<p>I'll be entering W&M as a student for the first time this Fall. I would like to gradually acclimate to the rigor of the school, instead of making the mistake of taking classes in an overwhelming amount. For those who have completed a semester or more at W&M, what would be considered a manageable amount of credits to take for someone who wishes to achieve high grades, work part-time, and participate in curricular activities? So far, my course plan looks like this: intro to astronomy, international relations, chinese 201, micro econ.</p>
<p>The average is 15 credits per semester (5 courses for 3 credits each). One of those classes is sometimes a “slack class” that involves less work (i.e. NOT any econ, gov, hard science, or language classes). The minimum to be enrolled full time is 12 credits. A lot of freshmen take one 4 credit course (i.e. writing intensive freshman seminar), three 3 credit courses, and then some 1 credit course, such as ballroom dancing or a lab for a total of 14 credits.</p>
<p>So, depending on how quickly and well you think you will adjust to college, how many AP credits you are coming in with, how efficiently you do your work, and the intensity of the courses (check ratemyprofessor.com for some kind of idea), somewhere between 12 and 15 credits is probably appropriate.</p>
<p>you need 120 credits to graduate. So, if you come in with 0 credits, you need to average 15 per semester to get 120 in 8 semesters.</p>
<p>If you come in with 20 credits, then you only need 100 more to graduate, so you can take fewer. Of course, some people will have 130+ credits when they graduate. Other people (like me) will get exactly 120. Some people will push through 18-20 credits while they are a senior… other people will take 12 credits, with 3 of them being pass/fail so they really only have to worry about 3 classes. There is no benefit to graduating with more than 120 credits.</p>
<p>Your plan for first semester looks good to me. That should be 13/14 credits?</p>
<p>Thank you both for your informative replies! </p>
<p>@ soccerguy: Yes, 14 credits.</p>
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<p>This is mostly true, and while your first semester courseload indicates you don’t seem to be headed down this route, I figured I’d mention… most states require 150 credits for CPA candidates. If you come in with credits, you can plan well enough ahead and be ready to sit for the CPA exam without needing to go for a 5th year, whether that be undergrad or MAcc. So if you’re pursuing an Accounting major, something to consider. Otherwise what soccerguy and HtH said is exactly right - most students choose to take 13 or 14 credits and make them up later.</p>
<p>Take overloads every semester and get the most credits for your money.</p>