Im taking four classes right now, two are writing intensive classes. I want to add one more freshman seminar for two credits, but then I would be up to 17 (five classes excluding the one credit CLA welcome thing). Is that too much?
I don’t think credit-wise it is too much. It depends on what classes you are taking. Back when I went to college, I thought the lab classes took up 2-3x as much time overall than a non-lab class (but again, this depends on the class you take). Although you can’t predict exactly how challenging your classes are ahead of time, you probably have an idea based on your aptitude/interest in the subjects. You can also look for the classes (and profs) on the ratemyprofessor site to get an idea of workload for each class. My son has found that this site gives a rough idea of how a class may be .
Just be careful not to overload yourself freshman year since you will be adjusting to a new environment and all that entails. My impression, from going on tours and looking at the seminar pages, is that the seminars aren’t too killer for workload and can be sort of fun. My son is an incoming freshman too so this is just impression.