<p>Got any ideas/Plans?</p>
<p>That’s much easier said than done. It’s not just a matter of taking a certain number of credits per semester. Your degree has core courses. Those courses have prerequisites that in most cases can’t be taken concurrently. In addition, especially with junior and senior level courses, many are only offered one semester in either the Fall, or the Spring. Even with a lot of AP credit as a freshman, you can easily get “off-cycle” and have to wait for courses only offered in the Spring, or that cannot be taken concurrently with their prerequisite course(s).</p>
<p>This isn’t some grand conspiracy to prevent a person from graduating in less than 4 years, it due mainly to classroom availability and faculty levels. Those Full professors teaching one core course during Fall Semester, will be teaching the next core course in the degree sequence in the Spring.</p>
<p>Having said all of the above, you can take some courses that fulfill degree requirements during the summer, if offered, but don’t expect many opportunities to take core courses during Summer term.</p>
<p>Finally, and most importantly, taking a ton of hours in a given term would almost certainly adversely affect your GPA, not to mention the stress you’d be under. UIUC is a top-notch university. Everyone that gets in was a top student in high school. That first term transition due to the pace at which course material is presented is a tough enough adjustment at the normal fulltime course load of 12-16 semester hours. Especially the first term, I don’t recommend taking over 16 hours. But talk to your advisor for any strategies that you might be able to employ. Good luck!</p>
<p>It’s really hard to say without knowing your specific situation and major. UIUC has a fairly comprehensive GenEd core. You’ve gotta complete 6-8 hours of quantitative reasoning, such as math, physics, computer science etc, 6 hours of humanities and the arts, 6 hours of social/behavioral sciences, 6 hours of natural sciences and technology, a composition I course, an advanced composition course, a course each in both western cultural studies and non-western cultural studies, plus 3-4 semesters of a foreign language, depending on which school you’re in. That adds up to 40-43 hours of GenEds alone. </p>
<p>Plus you’ll have to take lower level prerequisite introductory courses in your major before you can go into upper level courses. As the poster above said, these courses often necessitate sequencing. Sometimes certain courses are only offered in the fall or in the spring, and due to prerequisite credit being needed for many courses, you don’t have a lot of options for overloading and taking extra courses each semester. Summer classes can help with a few GenEd courses, but most upper level courses aren’t offered in the summer. </p>
<p>It’s possible, and plenty of people have done it. However, it takes a lot of work, and definitely won’t work out for every person.</p>