<p>I'm attending Grinnell next year, and I was wondering how bad it really is adjusting to college life as a freshman hundreds of miles away from home. Is it unreasonable to attempt 18 credits the first semester of my freshman year? 10 of those credits would be in foreign language, which is most definitely my forte, and I've been studying the languages ahead of time to help ease the burden when I actually get to college, but still, 18 credits is a maxed out schedule, so I'm a little worried.</p>
<p>For the record, I'm looking at a schedule with a Tutorial/Comp class, intro courses in Russian and Chinese (latter of which is going to be much easier because I know Japanese), and a fourth class in math or science. The language courses are 5 credits and the others are 4.</p>
<p>If I was in your shoes I wouldn’t be taking two 5 credit classes the first semester of freshmen year especially in a foreign language of all things. </p>
<p>In your situation I guess I would schedule those 18 credits just in case you need to drop a hard class but you’ll still be considered full time. The most practical thing would be to schedule about 12-15 credits in intro freshmen courses so you get to know your peers and have a less demanding work load so you can explore what the college has to offer in clubs and other activities.</p>
<p>First semester I took 17 hours, and it was a breeze. Then again the classes weren’t all that difficult, but it just depends on you and what you think you can handle.</p>
<p>I am a Grinnell student and I would advise you strongly against that schedule. Many of the intro language classes are a lot of work and even if you are good at languages don’t underestimate the work some teachers will give you. Same for Tutorial and Science/Math class.
That being said 18 credits is totally doable at Grinnell but it also heavily depends on the class and professors. Most professors do assign a lot of work and some of the intro science/math classes assign quite a few problem sets.
Grinnell is an intense place in every aspect and I would suggest not maxing out on your schedule your first semester here. I’d recommend dropping one of the languages or the science/math class.
Of course it depends, are you planning on working on Campus or doing some extracurriculars?</p>
<p>I don’t know how Grinnell is, but I wouldn’t take 18 credits your first semester. Sure, you might breeze by, but you don’t know, and you won’t know until you’ve been there, and you could not do well. That’s not a great gamble. Come spring semester you’ll know a lot more about the workload and you’ll know how many credits you can take. You also will have to adjust this semester, which is a more difficult task than you might think.</p>
<p>5 credit classes are also going to be a LOT of work, and from the language classes I’ve taken, there’s a lot of daily assignments and such, which can add up and create a very large day-to-day workload, which could be really stressful.</p>
<p>I definitely wouldn’t take that many. I took the bare minimum first semester for several reasons, one of which was that I wanted to get accustomed to college before piling on the work. In retrospect, I’m really glad I did. If languages are your thing, then go for it. I would go easy on the other classes though.</p>
<p>The freshman tutorial plus 3 classes is more than enough work for your first semester at Grinnell if you want time to meet people and check out various activities. </p>
<p>Remember, first semester is the time when people are actively looking to make friends, and if you are too busy to hang out, you’ll miss the window when people are most open to the possibility of something new. You can take 18 credits every semester thereafter, should you feel a need to load up.</p>