Next semester I am thinking of enrolling in 18 hours to make up for some of the wasted credits I took because of advice from my advisor and I will be working a job of which 18 hours a week is mandatory. My first semester of freshman year was much different from many other freshmen because I began with 21 hours already accumulated from high school(So I’m technically a 2nd semester sophomore now), so I did have some room for error, however, I believe I’m too deep to graduate on time by taking 15 hours a semester. I switched from Crim to Intl Studies with my AoE as: Intelligence & Nat. Security (Once again, shoutout advisors). I am a good student who doesn’t have to study in order to get A’s (last semester I got a 3.8, so I had one B), and throughout high school I regularly worked 20-25 hours without issue, so I am good with time management as far as classes and work. My question is, compiled with my course schedule below, will a more-so relaxed job at 18 hours a week be too much or just right? Any help/advice will be great, much thanks to anyone who responds. Also, I know I’m starting 2 new foreign languages, but 1) I do enjoy learning them and 2) I do have a general comprehension of both that will give me a buffer in the class. The reasons I am taking both is because they’ll pretty much guarantee a job when I graduate and I simply don’t find other languages challenging enough to take.
My Schedule-
Arabic 101 - MWF
Russian 101 - MWF
USSR & After; 1953-Present - MWF
Intro Intl Relations - MW
Principles of Microeconomics - T&R
20th Century Europe - T&R
(p.s.- Personally Interested in all classes except econ)
It’s doable based on what you said about yourself, but it will leave little room for anything outside of school and work. If your ok with that, then fine. My D studies 2 languages, like you, doesn’t need to study much, and overloads each semester and does well. But she doesn’t have a job and as a result is able to also load up on ECs and have a social life. The job may be what limits you more than the 18 credits.
Awesome, thanks for the insight! I can’t find many threads with people in a similar enough situation as myself to really compare so I greatly appreciate it!
@twoinanddone what do you mean they can’t read ahead with beginning languages? I’m in Arabic 101 and we use alkitaaab like most colleges. Very easy to read ahead. I do the whole week’s homework the weekend before.
As long as you don’t mind doing a lot of the readings/assignments over the weekend, it could be manageable. Beginning Arabic and Russian classes will just move slower than, say, a beginning Spanish class. Have you ever studied 2 languages at once before?
Also, a couple years of intro-intermediate language classes will not guarantee any kind of job. In fact most employers won’t care unless you are very advanced. If job prospect is your main goal, pick one language and get really good at it.
Like others, the dual language classes would be my only concern. Do you have experience with learning nonRomance languages or languages with different alphabetic representation? That can be challenging, and learning two at once seems like a bad idea to me. I’d drop one of the language courses and replace it with something else that meets your requirements.
Yes I picked up German quite easily and enjoyed doing so, and that seems to be the European language that English speakers seem to have the most issues with. It’s definitely not a romance language, and with the additions of the umlauts and esszett it is in theory somewhat like Russian as far as learning the written structure of the language. I have already began learning to speak Russian little by little, and I have also began learning Arabic at the basic structure level for writing which I will continue through the summer. I’m confident in my ability to absorb new information, so my worries aren’t really with the learning of a new language, but rather what everyday life will be like since I’m combining more classes and work.