Advice on class schedule

<p>I attend a California Community College, where I will be returning as a College Sophomore this Fall. My first semester went great! I took 3 classes, which I all passed with an A. My second semester didn't go all too well. My professors were less than amazing and I had to drop my classes after missing 3 weeks after my father passed away.</p>

<p>I can't wait to get back into school and I already have my registration date and different classes picked out. Now I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. First, I'm trying to figure out whether or not I should take 3 or 4 classes. My first semester I had taken 3 classes and it worked out great! My second semester I had taken 4 classes, and due to life events, I fell behind and eventually withdrew. This is going to be my third semester and I'm ready to go to school again. I work part time, I have flexible hours that are always changing (One week I will work 22 hours, the next week I will have 11 hours). In high school I was a straight A student, I graduated high school a year early through an independent study program, while I worked a part time job, so I know I am more than capable of keeping up with the work. I need some advice on what I should do.</p>

<p>My next problem has to do with online classes versus campus classes. Reminiscing back to my first two semesters at the same college, I took all my classes on the campus and my first semester, being at school wasn't a burden. I loved going to class, I enjoyed my professors, etc etc. My second semester was a little more challenging. My professors were all confusing and I didn't feel as if my classes were worth my time. I left early and didn't show up a few times each class and once my dad passed away, I knew I was giving up on that semester with those professors.
Now, the new semester is coming up and I weeded through the class catalog, figured out which courses I need to transfer to a California State University, and started charting down every class I was interested in and needed. Once I had a list of over 20 classes, I looked up every professor on the internet and seen their 'teaching ratings' and weeded out the ones with bad reviews (I should have done this when I picked out my classes for second semester. After the semester had already started, I found the professor rating website and looked my professors up and to no surprise, they all had low rankings). Now, I have 12 different classes to choose from (some classes are duplicates but different professors or some are online classes). I have never had an online class before and now I am choosing whether or not I want to switch my entire school schedule to online or just try one or two online classes out at first.</p>

<p>My third question has to do with the courses that are mandatory that I take due to my major. I am majoring in Communications and there is a list of Communication courses I need in order to transfer with my A.A. in Communication Studies. I was wondering if I should evenly distribute my general education courses per semester with my mandatory Communication classes, or if I should finish all my General Education first or finish my Communication requirements first? I need some opinions on what I should do.</p>

<p>Last but not least, I was wondering if anyone knew how overlapping classes work. What I mean by overlapping classes is, for example, a class like Sociology 101. Sociology 101 is offered as a 'psychology' requirement for a CSU transfer and offered as a 'Lifelong Learning' requirement as well. Specifically, I was wondering if I took one semester of a class, I will use Sociology 101 for an example, will it count for both a 'psychology' requirement and a 'Lifelong Learning' requirement, or will I need to choose which requirement that class fulfills?</p>

<p>Hopefully I can get a lot of insight on my situation! I could need all the opinions and different view points that I can get!</p>