<p>Does it matter as much as in freshman admissions?</p>
<p>Next semester I plan on taking 15 hours, which is a step down from the 18 I'm currently taking. One of my classes next semester is a 1-hour swimming class, and I'm taking it just to fulfill my scholarship requirement of 15 hours per semester. If it's any consolation, I am taking Chem. and Physics, both with labs, an honors class, and a literature class required for all English majors (so it's not a random blow-off).</p>
<p>Would it be better to take a more rigorous course load? I wanted to drop to 15 hours because I want to spend more time with my extracurriculars, and because 18 hours is quite a lot (with 2 science classes with labs). I just don't want admissions to think I'm taking the easy way out.</p>
<p>It doesn’t seem like you’re taking the easy way out to me.
I know that in some colleges (my friend’s college) 4 courses is the norm and she’s only taking 1 lab class. Don’t fret too much about your workload, I think that it’s plenty.
Just show deep involvement in one or two extracurriculars that you love, that’ll help them see that you’re not just a student but a person with passion in diverse fields.</p>
<p>Where are you? Here in CA no one really cares about coursework rigor except for competitive majors. So engineering or business at schools at UCLA or UCB. Even as an English major applying to UCB, you would NOT be expected to take chem or physics. They wouldn’t penalize you in the slightest for taking geology and marine science. 15 units with those classes is rigorous enough.</p>
<p>FYI I am taking 19 right now. Calc 1, Acct 2, comparative politics, ethics, and physical geology w/ lab. I plan to take 14 next semester. Calc 2, Micro Econ, English 2 and some communications class.</p>
<p>TX. But I’m applying to privates, mostly in other states. I’m not aiming for a competitive major like engineering, but I would assume that due to the selectivity of the schools I’m applying to, course rigor would be a consideration.</p>
<p>Which privates? At large schools like USC what I said above still holds true. At elite schools like Columbia then yes you would needed those courses.</p>
<p>Course load matters as a transfer student, when it comes to full time student or not. A good university that has tough academics, does not want to admit a student who has a 4.0 but only took a couple classes a semester. They have not proved they could handle being a full time student, and still get good grades.</p>
<p>Taking 12 credits of easy classes is different then taking 12 credits of difficult classes. This also might show a university that you might not be able to handle their courses. </p>
<p>As long as you show that you can handle a heavy school workload, you should be ok.</p>
<p>*I got some of this info from a transfer event at a good private school</p>
<p>How do they view course rigor in schedules if I could have had more difficult classes but couldn’t register for those classes because they are already filled by my registration time? Getting the classes I need as a freshman is a nightmare, especially when sophomores/juniors also are enrolling in those classes.</p>
<p>Most likely, they just want to see you are at least attending school full time.</p>
<p>If your intended major needs you to take at least 5 classes a semester, and you have only been part time in community college, that would look bad.</p>
<p>So it depends how selective the college is, and the major you are choosing.</p>
<p>My colleges range from pretty selective to very. My list is posted somewhere in my history, and it’s long.</p>
<p>My current major is biochemistry, which would typically require 15 hours per semester at least. I have AP credit, and I’m taking 18, so I’m comfortably ahead. When I transfer, I’m gonna switch to classics, which requires less hours per semester.</p>
<p>Having EC will definitely look good. 15 credits is still above the full time mark anyway, and that along with a good GPA(very important) will be awesome.</p>
<p>When your transferring put it on your application essay that you didnt want to just do well in school, but also take advantage of what your college offers by participating in extracurricular activities (then say how you want to continue to do that at their school).</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter at all…just take 4-5 classes a semester and you’re good. This hard vs. easy class concept isn’t measurable. Some of the easiest classes I had had scary titles and currently some of my hardest sounding classes are my easiest. How would an adcom have knowledge of all classes and all professors/sections at all schools?</p>
<p>As someone who went through the transfer process last year and got into many top 20 schools I can confirm this. Too much neuroticism on the boards, interesting EC’s matter 100x more than some slight perceived differences in course rigor/load.</p>
<p>I’m just getting mixed messages because I recently emailed a few colleges and they said rigor matters quite a bit. I don’t know if it’s just a “threshold” criterion or an in-depth evaluation.</p>
<p>FWIW, I emailed an Amherst admission counselor and she said my schedule “looks great” even with the 15 hours.</p>
<p>I have no clue about Amherst personally but going off the stats, it has a population of 37k. Big colleges like that don’t really care THAT much about rigor in transfers. The reason for this is because with large student sizes stuff changes. People drop out, people switch majors, etc. Usually their definition of rigor is 15+ semester units in courses that articulate as general ed classes and/or major prep classes. Taking really rigorsous courses i.e. engineering type course load of chem, physics, calc, cs, etc. over soft science classes of astronomy or geology isn’t really that important. Or in other words an A in geology is better than a B in chemistry. Basically as long as you can maintain a high GPA, 3.6-3.7+ and complete the major prep classes you should be in.</p>
<p>oh. Okay in that case you should take hard and rigorous class like general chemistry, organic chemistry, calculus based physics, etc. If you can take more classes I would do it.</p>
<p>^but that’s the thing. According to them, I’m fine, but should I really believe that? Everyone else I’ve talked to said rigor is important (though I didn’t really tell them my schedule like I did with Amherst).</p>