<p>I was browsing through my course offerings and wrote up the classes I want to take with their hours. How many hours does one take per semester. I know the minimum is 12, but do people normally do 14, 15? Thanks :)</p>
<p>Anywhere between 14 and 16 is a normal courseload. People who don't have lab courses (or the more rare 1 or 2 hour courses) generally take 15 hours, or 5 classes. For science students, it's a little harder to hit the magic number of 15. 14 hours (two lab courses and two three-hour courses) is farily common, but it's not uncommon to take 15 hours (three four-hour courses and one three-hour course) or 16 hours (four four-hour courses.</p>
<p>It seems most students do take about 15 hours. However, a word of warning. The first semester is a big adjustment. If you are taking heavy science/lab classes--keep it light. The science class may be only 4 hours, but it is worth much more than that time wise. A friend who used to be a premed advisor said that the biggest mistake he saw freshmen premeds make was doubling up on lab classes---they got too overloaded and stressed out to start their college days on a positive track whether it be academically or psychologicallly.</p>
<p>Regarding the premed thing, I know a lot of schools do tell you not to take 2 lab courses at the same time, at least not at first. But our premed advisor here DOES recommend taking two (chem and bio) at the same time from the beginning to get everything in for the MCATs. You can vary it a little bit, but if you're off the normal sequence, it can be difficult to register for courses. For example, I have a friend who came in with AP credit for the intro chem class, took organic first semester, but Organic II wasn't even offered for this semester. So she had to take biochem (which would be the next semester) instead. Getting off the sequence with bio courses probably wouldn't be such a problem, because I think they tend to be offered about every semester.</p>
<p>It's doable to take two at the same time. I've been doing it with a pretty full load (15 last semester, 16.5 this semester) and involved in some very time consuming ECs and I'm not ready to tear my hair out yet. It was kind of hard to get into the swing at first, but it wasn't the end of the world. The key is being able to manage your time and work efficiently in the free time you do have. I don't recommend Friday afternoon lab or more than one night lab, because it can be kind of a drag. That alone has probably made some people drop premed. :)</p>
<p>If you're thinking premed, look at the WFU health professions overview here: <a href="http://www.wfu.edu/%7Elane/hpp/orientation.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.wfu.edu/~lane/hpp/orientation.html</a> and attend the health professions info session during orientation.</p>
<p>But yeah, I would say 14 to 15 is probably normal at first...</p>
<p>No, I'm planning on doing a double major of political science/history/economics (I'm not sure which ones) and possibly an Italian minor, if I can fit all of it in. I have a good idea of what I want to take for my first year and a half:
English Writing Seminar (3)
The two required health (2)
Introduction to Religion (3)
Philosophy (3)
Introduction to Drawing (3)
Introduction to Economics (3)
International Politics (3)
Introductory Psychology (3)
Everday Chemistry (4)
Calculus Foundations (4)
Elementary Probability and Stats (4)
and then a bunch of Italian classes.</p>
<p>Where did you get all those course offerings from?</p>
<p>I have a book, granted its from a few years ago (2004 maybe?), but it gives you the basic idea.</p>
<p>Oh okay. I was like why don't I have one?</p>
<p>You could probably get one from the admissions office if you wanted.</p>
<p>The current one's online as a PDF file [url=<a href="http://www.wfu.edu/new/publications/academics/ugb2005-2006.pdf%5Dhere%5B/url">http://www.wfu.edu/new/publications/academics/ugb2005-2006.pdf]here[/url</a>] but as it's 300+ pages it might be sort of a hassle to try to read on your computer...</p>