I was a bit of a sponge at university, and every semester I exceeded the standard course load in order to study both biology and computer science. I love studying, and in fact it was a struggle thinking of a bad studying experience.
But there were always administrative hurdles. In my third year, I exceeded the maximum number of credits for the Bachelor of Science. Why is there even such a number? (I realise now that it probably has to do with public funding of education. However, as I was an international student, my parents were paying the unsubsidised, per-unit, fee and that limit really shouldn’t apply!)
I jumped through many hoops and eventually bypassed that limit. However, when it came time to my honours year, I was again told that I would struggle to do more than the recommended load and that I shouldn’t take a course I really wanted to take, Theory of Computing, even though I had shown I could handle extra load. Anyway, I didn’t take the course, but I don’t think it would have been too much and I regret to this day not taking it.
There was really no way to fix it after the fact. But for future students, it would be good to have an advice pipeline that is tailored to individual needs, rather than appealing to the mean.
