<p>Am I taking too many units?
Hi im a chemE major freshman at cal poly, which goes by winter/spring/fall quarters (not semester) im trying to follow my “road map/curriculum sheet” for knowing what classes to take. just my concern is if it asks for too many units (nineteen units) in the fall/1st quarter
intro to ChemE 3 units
General Chemistry 4 units
Analytic Geometry and Calc1 4 units
Economics 4 units
Eng 104 4 units</p>
<p>in the next quarter though, it drops down to only 15 units (4 classes) w/ the completion of ENG 104
if I decide to drop one of the classes, it will most likely be economics as the rest are core classes, and perhaps, take econ in the summer.</p>
<p>Well, have you taken a heavy load before? What are your past experiences with that?</p>
<p>And how are you able to take 19 units already? I know I can only take up to that much by the time September rolls around…</p>
<p>I’d advise taking four classes, but this is what I plan to take:</p>
<p>MAT 201 - Medium/Hard
MAT 380 - Medium/Hard
STA 241 - Medium/Hard
GEO 351 - RIDICULOUSLY EASY
ENG 100 - RIDICULOUSLY EASY</p>
<p>I plan on adding the geo class (if I can) later this month when schedule adjustment period comes and ENG 100 if i can during add/drop period. </p>
<p>Your schedule sounds pretty rough, however. I’d say you wouldn’t have much of a social life but if you don’t aim to have one then by all means dive in. I think you could manage 4 classes, tho. Definitely drop econ if it looks like too much cause you look like you’ve got a lot to begin with.</p>
<p>Thats quite a bit for a freshman to be taking because its your first year and you don’t want to dive in doing to many classes and do poorly. If you’re use to doing a lot of work and such go for it. If not try to tone it down by dropping a one class. The last thing you want is to be super stressed because of taking to many classes and having a heavy work load.</p>
<p>If I’m not mistaken, isn’t chemical engineering one of the majors that many students take 5 years to complete? Your roadmap is based on 4 years - I’m pretty sure that would be for students doing the 4-year pledge.</p>
<p>If I didn’t see that it’s set out like that on your roadmap, I would say 19 is way too many. Unless you have to squeeze everything in because you’re doing a 4-year pledge, I wouldn’t want to take that many in one quarter. Spread it out a bit. Like you said, Cal Poly is on a quarter system, not semester. My experience with the semester system is that it’s slower and there’s more time to cover material. At least for the first quarter, I don’t think you should take any more than 15 or 16 units. But like I said, if you’re on the 4-year pledge then you don’t have much of a choice since that’s how your roadmap is set up.</p>
<p>good points, both of you, imo there are benefits to both sides.
taking 18-19 units may guarantee 4 yr graduation, but one can also take 14-15 w/ in addition to summer units. taking 18-19 may prepare you mentally for when you get to junior/senior years (where my orientation prof mentioned most students drop out from).</p>
<p>but one cannot forget that with taking only 14-15 (4 classes) it would be easier to focus in on classes and bring up that G.P.A.</p>
<p>i think taking 4 classes each fall/winter/spring quarter and like 2 social science/humanities classes in the summer seems like the best approach. in total my major requires 198 units</p>
<p>So are you “signed up” for the 4-year pledge? Doing so does get you priority registration - not sure if you were aware of that.</p>
<p>Looks like you know the benefits to both sides. You would have to decide if you want to get out of there in 4 years doing Fall/Winter/Spring, spreading it out a bit more taking Summer into consideration, or skipping the Summer quarter and graduating in 5 years.</p>
<p>soleivie: can you still take summer classes in the pledge? if so i’ll probably sign up. to me it seems taking 5 classes in 1 quarter may be a bit bombastic. not saying its impossible to still get good grades in that, but with 4 your bound to get higher gpa and be able to retain the information better in the future. </p>
<p>also, Caldud how easy is EGR 100? i might just take that in place of econ</p>
<p>Well, if you take Ms. Woods it’ll be an easy peasy GE. That’s my plan. She has two classes open, I think. Looked up the info on that class and everyone says it’s a really easy A.</p>
<p>Soleilvie: You can take Summer classes with 4 year pledge. Note that Summer classes are considerably more expensive ($1000 or so for a single 4-unit).</p>
<p>From one engineering student to another: if you can’t take that schedule and get at least a 3.5 you will not graduate with an engineering degree. Man (or woman) up or change your major! All of those classes combined will have the difficulty of one or two classes in your Junior/Senior year.</p>