<p>Hi guys,</p>
<p>Are 18 credit hours for freshman too many? Should I drop a class and make it 15 credit hours?</p>
<p>What do you think? Am I overdoing it?</p>
<p>Thank you</p>
<p>In my opinion, 15 hours is enough for the first semester freshman year. Get used to being away from home for the first time, juggling all there is to juggle on your own and managing college course work. For some, college classwork is a big difference from high school academics and takes some getting used to. Plus you want to be able to have some time to experience all the fun that takes place in Blacksburg! 
Is there a reason you need to pile on the hours? Double major perhaps? You still should have plenty of time to add more hours in the future…don’t put yourself under too much stress right off the bat. Just my 2 pennies. Good luck to you this year!</p>
<p>It really depends on the classes you’re taking, and how time-consuming each class will be. I’ve had classes that require almost no time outside of class (AINS 1104, FA 2004) others that take a little bit of time out of class (freshman CHEM, ENGE, etc) and others that have taken a good deal of time. In general, if you choose your instructors and classes carefully, 18 hours is doable, I did 19 fairly rigorous credits second semester freshman year and I ended up with a 3.75 that semester. I’d be careful about pushing your limits first semester though, I wouldn’t do 18 hours of difficult classes, but you can likely do 18 credits of easy/moderate classes if you’re confident. It’d help to know what classes you’re planning on taking.</p>
<p>Also, you need to take in consideration if you’re planning on pledging. The pledge process for any fraternity is a huge time investment.</p>
<p>Put up your classes and I can give you an idea (maybe.) There are 18 hour schedules that’d be pretty easy, and there are 15 hour schedules that’d be insane for a freshman to tackle.</p>
<p>yeah, we need to see what you’re doing and maybe tell us a little more about yourself (HS work ethic, plans at the next level)</p>
<p>18 credits as a senior engineer is exponentially more rigorous than 18 credits as a general engineer.</p>
<p>Every semester of higher level stuff is going to require you (or should, IMO) to step up your drive to a level you didn’t know was possible. As a freshman, 18+ (plenty do it, ask honors kids :-)) is largely going to be about whether you can devote the time required of you and “color within the lines.” You got into a good school, and lackluster effort will be good enough for Bs, solid effort should put you in the B+ to A- range, but it’s going to take focus to keep As.</p>
<p>Thank you for all your replies.</p>
<p>I am taking
Freshman English 1106
Foreign language
World Regions
US Gov and Politics
Chemistry (it is hard for me)
Math 1015 (hard for me)</p>
<p>I am thinking about dropping Math. I would appreciate any advice. When is the latest date I can drop a class? </p>
<p>By what date do we need to pay Fall semester tuition?</p>
<p>Thank you very much.</p>
<p>I don’t know when you have to pay tuition, but you can drop a class as late as a week or two into the semester with no penalty. </p>
<p>Is your major such that dropping math would put you behind? If not then I’d consider dropping that if you think Chem is going to be hard too.</p>
<p>I had to take Math 1015 two years ago and trust me it is not bad (I hate math). The Empo is a different experience as you will basically be teaching yourself everything and have deadlines and such for taking quizzes and tests. But there are plenty of staff to help you out and tutors and such. I got a B with minimal effort so I would at least try it out.</p>
<p>I started at 15 credits and made it through my freshman year passing although restricting the partying to only one weekend a month maybe twice if I was lucky but mostly with B’s and C’s and personally found it to be difficult at 15 credit hours. However I found as I got to 2000/3000 level courses (2nd/3rd year) the courses get significantly harder and more labs/projects. Some semesters I only take 12 credit hours if they are particularly hard time consuming courses. I figured out that I can only at maximum ever take 15 credit hours at a time after trying 17 once and then needing to drop a course and almost failed another because I couldn’t find a way to manage the time to adequately focus on one course after the other even with no free time.</p>
<p>Then again I ran into a double major sophomore in CS this past spring who regularly takes 21 credit hours at a time and get’s A’s in them. That is a rare exception although when I asked him how he did it, he said he suffer’s from insomnia and doesn’t sleep often and he wasn’t joking. So I guess it obviously varies to each individual but yeah the average is 15 for engineering and that itself is challenging for 80-90% of students.</p>
<p>I personally couldn’t do 18 but you might be able to, sometimes I’ll start at 17 or 18 leaving the option to drop a course.</p>
<p>What about me? I’m a freshman, and I am taking:
College Chem I and lab (5 credit hours)
College Algebra (3)I
General Bio I (4)
English Comp I (3)
Accounting Principles I (3)</p>
<p>@showard2009, that schedule looks pretty good. I assume your an accounting major? </p>
<p>For engineering majors I recommend not to start at more than 15 at least for the first semester to get a feel for what they can handle. Everyone is different. Like me I had to reduce my load while I knew people who could take 18 with no problem. I guess some people have better study habits than others or just cope with stress better (I’m working on mine). As for other majors it all depends too. 15 credit hours is pretty much the norm for most college students of all majors though, at least I’ve been told.</p>
<p>I’d be concerned with Chemistry and college algebra since those look like the hardest out of your schedule. Engineers take a different version of Chemistry so I would say your chem is easier but I am not sure. Same with college algebra. For people good at math, it’s like taking algebra I/II in High School again, maybe more advanced but for people not good at math it can be hard. College algebra is the typical math course that all other majors (non technical) and liberal arts majors take and then they are done with math for life. If you did well in algebra or math in general in middle and high school it should be easy. However if your an accounting major I would think you would have more math to take or at least a statistics course. </p>
<p>General Bio could be hard but I am not sure. I’ve heard some people complain about Biology but I think that might be another Biology course (the ones pre-med or Biology majors take) I am not sure if that is general Bio or not though. If it is not then general Bio is probably the easier one. I have not taken Bio so I am not sure.</p>
<p>Either way though your at 18 and in my opinion the schedule looks doable and the classes seem pretty easy/basic but for you it could be hard or easy as well. Just make sure you are on top of everything from day 1. Start doing your readings and homework the first evening you get back. If you stay disciplined you won’t have to cram/review/study as much for exams which is a nice.</p>
<p>Look at it this way, 18 is the most you can take until you require special permission to take more (19+). At 18 your getting the most out of your tuition money and the best deal (if you can still get good grades). I wish I could do that.</p>