I’m set up to take 9 credit hours this summer in order to get through a state of Florida requirement. I wanted to get your guys’s input and sort of a feel about how rigorous/difficult it would be to take three 3000 level engineering courses over summer (12 weeks). The courses are:
Fluid Mechanics
Dynamics
Mechanics of materials
I’m taking 17 credit hours (diff eq, speech, statics, statistics, physics 2, eng 101) and feel pretty good, not stressed that much. I know that 9 credit hours is considered full time for summer and 12 credit hours is considered full time during fall/spring at my school. Is 3 engineering courses over the summer the same as or roughly equivalent to 4 engineering courses during the fall/spring term?
How many weeks is a full semester?
How many actual hours per week are you in class for the 12 week summer semester for these three classes?
Do you have a representative schedule that fits them in with no overlap?
I would not do it - I did 3 senior level CS classes in the summer (12 weeks) but it was murder. Engineering is harder. Mechanics of Materials is not too bad, but depending on how good your math is Dynamics can be a pain and Fluid Mech… well…
The big question is whether you have a TA teaching or a prof. Some TA’s are more willing to make the class easier, compared to a full prof, for summer. Others are the ‘well, you should be TAing but not teaching’ types. I’ve had both.
I would say take two of the three and some humanity or elective class.
I didn’t think fluid mechanics was hard. I’m sort of a biased commentator on that, though. In reality, it has the potential to be a real beast.
Those three classes are three very important, oft-referenced courses that form the foundation of mechanical or aerospace engineering. I wouldn’t risk sacrificing your comprehension in those courses for the sake of trying to save a little time by cramming them into a summer.