All The Things You Need To Know BEFORE Inquiring
Simultaneous enrollment policies are governed by the Student Handbook, and permission to enroll in two courses with overlapping times requires a petition to the Administrative Board. This is explained here. As your resident dean my role is to make sure you understand the policies, and also to guide you through the process of petitioning the Ad Board, should you decide to pursue that.
The conditions for being eligible are confusing as well as difficult to meet – so read carefully and closely about:
1) the timing of the petition;
2) the conditions that need to be met; and
3) the process of the petition.
A NOTE ON TIMING (AND PLANNING ACCORDINGLY)
- The Board meets once-a-week on Tuesday only, and the timeline for petition-submission to the House Office is the previous Thursday, 10am.
- The earliest your petition can be reviewed by the Board is February 4th provided all the materials are submitted to our Interim Academic Coordinator, Michaela Johnson (winthropassistant@fas.harvard.edu), by the previous Thursday, January 30th, by 10 am. If you plan to petition February 11th, your materials should arrive to the House by February 6th, and so on.
- I realize this introduces uncertainty into your semester’s schedule (as you won’t know until the petition is approved, whether or not you are able to take both courses).
To manage this uncertainty, you can do one of the following (depending on what seems best for your plans and purposes):
Consider taking one of these two courses in another semester.
Or keep up with the work in both courses, as well as in a third back-up course (i.e. the course you would take instead, if the petition is not approved).
SIMULTANEOUS ENROLLMENT: THE CONDITIONS
According to the Student Handbook (here), a student is eligible for simultaneous enrollment if at least one of the following conditions is met:
1) CONDITION 1: If the instructor of the class being missed agrees to meet the student outside of class every week, for the same amount of time missed in class (note: it is not necessary for this to be individual instruction – it is possible for them to do meet in a group. However, this *cannot* be done during office hours, nor via videos, nor using a TF – the same person who teaches the class has to agree to meet in person). The instructor of the other class (which is being attended) also has to consent to this arrangement.
2) CONDITION 2: Videos can be used *only* if one-third of the weekly instructional meetings overlap (excluding sections and lab). This is confusing, so let me explain: the handbook states ‘if a student will miss any part of a day’s lecture, it is as though he or she will miss all of it…’ In other words: the calculation is based on the number of MEETINGS that have an overlap, not the DURATION of the overlap. Further, labs and sections are excluded from this calculation. (For example: if a class meets for lecture twice a week, for 60 mins each time and has one section, then if ONE of the two lecture meetings overlaps with another class for 10 minutes, the Student Handbook considers this to be ‘an overlap of 50% of the weekly instructional meetings’. This also means that classes that have only one or two instructional meetings a week (excluding labs/section) are not eligible for condition #2 – for such classes, you have to see if you meet conditions #1 or #3.) For classes that meet three or more times a week (excluding labs/sections), for them: if a third (or less) of the weekly instructional meetings overlap, then videos can be used – provided other conditions are met (i.e. the instructor agrees to provide make-up quizzes, there is no opportunity for discussion in the time being missed, etc.).
3) CONDITION 3: If the student is a senior, and both courses are essential for graduation (i.e. there is simply no other course being offered at Harvard that the student can take in this or any other semester, in order to graduate.)
SIMULTANEOUS ENROLLMENT: THE PROCESS
If you think you meet one of the three criteria above, below is the process for petitioning the Administrative Board (depending on the condition you are meeting).
- A tip for getting faculty input: if you have met and discussed everything with the faculty, sometimes it saves time if (instead of the faculty emailing me), you email me directly (winthrophousedean@fas.harvard.edu), cc-ing the faculty, putting in writing the substance of the conversation with the faculty, and the manner in which the Handbook Policies are being met. Then the faculty can reply to this email, explicitly affirming they agree to this arrangement.
CONDITION 1:
1. Request the faculty (whose class you are missing) to email me at
(winthrophousedean@fas.harvard.edu) to confirm: they will provide hour-for-hour direct and personal compensatory instruction for the class time you miss (so: they have to teach directly outside of class; this *CAN* be alongside another student, in a group setting. But according to Harvard College policies governing simultaneous enrollment, this cannot be through videos, not during office hours, and not using someone who doesn’t teach during the class time that you miss).
2. Request the faculty of the second course (whose class you are attending) to email me (winthrophousedean@fas.harvard.edu) to confirm: they know you may be missing another class to attend theirs, and that they are ok with this.
3. Finally, you need to send me a brief statement, addressed to the Administrative Board,
explaining:
which two classes you want to take- specify the course number (e.g. ECON 10a and COMPSCI51)
why you want to take these two classes this semester (and why not one in another semester, when they don’t overlap)
what the meeting times for the two courses are, and what exactly the overlap
how you are satisfying the policies of the Handbook for simultaneous enrollment (see above).
CONDITION 2:
1. Request the faculty (whose class you are missing) to email me directly (winthrophousedean@fas.harvard.edu) to confirm:
they are willing to let you watch videos instead of attending class;
that they will provide an opportunity to make-up any quizzes, exams, etc. that you miss;
that the class-time being missed doesn’t provide any opportunities for discussion;
that the video tapes will be available to view prior to the next class meeting.
2. Request the faculty of the second course (whose class you are attending) to email me to confirm: they know you may be missing another class to attend theirs, and that they are ok with this.
3. Send me a brief statement, addressed to the Administrative Board, explaining:
which two classes you want to take- specify the course number (e.g. ECON 10a and COMPSCI 51)
why you want to take these two classes this semester (and why not one in another semester, when they don’t overlap);
what the meeting times for the two courses are, and what exactly the overlap between the courses is, and
how you are satisfying the policies of the Handbook for simultaneous enrollment (see above).
CONDITION 3:
1. Ask your concentration adviser to email me directly (winthrophousedean@fas.harvard.edu) to confirm: both these classes must be taken this semester for you to graduate, and that no other class (this semester, or any other semester) can be taken in their place for meeting graduation requirements.
2. Request the faculty (whose class you are missing) to email me (winthrophousedean@
fas.harvard.edu) to confirm:
they are ok with you missing their class because of an overlap with another class;
the arrangement for enabling you to meet the learning and assessment requirements of their course.
3. Request the faculty of the second course (whose class you are attending) to email
me to confirm: they know you may be missing another class to attend theirs, and that they are ok with this.
4. Send me a brief statement, addressed to the Administrative Board, explaining:
which two classes you want to take- specify the course number (e.g. ECON 10a and COMPSCI 51)
why you want to take these two classes this semester (and why not one in another semester, when they don’t overlap);
what the meeting times for the two courses are, and what exactly the overlap between the courses is, and
how you are satisfying the policies of the Handbook for simultaneous enrollment (see above).