Pre-Enrollment and the Market for Lemons
It is a relatively new phenomenon that Cornell gives the option for professors to upload syllabi to the course roster website prior to pre-enrollment. In fact, the Class of 2021 will be the be the first to graduate with this mechanism in place all four years of their undergraduate experience. The addition of this feature was the result of a student-led effort started in 2014 by a Student Assembly representative. The effort culminated in the passage of a SA resolution in 2016 and subsequent approval by Dean Kotlikoff and the deans of the undergraduate colleges to implement this technology (1).
However, in my experience, the feature is not used nearly enough. For example, in my major’s department, out of the 16 undergraduate courses being taught during the Spring 2021 semester (not including independent study or research options), only 2 feature syllabi on the course roster website. I found this reality very frustrating as I navigated the course shopping process last week, a frustration that I imagine many students also shared. In thinking about this predicament, it became apparent to me that choosing courses given the lack of syllabi present during the pre-enrollment period can be analyzed as a market with asymmetric information. Here’s how:
Basic assumptions of the Market for Lemons in the context of choosing courses during pre-enrollment (based on the framework outlined in the textbook):
(i) There are different qualities of courses — for the sake of the example let’s just say that some courses are “good” and some are “bad.” In reality, different attributes make classes more or less appealing to different students. This can be related to content, teaching style, assignment types and frequencies (papers, exams, problem sets), grading scheme, etc.. These attributes affect the value that students will assign to the course in the context of their preferences and needs.
(ii) With all information available (perhaps in the form of syllabi), students would be able to accurately assign courses with a true value given the quality level. Thus, they would be able to decide which courses were the right fit for them before enrolling.
(iii) However, there is asymmetric information. Without syllabi, a professor will have more information about the course attributes than students will.
(iv) If students cannot decipher between “good” classes and “bad” classes, then they will have to assign a uniform value to all classes, and only take a given class if they believe that the quality of the course is acceptable given their value (needs).
The Result of Asymmetric Information:
When students lack a full set of official information about a course, they may assume that a course is “bad” unless otherwise recommended by friends, peers, or websites such as Rate My Professors. Students may choose to enroll in more classes than they intend to take, giving them time to attend a few lectures and gain access to the syllabus, only to drop the courses that do not meet their needs (1). Furthermore, relying on word-of-mouth recommendations poses its own disadvantages, limiting students’ perspectives on courses that are out of scope with what friends or peers have previously taken. And reviews on websites like Rate My Professors may not provide accurate information given that the number of reviews is often small.
The result can be summed up by the feedback from a survey at the University of Pennsylvania. The Dean’s Advisory Board for the College of Arts and Sciences at UPenn posed questions earlier this year about course enrollment. The findings: Out of around 1,500 respondents, over 96% said that they “would be more likely to register for a class if there was a syllabus posted” (2). Additionally, over 80% said they “have chosen to not register for a class because of insufficient information” (2). Lastly, “93% said stress levels would be reduced if a syllabus was posted” (2). I imagine that if these questions were posed to Cornell students, the results would be similar. It is clear the existence of asymmetric information during the pre-enrollment process is affecting how students make their decisions. Sadly, we may be missing out on classes that we would really enjoy over fear of the unknown.
The Signal – (in this case the syllabus)
To reduce the prevalence of asymmetric information in the course selection process, Cornell should be making a greater effort (or even requiring professors) to attach syllabi (updated or from a prior semester) to the course roster. This sentiment is shared among students across universities, as witnessed by student-run newspaper articles calling for similar action at many peer institutions (3). It is clear that by adding syllabi to course descriptions, students would have much more information to base their enrollment decisions on, saving both time and energy at the start of the new semester. Students may not feel as pressured to “overenroll” or to take only classes that they have heard about from other students. Thus, this would not only benefit the students, but would also give professors a broader audience as students would not be scared off by sparse information about class content and/or structure (1).
In the market for lemons, this would be known as the signal. The signal acts as a means for sellers (professors) to indicate the “quality” of their course to buyers (students). This signal is a crucial step in breaking down the information asymmetries that exist in the course selection market at Cornell right now.
Sources:
[1] https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2017/07/thanks-student-assembly-syllabi-are-now-available-online