URAP takes a lot of time (6-9 hours per week). How many units would be recommended to take on top of doing research? Anyone has experiences that would like to share? How many units you took/what were those classes/how much time you spend in the lab, etc. Any input is appreciated. Thanks!
Bump
My D is in her 4th semester of URAP. She has done anywhere from 15 to 18.5 units (total, including URAP units), depending upon the semester. Some research requires you to be physically present at wherever it’s happening, others have more flexibility (computer work, for instance, that doesn’t have to be done on site and during specific hours). She limits herself to about 6 or so hours. The usual terrible classes: bio 1a/1b, chem/ochem, physics 7a/7b. If this is your first semester doing it, sign up on the low end of hours and see how it goes.
My hardest semester was in my junior fall when I was taking 13 units always working on problem sets and my easiest semester was in my senior fall when I was taking 19 units and have more than enough time for grad school application.
I am fairly convinced the numbers of units is not quite representative of the actual workload.
Even though you can estimate now that URAP will be between 6~9 hours a week, there’s a tendency to tilt to either extremes working too much or too little. I say this quite a lot, but sign up for one more class, whether it’s another requirement class or an elective, just in case if you need to drop one of your original classes b/c it’s taking much more time or you think you’re better off with a different instructor in another semester. Because you don’t know exactly what to expect from your URAP, it’s a good idea to have some options outside of URAP to adjust accordingly.
@UpMagic has a point - the number of units a class is doesn’t necessarily reflect the reality of the amount of work that class requires. Signing up for a bit more coursework on the front end makes sense (with the flexibility to drop if you need to), but be aware you may hit the ceiling for max units per semester you can enroll in. D found out the hard way when trying to get off the waitlist in one class while trying to register for a backup class. URAP units ARE included in that count, BTW.