Credits per semester

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>As an incoming freshman mechanical engineering major at VCU, I have so far signed up for 19 credits.</p>

<p>General Chem 1 (3)
General Chem 1 Lab (1)
University Physics 1 (5)
University Physics 1 Lab (0)
Calculus 2 (4)
Focused Inquiry 2 (Basically like English Composition) (3)
Intro to Engineering (3)</p>

<p>I also wanted to sign up for 3 more classes at a local community college concurrently with my classes at VCU</p>

<p>Vector Calc (4)
Electric Circuits (3)
Electric Circuits Lab (1)</p>

<p>I wanted to know how tough of a schedule this is going to be for my first semester. I understand its going to be very challenging and will require hours of study time per class, but I wanted to know to what degree preferably by someone who has already attempted a schedule like this. The reason I want to take all these classes is so that I can graduate early in 3 years saving thousands of dollars, jump into my master's program earlier, and avoid taking classes in the summer and instead focus on internships. During my high school years I was in the AP AND IB program so that gives me roughly an idea of the difficultly I should expect. Also, more specifically, I took about 10 classes during my senior year at high school when most everyone took only 7 and also weren't in the IB program. I had 5 IB classes, 2 honors, 1 AP online, and 3 community college classes (1 during the fall semester and 2 during the spring semester). I don't know how closely this mimics my intended schedule for next year, but I'm hoping its going to be similar.</p>

<p>I did take BC Calculus in high school and passed with a B so I know I will do pretty well in Calc 2. I also took IB Chem HL for 2 years so I don't think I'll be having any trouble in that class either. With Physics, I took honors physics in high school and then self-studied to take the AP Physics C Mechanics exam. Like with Chem and Calc 2, I'm expecting Physics to be also a review class for the most part. Finally, I also think I'm somewhat prepared to take Vector Calculus because I taught myself the basics of multi-variable calculus, such as taking dot products, cross products, partials derivatives, and a few other stuff. If it was possible, I could place out the class by taking an exam, but I still wanted to actually take the class just so I can understand the small details that I may have missed.*
Instead of taking some of these classes later, I wanted to group them all together so that I can then concentrate on the harder classes later. My thinking is that by grouping all the classes I'm expecting to be easy, I can take more classes and still participate in other activities my college offers, like extracurriculars. I'm really expecting Chem, Physics, Calc 2, and vector calc to be not much trouble. What I am kinda worried about is the amount of homework typically given in a college class and if the professors really check/grade them? By the way, my school does allow student to take classes concurrently at a different college and nowhere could I find saying that freshman cannot also take part in this. Even on the form that VCU makes you fill out, it does not ask for a reason or anything, but I'm assuming my advisor or the dean will probably ask.*</p>

<p>What do you guys think? Do you think I'll be able to handle this based on what I have said in the previous paragraph or no? If so, what should I expect in terms of course load and homework. It doesn't have to be in relation to VCU, but I would like a general idea.*
Also, if I do decide to go with this, how can I convince my advisor and dean to let me take these extra 3 classes at the community college? Are there any specific arguments I can use?
By the way, I apologize for the long post but I wanted to include as much information as I can so that you guys can give a well educated answer. Thank you</p>

2

<p>19 credits is already an overload but manageable for a motivated student. Adding another 2 classes would make 99.99% of students miserable.</p>

<p>I don’t get why you want to retake college classes whose material you already know. HL Chemistry should place you out of first-year chemistry. Calc BC should place you out of Calc 2. Integration via trig substitution, geometric series and the integral test do get boring after a while…</p>

<p>If I were you, I would replace Calc 2 with Vector Calc at VCU, drop Electric Circuits and replace Chemistry with an easy general education requirement. Taking the general education requirement now might lighten your workload and give you more time to focus on your major later after you have all of the science and math prerequisites under your belt. </p>

<p>I suspect that the Electric Circuits class at the community college is not at all equivalent to the one at VCU. VCU’s class is a two-semester sequence and has another engineering prerequisite, for instance. The community college class might cover the same material but in less depth, which can really screw you up in your upper-level coursework. </p>

<p>If you need to take Electric Circuits this year in order to graduate in 3 years, I would discuss your options with an academic adviser, preferably one from the electrical engineering department who actually knows the EE curriculum. They can tell you whether it’s a good idea for you to take the class at a community college. Maybe you could even get a waiver for the prerequisite and take the class at VCU? </p>

<p>Re actual workload. Most math and science classes have weekly problem sets, and my freshman writing seminar assigned weekly papers (3-5 pages) too. My experience in college was that I needed about 1 weekday to complete the weekly assignments for one class. (In other words, if I started a problem set or paper after class, I could get it done by the end of the day.) I never took the lab sections though…</p>

<p>

Professors don’t normally grade homework; teaching assistants or graders do. And yes, homework might count for a very large portion of your grade.</p>

3

<p>Thanks b@r!um for your insight.</p>

<p>I did take the IB Chem HL exam and I’m still awaiting scores from it. If get at least a 5, then I will be able to place out of the class at VCU. However, I don’t think I achieved a 5 and even if I did, I would still like to repeat the class because during high school I was not especially confident with the subject and thus I would like to spend a semester to really understand the material. I did pass my class with a B however so im not THAT bad. Since I have already had 2 years work of exposure to the material I’m expecting my chem class to be relatively easy in terms of studying for tests/exams/etc than my other classes.
For Calc BC, I took the AP and I think I achieved probably a 4 and that’s only because I thought I did somewhat poorly on the series and sequences part of the exam compared to the other topics. VCU requires that I get a 5 to place out so I won’t know for sure until scores come out next month. However, I still think I’m pretty strong in the subject except for some minor issues with said topic and I think Calc 2 will be a piece of cake overall. I also took differential equations at a community college and passed with a B so I know I got a good handle on Calc 2 material since that was a prerequisite for the class.
Finally, I took honors physics in high school do I’m somewhat familiar with the material. Since my school doesn’t offer the AP course, I was not able to take it and the exam. Given this, I still think I’ll find physics somewhat easy, but probably not as easy as I’ll find chem and calc.
Since I grouping courses Im familiar with content-wise in one semester, I’m thinking I’ll be able to handle those extra classes since a good selection of my classes are essentially like a review.
As far as the Electric circuits class goes, I checked with VCU’s transfer guide for course equivalencies and it says that VCU will accept the community college class in place of their class provided that I get at least a C. As far as I know for a mechanical engineering major, electric circuits is a one semester course. It might be for electrical engineering major that it’s 2 semester but correct me if I’m mistaken. Also I have satisfied the prerequisites for the class based on the credits I have earned during my years in high school.
Based on this clarification, do you still think its not a good idea. I know it’s gonna be challenging, but I think I’m up to it. I just wanted someone else’s opinion before i make any final decisions. Please correct me if I’m mistaken anywhere in this post.</p>

4

<p>Also, in addition to my previous post a few minutes ago, I would like to ask the following question. If I spend like a 30min to an hour most days this summer trying to familiarize myself with the basic material of ALL my classes, will that aid in making the semester seem easier? I ask because like most people, I tend to learn something faster if I have already seen the material beforehand even if it didn’t make any sense then.
I just forgot to add this piece in to my last post, sorry.</p>

5

<p>

Yes, knowing the material beforehand will help. However, you will still have to complete all written assignments, which will take a considerable amount of time. Have you ever taken a college class with labs? I honestly haven’t, but my science major friends complained much more about work for labs than work for problem sets (and problem sets alone are quite significant already).</p>

6

<p>First of all, would you even be able to fit all this in one schedule? CC classes, especially the ones you mentioned, are likely to only have one time slot.</p>

<p>Second, commuting sucks. Be sure to factor in how many hours a day you’ll be stuck driving, assuming the schools aren’t right next to each other. Exams may also overlap, which could cause huge problems (or failing classes). Labs take time too, lots of time. All of mine so far have been a three hour time slot, and depending on your professor, it might not end in three hours.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Simply knowing the material isn’t a good reason to double up on courses, btw. Unless you know what sort of course load to expect (and this varies by school, and by class/professor), you really can’t make any assumptions about how much work needs to be turned in/graded.</p></li>
<li><p>On calculus, shouldn’t 2 be a pre-req for vector calculus? Also, dot products, cross products, and derivatives are easy. You should be covering far more than that in multivariate. And a B in a high school class should have you worried, not expecting to ace college classes.</p></li>
<li><p>You’re going to need calculus. A CC version is a lot less likely to prepare you for other courses than calculus at your school. Assuming circuits is a requirement for you as well, you should probably be taking it at your school as well.</p></li>
<li><p>Plan time for studying/homework. If it’s worth any amount of your grade, even just 10%, that’s a letter grade. If it’s not being collected, you’re still expected to know the material, at a college level. If you’re not practicing it, you’re not going to do well.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Oh, and again, the whole “you’ll have no time” thing. Right now, I’ve got 18 credits from spring overlapping with 8 credits of summer. It’s torture. Despite both summer classes being complete review right now, I have no time whatsoever. Getting between the two schools takes a ridiculous amount of time, and the amount of work has been keeping me up half the night, every night this week. There’s also no time to eat in my schedule. And again, this is material I know. In courses I had A’s in back in high school, and A’s in in college, and have been using constantly since 10th grade. And adding extra units to it is making it difficult to keep up with the work, even though it’s only the first week of the summer courses (and the last of the spring). Knowing the material doesn’t mean you should take all the classes at once.</p>

<p>A better plan for you would probably be to stick with your 19 credits, that’s already a lot, especially for a freshman. Over the summer, find some humanities course you need or something to take at CC. It’s a lot more likely you’ll be allowed to do that, and it shouldn’t be too time consuming, so you can still get a job or whatever.</p>

<p>Anyways, you’re probably going to regret it if you do try to do this, if you even can. But chances are you’re going to completely ignore any advice you’re given, seeing as you keep trying to justify yourself while ignoring posts both in here and in the thread you made in engineering section.</p>

7

<p>@failure622</p>

<p>I really like the points you made and coupled with the opinions of other people, I think I’ll just then stick to my 19 this coming semester. I guess if I really do feel like I want to get classes out of the way faster, I can consider doing something like this the semester after or even next year after I had a chance to get used to college and understand a bit of what the coursework and courseload is usually like rather than making assumptions. I thank you and everyone else who shared their opinions and arguments.</p>