<p>So I'm a recent high school graduate and rising freshman at Umass Amherst Honors College accepted as an engineering major and probably changing to physics (please don't judge me as a state school bum. The college admissions process is tough) and I was wondering, how many classes at once I should or would usually take as a freshman? </p>
<p>More specifically, how is it for science majors? I already have some experience with college courses. This year I took Umass Lowell's honors level freshman chemistry and lab (got an A first semester and an A- second, because I got lazy at the end) and I took a summer biochem course at Harvard. Yeah, I know summer courses are easier, but it was still a huge shift from high school classes. </p>
<p>I also have a bunch of AP credit. I got a 4 on APUSH, and I'm confident I got a 4 or 5 on calc BC, AP English Lit, AP psych, and possibly physics C mechanics (self studied lol). I'm not so sure about AP computer science. I did well on the class, but I feel like that exam was a hard one for me since I hadn't gotten into computers until this year. </p>
<p>Lately I've been self studying a lot partially by taking notes from an old college biology book and spending time on Khan Academy for the fun of it and because I never took AP or dual enrollment biology in high school. Bio is awesome and I genuinely enjoy any sort of math and science very much. So I kinda have an ambition to take bio, orgo, and physics next year (ok, maybe I should drop orgo), but I don't know how much I can really handle at once since I'll most likely be taking calc 3 and 4 and I want to leave some room for 2 or so humanities classes.</p>
<p>Does your college work on a semester system? Mine does and I keep it at the minimum 4 classes per semester. It’s easy to lose my focus if i do 5, and taking 6 is just asking to wreck your GPA</p>
<p>It’s on the semester system. I’m really looking for a good balance between challenge, and a good GPA. I want a 3.9 or possibly a 4.0 if I can while taking classes that are often considered “weed-outs,” which are pretty much notoriously common among science and math classes.</p>
Step away from CC HSL. Run away. Far away. No one on the College forum cares what college you go to. You’re obviously a smart cookie, don’t worry about it.</p>
<p>Don’t take Orgo your first semester. Since you want to take three sciences, it’s probably a good idea to only take one first semester, just to get your feet wet.</p>
<p>Five is normal, but engineering majors often take more. Coming in with AP credit is really helpful, so if I were you, I’d just “play it safe” first semester and take about 15 hours worth of classes which is 5 classes. Labs often include an additional hour, so if you take two sciences you’re up to seventeen hours as a first semester freshman with five classes and that’s a bit much. Since you want to keep your grades up, then go for about 5 classes and only one lab science first semester.</p>
<p>University of Massachusetts Amherst requires 120 credit units for graduation. In 8 semesters, that means an average of 15 credit units per semester. Most courses are 3 or 4 credit units, so you may take four or five of them in a semester (although you may not take exactly 15 credit units every semester, you need to average that many, unless you have AP credit that can make up for small deficits).</p>
<p>For example, five 3 credit unit courses would be a normal course load of 15 credit units, while three 4 credit unit courses and one 3 credit unit course would also be 15 credit units. In some semesters, you may be a bit over (e.g. four 4 credit unit courses for 16 credit units, or two 4 credit unit courses and three 3 credit unit courses for 17 credit units) or short (e.g. two 4 credit unit courses and two 3 credit unit courses for 14 units).</p>
<p>Be aware that lab courses are often a lot more work than the credit unit values indicate. Taking three science lab courses in one semester may be a lot more work than a similar number of credit units of non-lab courses (e.g. math, economics, etc.). If you are a physics or engineering major (and not a pre-med), you may not need all of those chemistry and biology courses; check the requirements for your major.</p>
<p>It’s more about quality, not quantity. Yes, you definitely want to take enough credits to graduate on time, but filling up 18 credits with your hardest core classes would be just as foolish as filling up those same credits with easy courses that don’t satisfy any requirements. At least with the latter you’ll come out with a good GPA… not so much with the former.</p>
<p>Have you met with your advisor(s) yet? Does the department of your school have a webpage? Somewhere around the listing of required courses the department should have a sample schedule from freshman-senior year. Most departments will NOT recommend taking more than 2 or at most 3 core classes per semester, especially not as a freshman.</p>
<p>Best err on the side of caution. As long as your schedule has you on track to finishing your prerequisites in time, you’ll be set. Again, speak with the undergraduate advisor for your department (or the department you wish to transfer into). They are literally paid to give you advice on these sorts of questions.</p>
<p>I haven’t met my advisers yet or been to orientation. I have the late orientation in early July and really don’t know how they’re able to help me choose classes without knowing my senior year AP tests results. Fortunately, I hear the honors college has good advising. Class selection is a bit of burning question for me and I’ve definitely made mistakes in high school class selection that I want to avoid in future years. I was also wondering if there are any actual Umass students here who could give some perspective on what the workload is like. Generally I seem to hear that Umass Amherst’s work load is pretty easy especially for the large gen-ed classes and that the honors college isn’t much harder. </p>
<p>I’m used to the environment on the other sub-forums like the admissions forums where any school that isn’t a top 30 US news national university or national liberal arts college is considered a second tier loser school, so this is refreshing. Thanks for the advice guys.</p>