Senior Anxiously Asks Professor If Midterms Will Be Graded Before the Drop Deadline for Fourth Year in a Row

The drop deadline is rapidly approaching, and midterms are already in full swing. Cole Barron (C '18) put off his Physical World requirement until his very last semester at Penn, and has a Geology midterm coming up. Naturally, Barron raised his hand eagerly in class on Monday to ask the professor if the midterms will be graded before the drop deadline. The professor replied, "Yes, they will be, as they always are. But Cole, you're a senior and you need this requirement to graduate. How could you possibly drop this class?"

Barron has been asking the same question every semester for the past four years. His performance on the midterms seems to be entirely contingent on whether or not grades come out before the drop deadline. In fact, he has enrolled in Geology 125 a total of seven times—once every semester since his freshman fall—and each time has simply dropped the class after receiving his midterm grade.

Which begs the question, will Barron pull through and get higher than a 26% on this upcoming test? Will the University let him graduate, perhaps without a sector fulfilled? We'll have to wait to find out.