A Message from Director of First-Year Writing, Dr. Heather Schell.
Welcome back from the winter break! For those of you currently trying to register for a section of first-year writing (UW20), please be advised that UW20 classes are intensive writing classes. Because they carry 4 credits, instead of the more standard 3-credit courses offered at GW, UW20 courses have a work-load equivalent to a lab course, and move very quickly. In fact, by the second week of the course, writing projects are already underway in many UW20 sections.
So, while the official open drop/add period lasts throughout the first two weeks of classes, we strongly recommend that you try to do your dropping and adding during the first week.
If a seat in the section you're trying to add opens up during the second week, you may to add the section during that time. However, you should expect a significant amount of make-up work to catch up to the rest of the class. Please contact the professor immediately to find out what you'll need to do to catch up.
We wish you all a great spring semester!
Dr. Heather Schell
Director of First Year Writing
University Writing Program
Monday, January 12, 2009
Why You Shouldn't Try to Change Your Section of UW20 After the First Week of Classes
Friday, November 14, 2008
UW20 Faculty Do Not Sign Registration Overrides
By University Writing Program policy, the only way to get into a particular section is by using GW's online registration system.
The Writing Program strictly enforces its online registration only policy for good reasons. According to Dr. Carol Hayes, Director of First-Year Writing, "We do not sign students into our classes under any circumstances. What's more, we do not create 'wait lists.' We understand that's an unusual policy for GW; most professors at GW can and do sign students into their classes. The reason UW20 professors do not sign students into classes is that we're protecting the course cap. The classes are set at a maximum of 15 students -- and that's a hard cap. In the past, students have reported to us that the small class size is one of the things they really value about the course; additionally, student learning outcomes are significantly better when the course cap is set to 15. That's why the Writing Program faculty is working very hard to protect that small class size. The only way to ensure that extra students don't accidentally get added in is to have all of the registration for our courses handled by online registration."
It is true that many first-year students drop and add during the first week of classes. As a result, if you keep checking the online registration system throughout the semester and in the first week of classes, you should be able to enroll in a UW20 section that fits your schedule. That said, past experience teaches us that the fast pace of the course makes it very-extremely-highly not recommended to try to join a new UW20 class after the first week of classes.
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