CREDIBLE PREREQUISITE. There are strategies that professors can use to encourage students who aren't sufficiently committed to the enterprise to seek less challenging courses. An entrance exam is one possibility, although as a student columnist (do Minnesotans still use the term jag-off?) notes, designing it to limit class size seems a tad unfair, although, as a professor at the institution notes, it's not explicitly forbidden.

It would be useful if professors could request that the no-shows on the first day of class be dropped from the class. That would also speed up late schedule completions and get those out of the way by the end of the first week of classes.

What about the other strategies? A homework assignment, particularly a challenging one, on the first day or in the first week of classes is a good way to encourage some self-selection. But some of the fault lies with the university, which encourages the students to gamble with their futures by lowering the stakes, whether those stakes be the admission standards or the tuition, and calling it "access."