. I might be a humanities student but even I know the importance of data in these situations. Please, give me some so I don’t have to take a W when one of my professors inevitably hates my writing.

Could I beat them in a fight?: I’m not quite sure if I’m fighting the professors who do this, the registrar, or the very concept of the drop deadline. Once I figure it out, I’ll get right back to you.

Self-defense tip: If someone is choking you, aim for the thumbs, not their fingers. (Note: Bwog does not condone violence, and these tips are not a replacement for a self-defense class taught by a professional or assistance by the proper authorities.)

look at all these classrooms, hope all the professors assign something before the drop deadline! via Wikimedia Commons