<p>I'm applying to Emory, and I was wondering if a current student or parent could tell me whether taking more classes each semester has affected stress levels and impacted free time.</p>
<p>What are your thoughts on the new credit policy?</p>
<p>Does it really matter? Most schools have been on our system. 4 and 5 (as opposed to a significant amount of people being able to do 3 and doing so) classes are common at most schools. Plus Emory’s version essentially “cheats” when compared to other institutions. For example, if other institutions had continued writing requirements, they would not count them as 4 hours simply because writing workshops and things outside of class may be involved. It is also not typical for other institutions to count recitation and discussion as an extra credit hour. Emory incorporated several such loopholes and customs so as to make the transition as smooth as possible. Basically, they didn’t want it to change things too dramatically. Also, most of the new freshman and upperclassman haven’t truly been impacted by it. Many upperclassman can still get away with 3-4 courses because of the “inflation” from the 4 credit hour system and most of the new freshman seem kind of clueless and are only taking 4 classes (possibly inclusive of health, which is only 1 credit hour. Regardless, on average one should be taking 4 and a 1/2 course or 5 classes), not realizing that in future semesters they’ll have to toughen up and turn it up. In addition, because of the loopholes, many majors may not experience a change. English majors, for example, have most of their classes as CWR which are 4 credits (language majors have a lot as 4 credits for the same reason), science majors and pre-meds benefit from a little intro. course inflation because the pre-med required courses are all worth 4 credit hours because of the integrated lab (orgo’s lab is separate and you must take it and depending on which one you take, it is either 1-2 hours). </p>
<p>Emory is no more or less stressful than any public or private school on this system. For there to be a major change, courses at Emory would, in general, have to be quite rigorous, and like most peers and non-peers, that isn’t the case. Most courses are of medium rigor (as in, they may have a reasonable amount of work, but if you simply do it with a mediocre level of quality, you can get an A/A- as exams in such classes are usually meant to help the grade and are content oriented and don’t involve much critical thinking if you kept up with readings and notes. They aren’t actually trying to challenge you so much as teach you a thing or two and getting you to engage the material before leaving the course), and any semester where people would take 5 courses usually have some mixture of these medium rigor courses and easy courses. Those who plan on taking a difficult instructor for a difficult subject area they are interested in will typically add more easier courses to compensate (and there are plenty of them, as there are at most non-engineering schools) if they aren’t that strong or don’t like being challenged that much, but find such an instructor to be worth it. </p>
<p>I personally think the new policy makes sense and brings Emory in line with peers. Emory’s old credit system seemed derived from when it was on quarter system, however, when that one transfers to the semester system, it makes Emory kind of like a joke rigor wise. Most students should have been consistently taking 4-5 classes a while ago. No one’s free time is really in jeopardy, they’ll simply just have to put a little more time into academics, it’s not a big deal. A person with one difficult or very difficult course and 3-4 mediums (or mixture of medium and easy) is still more likely to be stressed than a person with 5 mediums (or mixture of easy and mediums). Plus, honestly, it sucks to have people who are admitted to Emory and somewhere else which may be rigorous, simply choose Emory because it is perceived as less rigorous. These are probably not the students you want to attract as they won’t be engaged much beyond extracurricular activities and will try to make as small of an academic or intellectual contribution as possible (because they were looking for ease for whatever reason. You don’t want to hear some student here go like “I’m so glad I didn’t choose to attend x because I hear it’s so hard!” You want students who say “My classes here are manageable, but challenging like elsewhere”, the “bring it” sort of attitude). Kind of don’t want to be “that school”. You want it to appear similar to the others academically (in context of work and courseload) so that students know what they are getting into and also look further into the actual academic offerings and less into how hard each school is. Essentially, I think students who actually research the school’s academics will now be attracted or interested for the right reasons. After all, you can pay much less to attend a school that is simply “chill” and end up in the same place as many Emory grads will be after graduation (especially if you are the same caliber). Ideally, if you pay 60k (or however much after fin. aid, which will often be a lot), you wanna say that you had a good time AND that your training is better or did more to prep you for whatever than another place (and you want it to be on par with the best places). If you take it too easy at Emory, it’s actually very possible to receive an even lower caliber education than at a cheaper, say, non-flagship state school (this is the case at peers too).</p>