<p>I'll be a freshman this fall at a large state university, for reference. Forgive me if I don't know much!</p>
<p>So, I'm planning out my schedule, and I'm torn between taking a smaller courseload (to ease myself into the college workload) and jumping right in an attempt to complete my general/major prereqs. as soon as humanly possible. My nature drives me towards the second option, but I fear that I'll end up overloading myself and generally being miserable.</p>
<p>From somebody with experience, what is a good number to take? I can post my prospective schedule on here if necessary, but I didn't want to include it yet, as it's merely hypothetical and enrollment won't be open for a fairly long time.</p>
<p>One eighth of the total number of credit to graduate in your major, which usually means 15 to 18 credit units. If your major requires a long prerequisite sequence, it is best to get that started as soon as you can.</p>
<p>Be careful of taking too many high workload courses all at once, though. Such courses are typically those with labs, large term projects, arts studio, music performance, etc…</p>
<p>Take whatever’s considered a normal workload at your school (usually 15-16 units), and be aware of all of the deadlines for dropping/adding a class. If you start to feel overwhelmed, then drop a class. If you feel like you can handle it, then keep going and re-adjust next quarter. Taking the normal load, usually gives you the wiggle room to drop a class and still remain full time, without posing a huge risk for being too overwhelmed. Check out whatever your school recommends for your major. It’s generally a good idea to start out taking a couple of classes for your major (usually the prerequisite intro series like calculus, etc) and a couple of GEs.</p>
<p>I would take 15/16. It will be general ed since you’re a freshman. Unless you somehow already fulfilled your general ed requirements. So most likely you’ll take something like this:
Math
English
Science class
Speech
Art- Most art classes I’ve encountered are easy As. If that is the case then take 15 hours. Because if you get lucky like I did your art class won’t be very demanding. But if you find that it takes a lot of time and effort then rethink your schedule. </p>
<p>If you know who your professors will be after you register for classes read their reviews on <a href=“http://www.ratemyprofessors.com”>www.ratemyprofessors.com</a> This could also help you decide wether or not you want to take that class. Or take the same class but with a different professor. </p>
<p>Maybe my advice on your class hours isn’t the best but thats just how I saw it when I was a freshman Hope I helped!</p>
<p>If your school/program gives you the option, I recommend NOT taking all your generals as soon as possible. It can be very difficult as a junior or senior to take nothing but upper-level courses in your major. It can be very comforting to split your load so you’re always taking at least one “easy” class.</p>
<p>At least as a STEM major, I think generals are hugely worthless and a waste of time. That kind of seems like the general sentiment at my school, but we’re a STEM school. Go figure.</p>
<p>I’m taking upper-level classes, 4 or 5 at a time. It’s made me have to focus and develop a good work ethic to stay on top of things.</p>
<p>Thank you for all of the responses! If that’s the case, I’ll probably go for 15 hours.</p>
<p>I do, however, have another question!
I took my language placement exam today and, to my surprise, placed into German 201 (seriously, I was honestly bracing myself for intro-level). Normally, I’d be excited, but due to AP credit and placement, I already have a fair number of 200-level courses lined up; haven’t officially registered, of course, but I’ve spoken to department heads and professors & have a fair idea of what I’m going to take. Should I go with this, or should I drop down a level to 102 to avoid stress? </p>
<p>In my opinion, if you’re already past a certain level of proficiency in a foreign language, retaking a previous level can be really… mind-numbing. Just from my past experience. I’d recommend you take the level that they recommend you take based on your proficiency test. I retook a lower level of a couple of classes that I probably wouldn’t have tested into if I had taken a placement test (foreign language, piano, etc) because I didn’t think I was that comfortable with it in the first place and it had been several years since I had even thought about it. But when I took the class, it was pretty boring. If you’re just going for an easy class, then sure, go for it. But if I had to do it again, I wouldn’t.</p>
<p>Be sure that you are allowed to take 200 level courses, at my school you cannot take them often until your second semester at the least. </p>
<p>As the others have said I think a good number is 16. I took 17 my first semester (one was a one credit and the other was 2) I had 6 classes but I also took my general ed courses and it was well worth it. As a senior I had all AP courses but it was a short day taking my general es classes was a good way to ease into everything. </p>
<p>I would only take 102 if you are very certain you would get an ‘A’ in the class. Taking the intro course and getting anything lower than that is just useless as far as waste of time, waste of energy, and bad for your GPA. </p>
So most likely you’ll take something like this: