<p>What do you guys think about taking 11 units of coursework during the first summer of college (6 weeks)? I recently met with a college counselor to discuss my Fall and Summer schedules. I told him about my plan but he thought I shouldn't overwhelm myself so early. He stated that even 8 units would be too much. The classes I intend to take are General Psychology, Physical Anthropology, and Plane Geometry (Remedial Course)</p>
<p>During my senior year of high school I took: AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP US Government, AP Spanish Literature, AP English Literature, and AP Calculus AB as well as participating in various extra curriculars. This summer I wont have much else to worry about besides school. Would I be able to take these 11 units or do I have the wrong idea on how difficult college courses will be?</p>
<p>8 is doable but 11 is lunacy.</p>
<p>how do units convert to credits at your college? at mine 3 credits = 1 unit. normal fall course load would be 15 credits or 5 units, idk what your school’s system is.</p>
<p>What about fall? What would be considered too a many credits? I currently have 13 (3 courses) but I wanted to ad another.</p>
<p>like i said 15 credits is normal. adding another 3-4 credit class to 13 credits would still be doable.</p>
<p>@guineagirl96 A unit is equivalent to one hour per week in class; if a class meets for three hours a week, it would be worth 3 units. </p>
<p>Don’t do it. Summer session tends to be half the length of a normal semester, that means classes move twice as fast. That means half of what you’d normally take is a full load. If students usually take 15 units in a normal semester, you really don’t want more than 8 (2 classes) during the summer.</p>
<p>Also, just curious, why the geometry class if you’ve already hit calculus? That seems like quite a step backwards.</p>
<p>oh so you are talking about credits… 1 credit = 1 hour per week in class. 11 credits is def too much for the summer. 8 is really pushing it… i wouldn’t go above 6. </p>
<p>@failure622 I took geometry 4 years ago with a horrible teacher so I didn’t learn much. After taking the placement exam I scored amazing in all sections but geometry. According to my school, thats enough to set you back two courses. I got an A in AP Calculus last semester so this seemed a bit unfair. A 4 on the exam would place me where I’m suppose to be but I wont see my score until July so I dont want to risk anything,</p>
<p>Since you’re only taking 13 credits in the fall (is that 3 or 4 classes?), how about lessening your summer load and increasing your fall load to maybe 4 or 5 classes? Or better yet, how about you just take the geometry class and take the other gen eds next summer?</p>
<p>I think it’s awesome that you want to jump into school so quickly, but I think you should ease into it. Like the others have said, summer sessions are HARD. Professors have to fit 16 weeks’ worth of material into 6 weeks, so that’s already more than twice as fast. Times that by 3 and you’re looking at shoving a whole lot of content into just 6 weeks.</p>
<p>I personally have only ever taken one summer class, and even though I aced it, I wouldn’t want to do it again. It was in a subject in which I do well and with a professor I really liked, but the readings and writing assignments on top of working full time and having a life was a lot. I was able to manage it just fine, but if I had more than one, I think I would have been burnt out.</p>
<p>Since you took all those AP classes, do you have any credit going into college (or are the results not out yet?)? If you have a few credits going in, then I’d totally recommend just taking geometry and enjoying your summer.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I took 9 during one summer and I won’t say it was the worst decision, but I definitely should not have done 9. I can’t imagine adding another class. Your AP course load was extensive, but you did it over the span of a year, you’re talking about completing 3 courses in 6 weeks.</p>
<p>You’ll be taking quizzes and tests every week. Studying for midterms and then learning new material at the same time and then preparing for another quiz and then preparing for another test and repeating the cycle. It can get overwhelming and even if you’re summer is free, you’ll probably want a little time to yourself. Taking 9 units for me left me with no time to myself and it got a little stressful. </p>
<p>Considering this is your first summer of college I would advise against it. Taking 3 summer courses had me with lower grades because it was too much for me to handle. Especially if this is your first semester, try to keep your GPA up, you don’t want to risk the chance that you start your first semester with lower grades because you took too much on in one session. </p>
<p>Anything’s doable, but that doesn’t mean I would recommend it. Why don’t you take one less class during the summer and take it in the fall instead (since your only taking 3 classes during the fall)? Most students take fewer classes during the summer than the regular semester because classes over the summer move at a much faster pace than during the school year (it’s the same amount of material but shoved into 6 weeks instead). Also, you’re grade may be comprised entirely of exam scores, so if you get overwhelmed one week with midterms and do poorly, then it’s usually hard to recover from that.</p>
<p>Is there any reason you want to take so many courses so early? I understand your reasoning for wanting to take geometry, but why psychology and anthropology? You don’t want to risk potentially doing poorly unless there’s a good reason for it. Don’t burn yourself out before you even get to college.</p>
<p>Something you could consider to get an idea of the workload would be to take 3 of your AP courses and consider what it would be like to learn all of that material in 6 weeks. I don’t think it’s a question of whether you can do it or not. It’s a question of whether you should.</p>
<p>I’d do geometry and either psychology or anthropology.</p>
<p>Take it easy in the summer. Take a few classes, yeah, but don’t spend all your summer in class. Have you tried having fun instead?</p>