How many units to take as a freshman

<p>I'm not going to be able to go to orientation, so I'm basically coming up with my schedule by myself using the LASAR and my major's requirements. What's a good number of units to take as a freshman? I need to take French 5 and Communications 1, and I'm also planning on taking Writing 2 (Academic Writing). This adds up to 14 units, but it's only 3 classes, obviously. Should I add another class or two, or is that too much?</p>

<p>depends on what AP classes you’re going to be getting credit for. some people take as few as 12 units (minimum to be considered a full time student) and distribute their AP credits throughout the first 2 years, some people really load it on to get all the GE’s out of the way. i recommend keeping the work load light the first quarter or 2 to get used to the atmosphere of college, then deciding from there. so, yeah, 14 should be ok. might be able to get away with one more class, if you’re the studioous type.</p>

<p>Thanks, I’ll probably just stick with the 14. I don’t want to be overwhelmed, plus I have a few extracurricular activities that I plan to get involved with right when school starts. I have 38 units out of the way via AP classes, but I think I’d rather “save” them in case I can’t get a class later on, so I can still graduate in under 5 years. Does that make sense?</p>

<p>Well, most of your AP classes are going to be for GE’s, you’ll be using them for freshman and sophomore years, because junior and senior years are basically all upper division courses that are required for your major. So try and take prerequisites/lower division courses in place of the classes you would have had to take without the AP classes your freshman/sophomore years. But other than that, yeah, good plan.</p>

<p>yeah first quarter just stick with 3 classes until you get use to the whole college environment and system and take more later if you feel you can handle it</p>