Right now I am at 14 credits in the fall, but that seems a bit light, so I was thinking of adding an additional course, increasing the credits to 17. I’m planning to take:
SIS Mentorship Program (0 credits)
World Politics (3)
Cross-Cultural Communication (3)
Community Based Research Lab (1)
Microeconomics (3)
French Elementary 1 (4)
I am considering adding Western Philosophy (3) to the load, rounding my course load out to 17 credits. I took French previously in middle school/high school for 3 years, but haven’t taken it for 2 years now. Although I have some memory of it, I don’t know enough to skip any classes. I’m thinking that French will not be all that difficult for me this semester.
I’m hoping to double major in International Studies and Philosophy, so getting more courses out of the way would be beneficial. That being said, I’m planning on going to grad school now, so keeping a high GPA is very important to me. For some background info, I took 3 AP classes my junior year, and 4 my senior year and maintained a 4.0 throughout high school. I know college will be more difficult than high school, but is a 17 credit course load my first semester doable with a high gpa, or am I setting myself up for disaster?
Just from what I know and my own personal opinion; I think you should stop at 14.
The average student takes 12-15 credits to be a full time student and graduate in 4 years so your already in that range. But you also have to take into consideration that it is your freshman year.Its a new city, new campus, a totally new environment. You should give yourself a semester or two to get properly acquainted with the campus and make new friends. You also are going to get use to live in dorms, a new schedule, new teachers, and just a load of new stresses.
From the amount of AP’s and the GPA you maintained in high school I do believe that you would be able to do 17 credits and maintain a high GPA, but maybe not a 4.0 if you go for 17.
I would give myself some free time. Try for 17 next year
@LunaHunt – I had the same dilemma you have now a few years ago. I chose to do 17 credits. Judging from your schedule now and what you’ve said about your past academic experiences, I think you could do the 17 credits, but it really depends on your priorities in my opinion. To be frank, lots of students enroll in the maximum 17 credits either to get ahead or to get the most bang for their buck while at AU.
For now, I think you should enroll, go speak to your SIS Undergraduate Academic Adviser when you get on campus, and then keep the course or drop it during the add/drop period.
This is going to sound stupid but when I made my decision to enroll in 17 credits, I ranked the difficulty of my classes. I see the Mentorship Program and Community Based Research Lab as throwaway, easy courses. I see your course load like this:
- [] SIS Mentorship Program - easy
[] Community Based Research Lab - easy
[] Cross-Cultural Communication – ranges from easy to medium depending on professor, but I’ve never heard anyone say they had trouble with this course
[] French Elementary I – ranges from easy to medium, but I say this leans more towards easy since it’s Elementary I
[] World Politics – medium or hard depending on the professor you have, some people get frustrated with IR theory (P.S. stick it out because IR is not all about theory! This is a course that weeds students out of the IR program sometimes because they think IR makes no sense after taking this course)
[] Microeconomics – medium or hard depending on your level of proficiency/professor
So, if you truly want to double major and get ahead, I think you can afford to add another course into the mix. It sounds like you’re the type of student who will always get the work done given your past experience maintaining good grades while taking on heavy course loads. Three things I would tell you is:
[ol]
[] Clearly, you’re very ambitious, like many AU students are, because you already know or have some idea about what you want to do post-graduation. Maintaining your GPA will be important for grad school, but you have another 4-year stretch to get there. I think if you handle stress well, are the type of person who will always get the work done, and one of your key priorities during college is to get ahead, I think you can do the 17 credits.
[] It’s great you got a 4.0 GPA even after taking multiple AP courses in high school, but since there is no grade inflation from honors in college, there is a different measure of what “above average” grades are in college. Just be prepared that you won’t get the same grades as you did in high school.
[li] None of what I told you matters. Go speak to your Academic Adviser in the SIS Undergraduate Advising Office during the first week of school! [/li][/ol]
Hi LunaHunt,
My son will be at SIS too (and CBRS) so he’s also been considering these questions. I think he’ll be registering for 15 credits for the first semester, as he’ll also have a work study job to fit into his schedule.
One thought- with your APs you probably were able to satisfy the College Writing requirements and the University Math requirement? If not, they strongly advise getting those out of the way in your first year, before adding other courses.
With your APs, you’ve probably also received credit for a good number of General Education course requirements. That will free up time next semester and next year to aggressively pursue your Philosophy courses, I would think.
In any event, see #3 above.
If you don’t want to wait until your summer orientation session (if participating) or until school starts to speak with an Academic Advisor, they invite you to connect with them by email. Good luck!
I asked my daughter who just graduated. She recommends taking around 15 credits since college is an adjustment. You will also be getting around in new activities and clubs and balancing the two is also adjustment. However, as others have said, we both agree that you should speak with your Academic Adviser. Since you would be at 14 credits without Western Philosophy, you may want to consider taking a one credit phys ed course to get to 15 credits.