My D will start college Fall-2017. We are looking over the degree plans/course catalog and preparing for freshman advising. I’m worried about her taking too much in her very first semester away from home. Does anyone have any feedback/experience about freshman course loads? Should a freshman schedule a light course load and then ramp up as they adjust to college life? Should I let her decide to take the maximum number of hours allowed so that she can pursue a double major? I think her school allows anywhere from 12-19 hours of credit for entering freshmen.
I also realize it’s not just the hours, but the difficulty of the classes. My D will major in engineering, but also is considering a double major in music. I expect freshman calculus, chemistry, physics to be very challenging classes. Core classes like political science, macroeconomics, history, etc. may be a little less time consuming. However, I have no idea how challenging freshman music classes are. Hence 12 hours of the toughest classes may be a tougher load than 18 hours of the less challenging courses. Any advice for us before we register??
A double major with engineering is difficult to do in 8 semesters at any school. Engineering curricula tend to be fixed and rigid. Delaying taking required courses and required prerequisites may put her behind. The normal course load is 4 four credit courses or 5 three credit courses plus any labs.
Engineering often has a set course schedule they want you to follow. I have never taken fewer than five classes. See if the department has an advising website with a recommended academic plan.
Yes, engineering is difficult enough in 4 years. My D has a scholarship for 5 years including Summers, which is why she is considering the double major. She doesn’t want a masters degree, but wants to “enjoy” college life for all 5 years. Even with 5 years, she will need to average almost 18 hours per semester to do a double major.
If she fails out or loses her scholarship in the first year, it won’t seem like much of an opportunity. That’s the reason why I’m leaning towards an easy freshman course load even if it prevents the chance of getting a second major.
One of my roommates in college was a math/music double major. He had zero free time. The rest of us (4 roommates total) would frequently go to eat together at the dining hall, see movies, play ping pong, etc. The double-major roommate almost never joined us because he was so busy. I felt sorry for him, honestly. What a horrible way to spend your college years; he clearly disagreed since he stuck with it all four years and graduated with the rest of us.
Anyway to the OP’s question: yes, I think taking it a little easier freshman year is a good idea. But for engineering you do have a pretty strict roadmap to follow so there’s not a lot of slack. Outside of the core classes for the major (calc, Chem, physics, probably) freshman year, you likely have a 1-2 elective humanities classes and that’s your opportunity to look for something fun and easy. I took a PE class in martial arts and loved it enough to stick with it all four years; and we know now that physical activity is good for mental health too.
At Pitt I think freshman engineering students take Calc 1, Physics, Chem, an engineering programming class, and an elective class, for a total of 17 credits. I guess the elective could be a music theory class in her case, if her school has a similar engineering curriculum for freshmen.
Yes, she would have to talk to an advisor, to see if and how a double major can be accomplished. Engineering is very difficult and study intensive, combined with music major, where you also have to take lessons and participate in ensembles a certain amount of hours a week, sounds pretty stressful.
The engineering courses are the easiest (relatively speaking) in the beginning so I would take as many of the easier core requirement as possible in the freshman year. The senior level course are tough so that would be the year to have a lighter schedule. Also, try to carry as many AP credits in as possible to lighten the load.
I wanted to double major business and music and had to face that it just wasn’t possible. Business was a regimented curriculum like engineering but no where near as difficult. Many engineering students lose their scholarship as freshmen without double majoring.
Schools measure classes differently. You say the range is 12-19 hours so I expect 15-16 hours is normal. She would probably have a lab and be at 16. I would not go over that. Easing in with 12-13 is nice but can set her behind. If she has five years and doesn’t double major, that’s definitely a great option.
Be careful on planning summers into the curriculum. First, there is the burnout factor. Second, internships are vital to employment and later summers should be used accordingly.
Does COOP still exist and if so does this school do it where you rotate work and school for several semesters?
I advise freshmen. I only recommend a “light” first year schedule if
student is an in-season athlete in the fall. The intensity of college athletics surprises most students and learning to juggle is rough.
student’s scores put him or her near the bottom of the class for the area of interest
student has a lot of useful credit from AP or DE --but in the case of a double major, this wouldn’t apply as I’d probably just fill the holes with courses from the second major.
There’s such a thing as too light of a load leaving students under-challenged.
Be aware that music courses with performance can be rather time consuming, like science or engineering courses with labs. So she may want to take music courses of interest as her humanities breadth courses, rather than trying to fit an entire music major into her schedule.
My freshman advisory (in an honors college) recommended everyone take a light load first semester, if not for the first year, not only to maintain sanity but also to help ensure that minimum scholarship GPAs were more attainable.
Not a music major but I was in the marching band. It was more time consuming than any lab science class I ever took.
First of all, “we” are not registering. Your D is.
She obviously is a serious student when planning on engineering. She needs to look at suggested courses and determine how to fit them into a schedule. No reason at all to go light first semester, she should plunge right in with a typical load. Trying to “ease into” college is a recipe for disaster in my opinion. What will happen when she needs to take the usual load later? For her the STEM courses should not be a burden as that is what she likes and does well at (I was an Honors chemistry major eons ago). Instead of spending hours writing papers she will get to spend time in labs and do problem sets for courses related to her major. Much more fun than writing papers.
I disagree with taking light loads, especially for Honors level students. If they can’t maintain a decent gpa they shouldn’t be in their major. The top students have no problems doing the work in the rigorous courses. Good HS STEM classes will mean good preparation for the freshman science and math courses- engineering students typically take mainly those the first few semesters.
Entering freshmen have all sorts of plans. I suspect she will need to make choices regarding adding music to her degree. She will have to decide priorities. Taking as many music classes as her engineering schedule allows may not give her enough for the major but will keep her involved in it and help her with stress. Once she is at her college she likely will discover ways to keep involved in music without the major. HS students have not yet realized they need to specialize and can’t do it all.
My 17 to 18 credits as a freshman consisted of only 4 courses(mostly Honors). This can be easier to manage than 15 credits of 5 courses as there are fewer courses to manage.
Remember the better students will approach life, and college, full on. Taking a usual load instead of a light one will mean being ahead so that later there is more flexibility instead of an insane load to avoid needing an extra semester. She will also adjust to her workload and not get used to too much free time.
Finally, and foremost. It is HER decision. She believes in herself and her ability to become an engineer. It shouldn’t be difficult for her or she will change majors. She will likely thrive being immersed in the expected courses engineering freshmen take. An added elective in music may meet breadth requirements and be a change of pace for her. Worst case scenario is dropping a class, much easier than adding after classes start or regrets later.
@wis75 LOL…you have certainly called me out for the helicopter dad that I am. You’re absolutely right that it’s my D doing the registering! Following your advice, I think it will be best for me to let her read through everyone’s comments and decide for herself. Whatever I take away will be biased by my own opinions and experiences in college. After she has a chance to digest all of this information, we’ll talk about registration and hear what she feels like doing her first semester.
Though 3 credit courses were the normal courses with a few heavier 4 and 5 credit classes at Oberlin…the average normal load was 12-14 when I attended in the mid-late '90s.
Taking 15-16 was considered a heavy load. While I routinely did this until senior year, I was in a distinct minority among most in the college. Most classmates took 12-14 with one or two semesters of loading up on 15-16.
The Conservatory students/Double-Degree* took heavier loads due to the nature of their respective fields.
And even then, Double-Degree students require a MINIMUM of 5 years to graduate with both a college and conservatory major.
Depending on AP credit and how well she handles OU’s old final exams in the courses that she is allowed to skip, she may start in a more advanced course in math or chemistry, but that does not affect the total course load.
Be careful in that taking a light course load may mean having to take a heavy course load a later semester to avoid graduating late, especially if she does not use AP credit to fulfill some of the lower level courses.
I think double majoring is way overated. I would take an average number of courses. As others have said the engineering major is pretty regimented. She will know soon enough what she can handle. After my first term freshman year I took one extra course beyond what my college required (which at the time was only four - no distinction if it was a lab course or not), and audited one course, but I usually took the extra course pass/fail. I actually got better grades taking more courses, but not everyone operates the same way.
The academic advisor will answer these questions for her and let her know how essential it is to follow the course roadmap and how feasible it is to double major. I don’t think any college hangs entering freshman out to dry in terms of first semester class selection!
My D is in a biological sciences major that lists 5 lab sciences on the roadmap for the first two semesters. She mentioned that her advisor strongly advised against following that roadmap exactly from their very first meeting - it seems that very few students actually attempt to take three lab sciences at once. (At least at her school in her particular major - these aren’t kids who are planning on PhDs or MDs or working in labs etc. - the 10 credits of physics is probably overkill!).
To graduate in 4 years, she needs to take 15 credits a semester. As others have said, engineering tends to have set course sequences that are not very flexible.
A music major is likely to require significantly more practice and time than music as an extracurricular activity did in high school. One problem may be things like orchestra rehearsals conflicting with lab times. It is certainly possible to do a double major, but often students find that keeping music in their life as a minor or even “just” an activity creates less stress.
Sometimes, taking summer or winter semester classes can make the double major work out, but those have their own problems in terms of both stress and expense.