<p>do you take a YEAR (not semester) at Harvard? I realize that there is no set amount, but could anyone tell me the max number of allowed classes and the typical number undergraduates take?</p>
<p>In your freshman fall, you can only take 4--although you can petition to take 5. In the spring, you can take 5 if you want, but most people take 4 each semester. believe me, that will be plenty of work. you need 32 semester courses to graduate.</p>
<p>Foreign languages are usually year-long classes. Most other courses are semester courses.</p>
<p>Semester courses are "half courses" in Harvard-speak, and year-long classes are "full courses" (and equivalent to two half courses).</p>
<p>You need 32 half courses to graduate.</p>
<p>You can take (theoretically) up to 12 half courses per year, or as little as 6 half courses. Most people take 8 half courses, like sunglasses said.</p>
<p>Up to 12 half courses? That sounds like a heckuva lot...what type of classes would you manage to squeeze 6 of into a single semester?</p>
<p>I took 5 class last semester: four normal classes and research for credit (just helping out in a lab 5-10 hrs/week). I guess it would have been possible for me to take a freshman seminar (pass fail, usually meets once per week), to have a pretty reasonable 6 classes.</p>
<p>Some people (for reasons unknown to me) take 5 or 6 "normal" classes. I'm sure they end up regretting it come exam time when they have 5 or 6 final papers and exams.</p>
<p>If you took 6 classes per semester for 6 semesters, could you graduate in 3 years? Is that even possible? Of course it would be suicide... (And you said you can only take 4, maybe 5 classes your first semester)</p>
<p>lavendercloud: No. The only way you can graduate in three years is if you activate advanced standing. And it is suicide to even take 5 classes at times. You really have to balance it out, like just<em>forget</em>me did.</p>
<p>xjayz-Remember the girl who did Longwood Connection telling us about how she took 6 classes, none of them seminars? That was pretty nuts.</p>
<p>Yup. She is just nuts. I don't think I'll ever take 6 classes - maybe 5, one which would be Pass/Fail. Even with a seminar as a fifth class, I heard it's pretty intense compared to 4.</p>
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<p>what type of classes would you manage to squeeze 6 of into a single semester?</p>
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<p>I knew someone who took 6 one semester, and 4 of them were graduate courses in Classics.</p>
<p>He's insanely brilliant and hard-working, though. Most of us thought he was crazy. It was a very stressful semester, and he didn't do that again.</p>
<p>
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Some people (for reasons unknown to me) take 5 or 6 "normal" classes. I'm sure they end up regretting it come exam time when they have 5 or 6 final papers and exams.
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</p>
<p>So yeah. It's pretty tough. Testimony from one of the crazies who did it.</p>
<p>4 reading/writing intensive (one in french) and one crazy Neuroscience class (and I'm concentrating in Literature. So Neuroscience was especially difficult for me.) </p>
<p>If you do take 5-6 classes, you have to realize that you'll have to make some sacrifices. Namely, your social life will suffer. Mine was pretty much annihilated during the last two months of school. But if you really want to get something out of all of your classes, taking 5 graded courses might not be the best idea because you won't really have time to give your all to every class. </p>
<p>On the other hand, taking 5 last semester makes taking 4 seem so much easier. And once I got into the groove of things, I was able to balance school, ECs, and friends (until reading/finals periods, when all Hell broke loose. By finals period I was down to sleeping an hour a day, only taking half-hour breaks for meals and hygiene. And a spent a ton of money on coffee.)</p>
<p>Ultimately it depends on how hard you're willing to work. I wouldn't advise taking 5 classes during the semester that you have Expos--if I had done that, with a goal to get a good grade in expos, I wouldn't have survived, I don't think.</p>
<p>Oh, and for the record, I know a junior who took seven "normal" classes last semester and has a 3.9 GPA. =)</p>
<p>You see, saxfreq, that is just nuts. And even though I had Expos as one of my 4 classes, it was my GPA killer anyway, so does it really matter? :P</p>
<p>Sax-Did you take BS80?</p>
<p>Yes because I had farfetched dreams of pursuing MBB-Psych. instead of Literature. I actually applied to H as a potential psych. concencrator with interest in MBB. I think I may have even said I was interested in being pre-med . . . </p>
<p>Oh how much changes in a year.</p>