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semester hours
to those of you who go to college: is 18 hours a semester a little too much? i'm a highschool senior, graduating early, and i also want to get through college as fast as possible too. i also want to work while i'm there... does this mean that i'd have no social life whatsoever? i don't want to kill myself with schoolwork like i have been this whole year but i also want to get out of there asap, i have my reasons.
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Do you mean 18 hours per week? I had 20 hours of classes a week, managed a full time job, and squeezed in some partying ... the first few weeks are all about adjusting to college life ... you'll find the short cuts you can take without harming your grades and how to use your time most efficiently ... trust me, if you take anything from college at all, we all graduate with how to procastinate to our advantage ... ha ha... nah, you have nothing to worry about. These can be the best years of your life ... remember balance is the key though. If you find yourself getting to bogged down, don't hesitate to allow yourself some time to let loose! However don't allow college partying get the best of your grades either ... have standards and meet them (make sure they're realistic) all colleges have advisors as well, and I'd reccomend talking to one of them .. they're nice non-judgemental people who just want to make sure you get the most for your money, so take advantage of their services!
Hope this helped!
Alyssa
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anonymous -
Yes, 18 hours a semester is a lot. To tell you the truth, at my college that's the maximum number of hours you can take!
I'm taking 17 credit hours this semester, and it's going alright, but two classes are really killing me because they require a lot of time. My suggestion is that since you will be a freshman, try maybe 12-15 credit hours your first semester. If you do pretty well, go ahead and take 18 your second semester.
Good luck!
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18 hours is hard, but... it may be doable. Just remember that for every hour of class, you're supposed to do 2 hours of study time. You more likely than not won't be able to work AND have a social life.
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In my opinion, I think it would be a pretty bad idea. But that's because I have had bad luck at getting myself motivated.
There's a number of things that it would depend on. Like the other's have said, it depends on the type of classes you take. The classes that I take are all very hard science classes that involve a lot of reading outside of class, and all the exams end up being during the same week. I would never think about taking more than four at a time. Other students manage to do it, but they have no time to relax at all during the semester.
Like notso said, it's a good idea to look into summer classes. The hard thing about summer classes is that they're usually scrunched into a shorter time frame, so you get about half the time to do things then you would if it was a normal semester. So it's a good idea to take no more than 2 classes per semester. But, then again, I've talked to students who have taken as many as four or more classes per summer semester. They just don't have time for anything else.
Another thing you have to think about is whether or not your going to have a job while in college. Having a part time job really tires me out and interrupts my homework schedule. Even though I only work 20 hours a week at the absolute most, it still takes away a lot of time.
It's good to get a feel for the classes. Some teachers tell you that for every hour you spend in class, you should be spending at least 4 hours outside of class doing homework. This sounds quite insane huh? But, in some instances it's needed each week.
You could always try it out, and withdraw from the class before the cut off period for withdrawing. You will still have to pay for the class, but it might be worth it to see for yourself whether or not you'll be able to handle it. Different people can handle different workloads.
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It really depends on your program. If the majority of your classes are lectures, followed by a multiple choice exam and midterm, or an essay or two then it should be no problem. However if you have more intense classes, like with labs, assignments, presentations and what not, it may be too overwhelming.
An easier way to complete college faster with out being bogged down during the year is to take summer classes. I'm not really sure of the American credit system, but you should be able to earn two per summer.
It's almost impossible not to have a social life while at college, especially if you are living on campus, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.
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It really depends on the school, what type of classes they are, and your own personal work ethic.
I had 17 credits last semester, and did just fine. But because of the type of classes I had (education, developmental psych., history) I was constantly writing papers. This semester I've got 15 credits and I'm often bored, and have much less homework but more studying (this semester I've got math and education classes).
The recommended number of credits at my school is 15. That's supposedly 15 hours in class, and 30 hours of work outside of class per week.
Is there an academic advisor you can talk to? She/he should be able to give you some relevant advice. (though I recommend taking everything an advisor says with a grain of salt- sometimes they've been known to give bad advice)
One guy I know is graduating this year, after only 3 years here. He entered with credits from high school, and took at least 18 credits a semester, plus about 6 every summer. He DID have to work his butt off, but it was worth it to him- he was able to get married at age 20 and will be done with school this may.
As a general rule, math and science classes (or any big lecture class) have a lot of studying. English, history, and other humanities type classes have more papers to write. So the best way to balance your schedule is to take a mix of these type of classes if possible. Don't take 18 credits worth of science, you'll end up with all your exams at the same time and go crazy trying to study. At the same time, if you take 18 credits of humanities courses, you'll probably have at least 6 different classes to get homework from, and that workload would be insane.
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