Earlier this week, the College Academic Council sponsored a town hall that offered students the chance to sit in on a panel with College Dean Chester Gillis and discuss the possibility of changing the academic requirements from a 5:3 model, in which students take five classes worth three credits each semester, to a 4:4 model, in which students would take four classes worth four credits each semester.

Not only is the 4:4 model followed by many of our peer institutions, it also lends itself to the liberal arts model of the College by offering students a multitude of new options regarding their academic paths.

Firstly, it would allow students to devote greater time to their existing classes. Georgetown remains one of the only schools at which five classes is the average credit load.

Such a change to one fewer class per semester would mean three contact hours and countless secondary hours that students could use to more fully engage with their class material and professors.

Having one fewer class could additionally give students more flexibility in their schedules to pursue part-time jobs or internships, a pertinent and commonly experienced struggle for upperclassmen looking to break into the workforce after graduation.

Finally, students could use a 4:4 system to take on a fifth class that would carry with it more credits than a fifth class does currently, allowing them to graduate early or move to part-time status their senior year.

While requirements differ across schools, a switch in the College, the university’s largest undergraduate school, could set an important precedent for the three other schools to reconsider their existing credit requirements.