How many courses do college students usually take per sememster?

<p>I've heard the average is like 15 credits...? But, is that 15 classes per year or semester? I'm so confused....credits and courses? I don't understand.....how many couses does one usually take per semester?</p>

<p>Depends on the school but I'd say 5 is pretty average. What schools are you asking about?</p>

<p>Fifteen units is average. Classes are normally 4-5 units.</p>

<p>hazmat: Harvard.....what school do you go to?</p>

<p>Can you graduate in four years if you take 5 classes per semester? If not, how many courses should on take per semester to graduate in 4 years?</p>

<p>Harvard University.......as opposed to Harvard College. Let me get you some resources.
HERS</a> Output
Harvard</a> University FAS Registrar's Office: Courses
You will need to become familiar with the later.</p>

<p>If you have two semesters students generally take any where from 12 to 18 credit hours each semseter. A class that meets 3 hours total a week is generally 3 credit hours. Some classes will be worth 4 credits and you will spend about 4 hrs. a week in that classroom. Some classes can be two credits and you will spend 2 hrs. a week in that classroom. SO if you sign up for 15 credit hours total you can expect to spend 15 hrs a week in classes. Most teachers expect that studying and homework will use up 2 hrs of your free time for every credit the class is worth. So for a normal 3 credit course you are expected to study another 6 hrs during the week on that subject.</p>

<p>I'm aiming for around 15 a semester. It really depends on how motivated you are and your extracurricular activities (including a job)</p>

<p>Average is 15 I guess ...but you should look at the requirements for your major because it's likely you'll have to take more than 15 credits/semester at least a couple times.</p>

<p>At colleges I am familiar with your would have to take 16 credits per semester (usually 4-5 classes) on average to graduate after 4 years, unless you come in with some transfer credit (e.g. APs) or take classes during the summer.</p>

<p>Some private colleges count credits differently: they give 1 credit to most courses (a few courses might be 0.5 or 1.5 or 2 credits) and you would have to take 4 credits each semester to graduate on schedule.</p>

<p>I hear at Harvard and Yale most students take 4 classes a semester because they're pretty intense.</p>

<p>How many classes would you take if you were going for a double major?</p>

<p>That all depends on when you plan to graduate, if you plan on summer semesters, etc.</p>

<p>... and even more on the subjects and the college.</p>

<p>At my small liberal arts college you could double major in anything and graduate in 4 years with a regular course load each semester.</p>

<p>I'm taking 20 this semester. The lowest I have taken is 12. It depends on how motivated you are, and more...</p>

<p>No one has really given the op an adequate explanation credits. As sax said, they generally represent the number of hours that you're in class for that course each week. The way each institution does it is different, but a general way to look at it is:
3 credits - many social science and humanities courses
4 credits - most math and science classes (to account for labs)
5 credits - some language classes that require a large amount of time in class</p>

<p>Most colleges require that you take at least 12 credits per semester to be considered a full time student. That could be either three or four courses. Some have an upper limit (Oberlin limits you to 16 per semester), while others let you take on as many as you'd like. So someone can be taking 20 credit hours, and really be taking only four courses, while someone with 18 could be in six. </p>

<p>I'd say the average student takes four courses each semester, though five is reasonable.</p>

<p>12 credits is considered full-time, which is typically 4 classes.
The average would be 12-15 credits per semester.</p>

<p>I believe at most schools, 120 credits are needed for graduation, which comes out to 15 credits per semester for 8 semesters. I have seen 135+ credits required at some places for some majors though.</p>

<p>Like others have said, 4-5 courses per semester is common (but this will vary a little bit between schools).</p>

<p>At my LAC, where one course = one credit (and some courses like PE could be .25 or .5 credits):</p>

<ul>
<li>3 credits ("regular courses") per semester meant you were a full-time student.</li>
<li>An average of 4 credits per semester (32 credits by graduation) was necessary for graduation.</li>
<li>Special permission was required to register for more than 5.75 credits</li>
</ul>

<p>At the school across the street, something like 5-6 courses per semester were necessary just to graduate (and the load was often more, not less intense). At schools that have quarter systems, it might be normal for students to take 3 courses per quarter, or sometimes even as few as 2.</p>

<p>The "4-5 in general" answer should be sufficient for now, but when you're closer to deciding on a school, you'll want to search the registrar's web page and the course schedule to find the info particular to each college. The registrar's page should have stuff like how many credits are necessary for full-time status, how many are necessary for graduation, and how many is too many. The course schedule should list credit hours next to each class, giving you an idea of how the school counts hours.</p>

<p>It really all depends on your school. Usually you need about 120 credits to graduate. Average at schools I would say is always about 15...usually below 12 is part time and above 18 is extra per every credit over 18.</p>

<h1>of classes needed to graduate fluctuates from school to school.</h1>

<p>Many schools on semester systems have one average 3-4 credit classes, so a semester you could be taking anywhere between 4-6 classes depending on how many credits total you are taking and how many per class.
For instance, where I want to go to school, almost every class is 3 credits so people usually take 5 classes at a time. However, some classes that meet more often are 4.5 credits.</p>

<p>Schools on quarters system have different credits usually. At UCs many classes are going to be 4-5 credits, most people taking probably 4 classes at at a time.
At university of washington, you almost always only take 3 classes at a time cause pretty much every class at the school is 5 credits. For depth this isnt a problem, but breadth it is because you have to be more selective with your classes.</p>

<p>One of the main criterias for finding the school I want to go to (besides having the courses/strong/decent subjects I want) is the credit numbering mainly because there is alot I want to study.
I want to be a philosophy(or linguistics) and East asian studies double major, but I also love languages and plan on taking a significant amount of Japanese, Italian, Chinese, and some begginer and at least interediate French, as well as some intermediate and advanced spanish (i already know a decent amount so i should start at least about begginer level)</p>

<p>To do this, if I find a schools that allows 5-6 classes per semester, I still havethe possibility to study all the things I want to study, whereas at somewhere like the University of Washinton, which I almost applied to, studying such a wide variety of topics would be impossible. There I could only study1-2 languages at a time if i still wanted room for philosophy.
Where I want to go I could easily take 3 at a time, and 4 or 5 if i felt really up for the challenge. Also, where I want to go has nearly no core requirements, and all will be fulfilled anyway with AP credits or Major courses...have to get in first though.</p>

<p>That being said, I do expect to likely stay in college for 5 years, which isnt too much of a problem cause I am not going to a private school.</p>