I am in the process of choosing my courses for the Spring. I was looking to see if anyone had any insight on how good or bad it was to take around 5 classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but having no classes Tuesday or Thursday.
These Classes will most likely be: German 2, Accounting 1, Management 1, Philosophy (Ethics & The Good Life), and Statistics.
And, each class would be 45 minutes, and I would be scheduling them to begin at 9:30 and end at 2:15, so only 15 minute breaks in between.
Any thoughts? Thanks!
P.s. It is an option to put one of them at 10:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I get a lunch break on MWF.
I was on the quarter system and took all my classes on Monday and Weds. one quarter. I wasn’t something I particularly wanted to do, but that’s when I could get the classes I really wanted. A full load is considered 4 courses rather than 5, but the quarter system can be pretty intense because it moves so fast (10 weeks) and all your classes are typically 2 hours each twice a week.
It actually worked out surprisingly well, though. Yes, Mondays and Wednesdays were loooong days with back-to-back 2 hour classes and my brain was usually fried at the end of the day, but I didn’t feel as pressured to stay up late studying after being burned out from classes because I always knew I had at least one full day to study between class days after a good night’s sleep. I even had enough time to do volunteer work tutoring underprivileged elementary school kids with a couple of buddies, which was a great experience.
So . . . . . if you can’t break them up more evenly and think you can handle the long days, I think I’d prefer to take them all M/W/F and get it all out of the way on those days than to break up your T/Th with ONE class. What’s another 45 minutes at that point, right? On the other hand, if you’re a late sleeper (I wasn’t) and think you’ll sleep half the day away on T/Th and be unproductive if you don’t have anything to get up for, I’d take it just to get yourself up and going.
Could work out fine as long as you actually use your no class days to study. If you sleep half the day on Tuesday and Thursday because you have no classes and squander the time then it could be a problem, because study/homework time is reduced in your class days (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) because you are spending all of your time in class.
As someone who’s done something similar, it can be stupidly draining sometimes. You need to be able to push through being tired, afternoon slumps, and all of that because you need to be as present for your last class as your second. While a diverse list of class helps, a break in the middle (especially for food!) is also really useful.
That’s not to say it’s not possible. It’s just difficult. Good luck!
The problem isn’t regular classes, it’s exams. Exams tend to come in waves, and it’s entirely possible all of your classes will end up having exams on the same day, aka The Perfect Storm.
The number one thing to go by is the professor. It would probably be better to shift some of the load to T/Th, but prioritize the professor over everything else.
On the other hand, if you’re a late sleeper (I wasn’t) and think you’ll sleep half the day away on T/Th and be unproductive if you don’t have anything to get up for, I’d take it just to get yourself up and going.