How many coruses(classes) can I take in college? I want to take a few classes, about four, but it’s okay if I can do less. Just curious.
Have you had your orientation yet? Advisors should be able answer all of your questions and more if you’re still confused.
But to answer your questions, colleges look at the credit hours each class has rather than the number of classes you have. Depending on the college, there is a minimum credit hour requirement for you to be considered full time. As long as you are above that, you are good to go. Typically though, most college students take 4-5 courses per semester.
A full time load (which is required for most scholarships and federal aid) is typically 12 credit hours. The amount of classes can differ from school to school and department to department (you could, for example, take 3 four credit classes or 4 three credit classes).
Every school has its own credit cap as well, but at my undergrad institution, it was 18 credits. This means you can register for up to 18 credits on your own but, if you want to take more, you have to get special permission from the registrar or dean or someone.
But, ymmv with your own institution, so you should check their website or contact an advisor.
I think that the “normal” amount of credits to take is 15-16 which is 4 or 5 courses depending on your school. Taking that many credits will allow you to graduate in 4 years.
However, 12 credits per semester will mean taking 10+ semesters (5+ academic years) to graduate at a typical school requiring 120-128 credits to graduate. A true full time course load would be 15-16 credits per semester to be on track for graduation in 8 semesters, even though the minimum full time course load for financial aid purposes is 12 credits.
Different colleges count credits differently and may have different academic calendars (e.g. 2 semesters per academic year versus 3 quarters per academic year). But you can calculate the expected number of credits per term by dividing the total number of credits to graduate by the number of terms in four academic years.
Note that some colleges may offer courses of varying amounts of credit (e.g. some with 3 credits, some with 4 credits, etc.), while others may assign all courses the same amount of credit (the latter are more likely to count each course as one credit, commonly with a total of 30-32 credits needed to graduate if on a semester calendar).
Yep, exactly, @ucbalumnus . That’s what some universities may require for financial aid, but students usually have to take more than 12 to finish in 4 years.
But, to answer the OP’s question about how many courses they can take, 12 credits (a combination of 4/3/whatever courses depending on credit) is usually the minimum to be full-time and some schools may cap at 18 credits, 19, etc. before one needs to get permission.
It’s always best to check with your specific institution for more exact guidelines and policies.
Unless you want to take classes over the summer. Sometimes it’s much better to take 12 hours a semester if you’re going to be working 30ish hours a week, then just do 6 hours over the summer. I’ve always preferred summer classes anyways, they feel easier.
All schools require you take a certain number of classes/credits to maintain satisfactory academic progress. Also if you are receiving financial aid, you must maintain a certain # of units each year. If you are an in-coming Freshman, start off with a lighter load to allow you time to transition into college life. You can then take more units as you feel comfortable. It will also make a difference if your school is semester based or quarter based. On the quarter system, you hit the ground running so it is very easy to get behind. Much will depend upon how many years you want to take to finish your degree, many units you feel comfortable in taking each semester/quarter and if you are required to maintain a certain level of units for SAP/FA.
One thing to keep in mind is that if only take the minimum number of courses to be considered full time you lose the flexibility to drop/withdraw a course without causing problems with your financial aid. Also some schools do allow students to be part time.