<p>As some of you may have seen my recent thread about my proposed freshman schedule, I'm just wondering about those of you who have taken an overload schedule in any semester (18 credits or more). Can you share your experience with it? (and list the types of classes that those credits included- lecture or lab type classes, 100/200/300/400 whatever level..)</p>
<p>just a heads up you may or may not know this but i read that the guide for the class numbering system is 100 = freshman 200 = sophomore ect.</p>
<p>Yeah, I know that. I just said in my post that people could say anything about any level class, maybe if they did the overload in a later semester with 300/400 level classes instead…any thoughts/experience with it would be helpful and interesting to hear.</p>
<p>100-level classes aren’t always freshman classes, nor are 200-level classes for sophs, etc. Check with your school. For example, I am a sophomore but I will be taking three 100-level classes, a 500-level class, and a 200-level class. Often, certain majors have you take intro classes in different departments and you might do that in later years. You also may not necessarily be “skipping” anything if you go straight to a 200 or 300-level class. At my school at least it’s all over the place.</p>
<p>It REALLY depends on the specific classes. The normal courseload at my college is 4 courses per semester. I had semesters where I was overwhelmed with 3 courses and others where 5 courses really wasn’t all that bad. </p>
<p>My classes have ranged in workload from “If you come to class and pay attention, you will do well on the exams. There are no other assignments.” (you can take TONS of these!) to “I expect you to put in at least 15 hours of work into the weekly assignments, but I hope that you can complete them in less than 25 hours. If you cannot complete an assignment in 25 hours, come talk to me.” (More than one of these classes and you are screwed.)</p>
<p>I just took 18 credits each semester my sophomore year. They were mostly engineering and math classes for sophomores. Just try to put in at least 1 elective class or it’s going to be a lot of work ( if you want good grades).</p>
<p>The specific classes would be these: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/1173166-freshman-schedule-help.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/1173166-freshman-schedule-help.html</a></p>
<p>Last semester I did 20 credits/6 classes to finish my pre-reqs. They were MicroEcon, MacroEcon, Stats, Marine Bio, Art Orientation, and Financial Acct. It was very difficult but I did it, I would not recommend anyone try to attempt it unless absolutely necessary.</p>
<p>@BrendanR- what level of classes were those? What year in college were you last semester?</p>
<p>it was my last semester at a CCC, the classes varied in difficulty. Surprisingly the Art class was a real ball breaker. If you want to take a lot of credits it is possible but you need to know it is a major commitment.</p>
<p>it depends on the courses you’re taking. I took a 19 credit load (which is the maximum number of credits a student can have at my community college) my freshman year of college during fall, and half of the courses were extracurricular and for interest. My classes were Intro. to Beginning Japanese 1A, Elementary Algebra, The Basics of Music, Tai Chi, Beginning Aikido, IVC College Singers, and Intro. to Writing. I breezed through Japanese since I was already knowledgeable on some Japanese before enrolling in the class, Elementary Algebra was easy for me because I had already learned that **** in high school (but I got placed in there due to a math placement test), and I just BS’d my way through Intro. to Writing because I took that class for P/NP and didn’t care what I got on my essays in the course as long as I got a P in the end. Tai Chi and Beg. Aikido were just because I wanted to partake in some physical activities. I also took those courses P/NP.</p>
<p>If you are taking mainly freshman level classes take only 12 hours. Many of these classes are designed to weed out undesirable students. The professors often are new to teaching and do very poorly, new profs also assign too much work, are poor at teaching, and have too hard of tests. It takes a prof at least 3 years to be even decent, if they say different they are full of it.</p>
<p>I personally would take upper level classes if I was able. For instance I started taking psyc classes and took upper level (junior and senior classes) before coming back and taking the survey class General Psyc. I would not have minored in Psyc if i had done it differently as the General class was really tough even after taking upper classes that it was a survey of.</p>
<p>Also I try to stay with one writting intensive class (like english), a homework intensive class like math, or any lab science per semester. Any one of these classes can produce as much out of class work as three normal classes in your major, it all depends on your prof.</p>
<p>There is a reason that so many students fail freshman eng, college alg, and the beginning lab sciences… they are filled with profs who are awful and usually assign way too much work. </p>
<p>One thing i will definitely advise is to learn your drop dates from classes, if a prof seems bad on day 1, drop and add another class. If a prof seems bad a few weeks in drop. Find out when the last day to drop is… i always drop any class i have a C average in going into the week of the last day to drop. It has helped me keep my 3.91 GPA. There is no reason not to drop classes that you will do poorly in!</p>
<p>@BowTie- </p>
<p>
However, there are certain classes that are required. As a music major, I have several classes where you have to take that 1 class, no other, and you have very, very few electives.</p>
<p>What you say about profs being bad at teaching, what if the ones teaching those classes also teach 300/400 level classes and seem to have a lot of experience teaching? I’m guessing those ones aren’t the bad freshman ones you speak of…</p>
<p>Yeah, the last date to drop is something in mid-October…I’ll check on that.</p>
<p>Would it be better to switch one of the 100history classes to a 200? I don’t think I’d be allowed to try your suggestion of an upper level 300/400 as a freshman, I kind of doubt they let us do that.</p>
<p>A 100 level doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be really difficult or really easy. Just keep the 100 history class.</p>
<p>How much homework/studying have you usually had to do for various history classes?^</p>
<p>You really can’t tell much by the number of the class.</p>
<p>A 100/200 probably aren’t much different, but I’d sure think a 300/400 levels should be a lot harder than the intro 100 course…</p>
<p>They aren’t always ordered like that. What you should look at is the prerequisites. Often the numbers are all mixed up and a 300-level could be an intro class. Look at what the prereqs are - if there are none, it’s probably an intro or fairly easy class. Like I said, I’m a sophomore and taking a 500-level class, and it’s a class that many sophs take after doing the 202 and 210 class (there is no 101). I would look at what you need in order to take the class to judge the difficulty - you don’t want to think a class is super easy judging by the number when it isn’t actually. You just can’t put that much stock into the numbers.</p>
<p>Ok, well I checked and none of those 100 level classes I have on my list have any prerequisites.</p>
<p>I once had a 100-level intro piano class that was a fair bit of work. In addition to 1-2 hours of daily piano exercises, we got weekly music theory, music history and music appreciation assignments. Easy =!= little work.</p>