Fall schedule advice for a Sophomore

Rising Sophomore, here. I need some help deciding whether or not my schedule is going to be too much this semester. Does anyone have any information on the work load in these classes? Any suggestions? If I need to drop a class, I can drop OM300 or FI410.

Also, as an aside, when do you start applying for University Scholar’s stuff?

My schedule for this fall is as follows:

FI410 - Intermediate Financial Management
EC308 - Intermediate Microeconomics
MATH 126 - Calculus 2
FI301 - Financial Institutions and Markets
OM300 - Operations Management
UA 156 - Emerging Scholars Part 2 (Independent Study/Research)

This is 18 credits.

Thank you for the help!

18 credits is hard to do if you want good grades, a social life, and sleep. I’d suggest taking FI 410 later (you can take FI 412 and FI 414 before FI 410 if needed) and taking OM 300 online to free up room in your schedule provided you have great time management skills.

Are you strong in math? Calc II doesn’t build on Calc I. Can you get the Calc II book early to “read ahead”?

Sign up for Calc II tutoring from “the get go” to make sure you don’t fall behind.

However, if you took AP Calc BC, you’re probably going to be more than fine.

My first questions back would be what did you take as a freshman…and how did you do?! Because I don’t necessarily think that 18 credits is too many, but that depends heavily on the student, and on the courses, and in this case, yes, 18 is probably too many. Those are quite ‘meaty’ classes you propose, plus the UA Scholars will take additional time outside of class. Beware of the 4-credit classes that can kill a GPA if you get a ‘bad’ result (i.e., Calc II), and focus on doing well in there especially.

Did you already take FI302 as a freshman? I ask because I thought it was a prerequisite for FI410. 18 credits is certainly do-able (my daughter has taken 18 credits most semesters, but she always had at least one easy course), but I’m not sure I’d want to take the 18 credits you have there.

Hey thanks for all the responses guys!

SEA_tide, thanks for the suggestions. Are you saying I should take FI410 later because it is a difficult class and that FI412/414 are easier alternatives or just take FI410 later to open up space in general? My schedule isn’t that tight actually. It’s pretty much M-Th 2pm-6:30pm, OM 300 is gonna be my only morning class at 9:30 T/Th, so I’m not worried about space. And yea, as far as taking it online, I’m gonna try and stay away from that for right now. I took two online courses over the summer, and while I did fine in them (both A’s), I literally did all the classwork over the past two weeks.

mom2collegekids, I’m strong in math but to be honest don’t have the greatest Calculus 1 background. I CLEPed out of it after a very intense, short study period. Plan on reviewing Calc 1 over the next two weeks to try and make up for lack of knowledge. Not taking Calc 2 isn’t an option, as I’m trying to get into the University Scholars program for the M.A. in Economics.

aeromom, Thank you for your comments. Fall was pretty atrocious to be honest, but spring was a significant improvement in GPA. I think there is a chance it might be too much, but I’m gonna feel it out over the first week to see how it’s working.

beth’s mom, I just finished taking FI302 over the summer online. Do you know how much of FI410 is a continuation of FI302? I reviewed the syllabus for FI410 from a previous section and it seems like a lot of it is reiteration of what was covered in FI302. I’d say I do have an easy class, my UA 156 is pretty much a guaranteed A, that doesn’t have a class time.

Make a study schedule on iCal, I managed to make all As using this method. The syllabus is the holy text of the classroom and your professor is the deity. Look at the schedule on the syllabus, use that for iCal.

calc II doesn’t build on calc I. You’re better off getting help with calc II, including going to tutoring right from the get-go.

@mom2coIIegekids I believe its from the resources you are exposed to, because in my stance, calc II covered a major foundation from calc 1. Then eventually from the foundation, calc II merged over to calc III for me, even though calc iii was solely based on theories in which we practically have to use programs to prove such as maple. Anyway, in my standpoint calc ii did build on from calc i

How’s it going so far, @thenole? Did you stick with the 18 credits? Too much? Just right?

However, in a classroom, never focus on just getting a grade to get the status/prestige, always try to find the truth for yourself by having a yearning to gain a new perspective on reality.