We all know about the guy in German 1 who has taken six years of the language in high school, or the girl in Math 3 who has been taking college-level math courses since she was 12. The native speaker in Spanish 37, who breezes through "Memorias de una Vaca" while his less knowledgeable classmates are plodding through it with much difficulty, also comes to mind. People like this are examples of what is at Dartmouth a common yet unjustified practice: choosing to take courses that are far below their level of knowledge of or experience in the subject. This is unfair not only to the overqualified student's classmates, but also to the student himself.
The iniquity of this strategy is most apparent in classes graded on a curve, where a few overly-qualified students can have a detrimental impact on the grades of classmates who actually have to work towards mastering the course material. Based on the academic background of his students, a professor may also -- consciously or not -- raise the level of material and the pace at which it is presented in class. This may put the less-primed students at a further disadvantage, but still not present much of a challenge to those students who should be taking a higher-level course.
In addition to these concrete effects, such selection of classes may also cause psychological harm. Some students may respond to their overqualified classmates with annoyance, whereas others may feel insecure about their academic abilities. This may be particularly problematic for freshmen, many of whom are already intimidated by the high school-to-college transition. Yet other students may be discouraged from trying out a new language, since they can expect to encounter peers with years of experience in what should be a beginners' course.
Furthermore, such course choices are also detrimental to the students who make them. Why waste anywhere from 30 to 80 hours and over $3,700 to just sit through a class that does not teach you anything? Because students are very likely to receive top grades in classes for which they are overqualified, choosing such courses comes dangerously close to paying for grades.
But what about taking an easy class to balance an otherwise demanding term? Or trying to raise a GPA damaged by a string of pre-med requirements? Or wanting more time to enjoy the Dartmouth social scene? Appropriate course placement does not mean that one should take the hardest possible courses. Students can take advantage of Dartmouth's diverse curriculum and take easy classes that still engage their talents instead of those that involve regurgitating previously acquired knowledge.
The College should require students to take courses appropriate for their level of knowledge. This is already practiced with the various permutations of Social Science 10, where students are prohibited from receiving credit for more than one of the variants of the class. The same should be done with placement tests, which should be mandatory for introductory course sequences in math, science and foreign language. If a student has placed out of a class or had the option of receiving pre-matriculation credit for it, he should not, unless under exceptional circumstances, be allowed to take that class.
Placing oneself into courses of an appropriate level does not mean taking the path of most resistance or not utilizing one's best talents. Instead, students should engage these talents in more challenging and productive ways, thereby developing them further. After all, that should be the purpose of attending Dartmouth, not shouting out answers in perfect subjunctive tense while the rest of the class is still learning to conjugate "tre."
