AGGARWAL | No Cap: Remove Class Enrollment Limits at Cornell

Before each semester begins, we wake up early, especially for college students, to pre-enroll in our courses for the term. But, even if we do wake up early, we’re not guaranteed to get into the classes we either want to or are required to take because most classes have an enrollment cap. For a lot of major classes — I’d even venture to say the majority — those caps are reached quickly after pre-enroll opens. These limits are such a common fixture of Cornell classes that we often don’t consider the premise in and of itself: why do we have caps on so many classes? Is it really necessary?