Every college student knows the end of the semester:  last-minute study sessions, papers, finals and the dreaded final grades, but a huge decision made more than a month before the end can affect whether or not one passes or fails a class.

    Dropping a class (or more than one) is not a choice to be taken lightly.  While losing a bad grade could improve an overall average, dropping down to below 12 hours means becoming a part-time student, which can negatively affect scholarships. 

    Like every other semester, the last drop date on Monday showed a huge turnout of people getting rid of dead-weight classes at the last minute.

    “We don’t know exact numbers of students dropping, but there’s always a lot,” Maria Geerts, a student employee in the Records office said.  She held up a hefty stack of yellow drop slips Monday as more students filed in.  “These are all just from today.”

    The most-dropped class, according to Geerts, is biology by a landslide.  Other drop date favorites include math, history and English classes, though they are generally lower level 100 and 200 level courses.  There are hardly any drops for higher 400 level classes.

    Students may have any number of reasons to get rid of a class.  Problems with a teacher, medical issues or simply not liking a class’s subject matter could be incentive enough.

    “I ended up dropping Literature of the Undead,” Victoria Davis, psychology junior from Maine said.  “It sounds weird to drop such an interesting class about vampires, but I just couldn’t get through Dracula!”

    Despite the apparent popularity of dropping, some students work hard to maintain grades in all classes to avoid kicking any to the curb.  Gunnar Doucet, computer information systems sophomore from Houma, is one of these students.

    “Dropping a class seems like a wasted investment to me,” he said.  “All that money, time and effort spent in the class is gone, and you’re still left having to retake the class all over again.”

    There will always be students on either side of the drop/keep debate.  The Records office, however, is expected to remain busy on the dreaded drop date for semesters to come.

Students wait in line to drop classes at the Office of Records and Registration on Monday, the final drop date.