Is there a way to lock research paths?

[RonD]

I can see this as being a nice tweak to the UI, but I *never* spread research around 3 schools, and the only time I split between 2 schools is when I will reach my current goal in a school that turn.

Presumably you have specific reasons to be researching particular schools. Suppose your current strategic goals are to be able to cast falling frost and arrow fend, and you want to reach contruction-6. I cannot imagine a case in which you would be better off reaching all 3 goals simultaneously in, say, 15 turns. By focusing on one at a time, you might be able to cast falling frost in 4 turns, then forge const-6 items at the 10-turn mark, and still be able to cast arrow fend on turn 15. That's 11 turns in which you would be able to use falling frost, and 5 turns worth of forging that you would not have been able to do by going for all 3 goals at the same time.