So next semester I’ll be a freshman at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. I’ve registered for my classes, but I’m not entirely sure I made the best schedule I could have. I ended up putting all my classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with marching band in the evenings on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I’m taking 15 credits total, excluding the one hour band credit. I might have to switch some of my classes out depending on the credits I receive from duel enrollment/AP. If I do have to switch classes should I go ahead and try to keep everything on MWF? Or should I put some Tuesday Thursday classes in my schedule? The main motivation for only MWF classes is so I can say to future employers that I can work Tuesdays and Thursdays
If you can handle having all of your classes on MWF, sure, keep it that way…but the reasoning for it is silly. You say it like you’re doing them a favor by being available two(!) days a week. I feel like many employers would instead opt for the applicant who’s available every day, thanks to spreading out their classes.
I shy away from only MWF schedules or only TR schedules. I’m more productive when I have everything spread out.
Yeah, it depends on what works for you. I’m fine having all my classes crammed together, but around midterms I usually end up with a couple midterms on a given day with that kind of schedule. I don’t particularly like that (but can deal with it if needed), so I go for spreading my classes out throughout the week if I can. Plus I’ve found that on days where I have only one class or no class, I tend to be lazier with getting stuff done. Going to class for a couple hours of the day gets me into a productive mindset, I guess.
Sticking to MWF classes for the sake of a potential future job is a bit silly in my opinion. Employers typically understand that college students are going to need a somewhat patchworked work schedule. Having classes on just MWF wouldn’t be bad, but it’s easy to be very unproductive on those days off. It’s nice to think that you’ll use those days for studying, but it doesn’t always happen. Personally I like to have my classes 4-5 days a week. It’s more spread out and it helps me to stay on top of things. My work schedule throughout college has always had to work around my class schedule.
I’m in agreement with @bodangles about this schedule not being very helpful for employment. Having two days off during the regular week is not enough availability for most part-time jobs. You’ll be competing with people who have a lot more time in their schedule to work with.
I’ve had semesters where I ended up with “off days.” A positive for me was that it meant I would only have to commute three days out of the week as opposed to all five. If used wisely, they can serve as good catch-up days for assignments or studying if needed. However, this also means that every other day of the week is going to be extremely crammed and you’ll be less flexible if the need arises. Case in point, if I needed to go to a doctor’s appointment, and the only available time was a late Monday morning, that meant a lot more work for me to miss and have to catch up on. It really all depends on your personality type and your time management skills.
Planning your schedule with employment in mind is not a bad idea at all, but without knowing what job you might have in the future makes that really challenging. Different schedules will work better for different types of jobs. If you work somewhere where you have to travel a decent amount of time to get there and/or where you would need to work long shifts, then having entire days without class will be very helpful. If you work at a typical on campus job, then it’s really not that necessary. In my experience, on-campus part-time student jobs tend to have students work 3-4 hour shifts at least, but you may have more or less, depending on the job. If you’re planning on finding some on campus job, then having big blocks of time open (even if you have class before or after) would be the more ideal schedule. There will likely be a limit to how many hours you are allowed to work in one day, so it may be better to have time open to work a 3-4hr shift four times a week, rather than the ability to only work on Tuesdays/Thursdays.
If you’re planning to work, I would recommend trying to find something on campus, and keeping blocks open in your schedule where you would have time to work. On campus employers are often very comfortable scheduling around class schedules. You don’t necessarily need to have entire days open where you can work (unless you plan on working at a job where this is advisable).
As for having classes all on the same days, I did this all the time in college and it’s not that big of a deal. The biggest problem is that you may have assignments/tests/papers all on the same day since all of your classes are on the same day. It was mainly a problem during midterms (I had one quarter where I had five midterms all in one day because my classes were all back to back), but you can plan ahead when they give you the syllabus.
With all your classes on MWF, even if you start your work ahead of time you probably will need to be spending the nights before getting all of your work done. But you have band on Tues and Thurs nights, which will limit your ability to do your work the night before it is due on class. So your schedule will require good time management. Maybe you could spend out the courses a bit and still keep your mornings or afternoons free on T-Th.
I personally like spacing out my classes because it gives me time to catch a breath in between or study for the next class, which I wouldn’t get to do if all my classes are in a row. Last semester I took 3 classes on TR from 11-3:30 and it wasn’t a great decision on my part because it just felt more exhausting than if I had spread it out.
Thanks for all the responses! I think what I’ll do will be to keep this schedule until I know for sure what credits I’ll have (which will be next week for duel enrollment and early July for AP Cal). If I have to switch classes I’ll try to get a T-TH class as a replacement. I should be ok with having days off since I tend to try and stay busy. My high school classes last semester had a lot of time off and I usually did well with using that time wisely. I also know that as of right now I like having classes close together so I get into the “school mode” and stay in it and then have times where I can go into “work mode” and stay in it. I’m planning on working on campus eventually and from what I’ve seen there are quite a few on campus jobs that prefer all day workers so that’s the reasoning behind the schedule. I also have to complete 20-40 volunteer hours a semester for my scolarship and honors diploma so I would also use Tuesdays and Thursdays for that.
Having days off is great, but I would always use them for sleep and TV, and I shouldn’t have done that. Last semester, I had all of my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and was free on MWF. I never did any school work during the week except for Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you can stay productive on your days off (and it seems like you will), then I would do it if I were you. The extra time will probably come in handy for what you have to do. If you end up not liking that type of schedule, then you can always go back to having classes five days a week for the next semester. I was glad I was able to try something different, but for me, I need to go to class five days a week to stay productive.
Honestly, I enjoyed having class only MWF. I did that for my first 3 semesters (1 semester as a commuter) and it was great. The 3 semesters after that were MTWRF (2 as a commuter), and it sucked, though I didn’t have a choice because some classes were only offered MWF and some TR (the ails of small departments).
Personally, I like the feeling of not having school every day. It’s a break - you don’t have that feeling of “ugh, gotta go through this allll over again tomorrow” when you get really stressed. Instead, you can be like “well, at least I don’t have class tomorrow, so I can catch up on my homework and have a little break from a routine.”
In the end, that’s all it really is - a mindset. In my experience, cramming classes together MWF helped me be in the “school” mindset MWF and indeed let me work TR (my employer and I already established this before I started college, tho, and my on-campus job was cool with the MWF class schedule, too). The extra time on TR inspired me to do homework and get ahead, and to me, it’s no different than people who have class MTWR and get Fridays off. You know they probably waste at least one of those days as we all do on the weekend, so as long as you either spend the weekend catching up or use the TR to catch up, you’ll be fine.
To help, make a schedule for yourself. Maybe you want to spend 11 am -1 pm every TR in the library studying before work. DO it. Consistently. That way it becomes a routine and you won’t be as tempted to procrastinate on your “days off.” Time management will really come into play here, as does will power. It’s all about what YOU motivate yourself to do, so don’t let anyone on here shy you away from one decision or the other. You yourself know what you can and cannot handle, so know that a MWF schedule is perfectly doable if you set your mind to it.
Good luck!