A Student I Expect To Hear From Again (and Again...)

I directly supervise one of the large-enrollment classes taken by freshmen who can't (or won't) take one of our many flavors of calculus. Having a history as a successful and motivated student of mathematics almost certainly precludes enrollment in this class.

Late last night I received a second email* from a student who will be in this class in the fall (but not in my section) asking whether the book has been selected and whether she should buy it now and to what degree the syllabus is determined on a departmental basis and to what extent the instructor has discretion in the teaching of the course.

My plan is to keep responding with simple, factual statements and to hope for the best.


*I responded to the first one; these were follow-up questions.