Too much of one thing can be bad. The cap prohibiting students from taking more than 18 units prevents students from placing themselves in tough situations.
The cap is there to help the student and not hurt them. If a student were to have the liberty of signing up for more classes then would it not lead to some of those students dropping a class or two, maybe even more, when they cannot handle the work load?
In this event, the student, aside from dropping a class, might also be hurting his or her other classes.
If that did happen the student, who for this example we’ll say is B average student, might hurt his chance of earning a better grade. If the student had not taken over 18 units then they might have had a chance to do better and maintain their grade point average.
Aside from possibly ruining their grade point average taking too many units might also lead to many more students dropping classes. With this, more students might get a little dirt on their transcripts with some W’s.
The other students who did not get in because they decided to take more than 18 units will have to find another way to take the class they need. The student who did not get in will have to take a gamble on whether he or she will get into the same course with another professor.
This can all be avoided if everyone just goes along with the unit cap. As it stands, taking 18 units in no easy task for some, but for others it may be difficult. If there were not unit cap then there will be a lot of students with eyes bigger than their stomachs.
This is not to say it is impossible to handle more than 18 units, but there is also no way to believe everyone who takes more than 18 units can succeed. Is not true that everyone is not the same?
