Quoting from the article, "Other students consider the root of the issue to be the insufficient number of lectures available for certain courses." This is the truth of the matter. In my opinion, it's a huge problem at universities across the country. Why do schools accept more students than they have the capacity to teach? I get it if niche classes might not be offered as often, but basic classes needed by all students in a major in order to graduate? This is especially difficult in the sciences and tech fields, where sequencing is so important, and not being able to get into a particular course means that a student has to drop co-requisites and has to take classes that are not needed just to get to 12 hours for financial aid. Students should not have to delay graduation because they can't get into a class required for their major. This is/was a problem at both NC universities that my sons attended -- Western Carolina and UNC Charlotte. Sometimes I wonder if schools are doing this on purpose to drag out attendance and therefore pad the university coffers. I don't agree with students selling or holding space in courses. I think students who do this should be expelled because this is not fair to all the other students who have late registration time. However, the real problem is with the universities, and not with the students.

That'll do pig, that'll do. From the movie Babe

I'm so sorry this happened. I love your Free Little Library and always wish I could stop by, even as a grown up!

I'm in central NC, and I started peppers, tomatoes and eggplant today. The tray goes on a heat mat under grow lights, on the second floor where it is warmer. I've also started several things via the winter sowing method in milk jugs -- broccoli, lettuce, chard, and some frilly mustards. I've also started some flowers this way -- alyssum & ageratum. I wanted to plan some cardinal flower seeds, but alas, they need cold stratification and I was too late. I'm currently harvesting broccoli that my DH and I babied through the winter, with DH even putting out a heat hose on some of the coldest nights and then putting sheets over it. The lowest we got this year was 13, and the broccoli pulled through just fine. I also overwintered some lettuce, covering it when it got especially cold. And I've got a large pot full of all-volunteer mache that is the result of letting some plants go to seed last year. Mache is a total winter lettuce, I think it goes down to 5 degrees, and I never covered it at all. It will go to seed as soon as it gets warm. Mache is not very common in the US, but it is very common in Europe, where it is also a weed! My plums are just starting to flower. We only get plums every few years due to late frosts, but I have high hopes this year. They are blooming two weeks later than usual, and the long range forecast is looking promising. But I'm trying not to get my hopes up, because I could see us getting a deep freeze at the end of March. It happens.

This is a big one! I'm waiting for that day, too, but it's still a couple of years out for me. The cost of college is more than tuition, too -- it's the trips there and back, the other things college students need, etc. There are so many hidden costs with college that really add up.

Yes. Why would women need more flexibility in course options than men? Many engineering programs have specializations where the students have somewhat different courses the last two years, but the basic coursework is the same for all. At my son's engineering school, for example, students can choose a BSME, or a BSME with a motorsport concentration, or a BSME with a biomedical concentration, so that allows some flexibility. Many schools also have engineering technology degrees which don't focus on theory as much as the BS degrees, and these degrees also don't require as high a level of mathematics. So there are usually plenty of options as it is.

Perhaps I'm not understanding what you are suggesting, but I'm not quite sure how the pathway through a particular engineering major could be significantly altered due to sequencing issues. Engineering is so inflexible because so much builds on the previous courses and thus going out of sequence is not really possible. Maybe I'm missing something?

Wow! I never knew there was such a thing. How cool that you spotted one.

After reading this thread, I had to have one, so I opened a pack I've been hoarding. Maybe I have to have another...

Just today I was talking with my mom, and she told me that one of the first things she noticed after having cataract surgery was how blue the sky really was!

This. I also think it would be worthwhile to look at the difference between check-out time and check-in time. If there is a difference of a couple of hours (which is common), that's probably done purposefully so there is plenty of time between when one person checks out and the other checks in.

I loved seeing that. I think that horse was having fun. Thanks for sharing!

One of my favorite is the senior national parks pass -- we can camp for $10 a night in many places!

I turned 11 in 1974. Breakfast could be any kind of cold cereal or maybe a hot one like grits or oatmeal. Sometimes my mom would make a soft boiled egg for us, too. Maybe we'd have a grapefruit on the side or banana in the cereal. Lunch was pretty much always some kind of sandwich brought to school, along with a piece of fruit and a couple of cookies. We'd buy our milk at school, which was probably a dime when I was 11. For supper it was likely that we'd have venison in some fashion (my dad was a hunter) along with a fresh vegetable or salad, and some kind of starch. We usually had a small dessert after supper. (This was in the US, in the state of North Carolina.)

That's what we paid, too. Trees were through the roof this year. However, I noticed just a few days ago when I was out, that many lots still have plenty of trees, and one loaded lot was not even manned anymore. I'm guessing the trees were so overpriced that people did not buy them. Many people are switching to artificial due to the cost. I'm not ready to go there yet.