Credit Hours Per Semester and Graduate School?

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>I started college with 23 transfer credits from AP exams. My adviser recommended taking 13 hours my first semester to ease the transition, which I did. Since then, I've taken 15 credit hours each semester. Right now, I'm a second semester sophomore (an academic junior) with 66 total credits at the start of the semester.</p>

<p>For a number of reasons, I've downgraded my credit hours to 13 this semester. I am wondering if this is a good decision? The average course load at my school is 15 credits, or 5 classes per semester. However, I have nearly completed both of my majors (I am three classes away from finishing my secondary major and five classes away from finishing my primary major). I am not in danger of not having enough credits to graduate or not completing my majors and intend on taking classes over the summer.</p>

<p>Do graduate/law schools see a record of the numbers of hours you take per semester? Do they want you to have more credits? Our school requires 120 hours to graduate, at this rate I will graduate with 139 credits. Do graduate schools want you to take the maximum number of credits possible?</p>

2

<p>I started college with 30 transfer credits. I did 12 credits both semesters of my junior year. I was recently accepted to MIT for my PhD.</p>

<p>I can’t speak for law school, but PhD programs couldn’t care less about your credit load as long as you are using your time productively.</p>

3

<p>They don’t care about how many hours you graduated with, only that you obtained a certain type of degree (depending on the graduate program), and took certain courses that are prerequisites for the grad program.</p>

<p>Most people graduate with more than 120 credits. It’s actually hard to graduate with exactly 120 credits, due to labs, change of major, etc.</p>