Like the title says, will 18 credits (6 classes) be impossible to manage? I will need As in them all. As its only a 2.5 week session, the course load is very intensive. However all the courses will be online. Any advice guys please?
Have others in the past done this and succeeded? Ask around and see if that’s the case. I took this 6 week online math class (3 credits) and the work load I had for it was ludicrous (a lot).
I’ll ask my advisor about this; I have an appointment with him next week. Though people are very discouraging of a heavy course load over winter I can’t be sure if it’ll be bad for me. I’m very hard working and I’m willing to dedicate day and night to the work. So what I wanna know is if it’s completely impossible… Has anyone ever had a course load like this over winter?
The classes I need to take are all Business courses covering (Management, Marketing, Law and General Business). I don’t know what that counts for but seems like they may be easier to handle than other normal courses?
I wouldn’t recommend it. These are the equivalent of one-semester courses crammed into two weeks, correct? One would be taxing, two would be grueling.
There are colleges that offer one intensive course at a time, rather than a quarter, trimester, or semester system. Those courses typically last 3-3.5 weeks with a long weekend in between one and the next. I don’t think that more than that would be sustainable.
There is only a finite amount of hours in that short period–doesn’t matter how hard working you are–is it possible to do two ironmans’ in a day–short answer-no.
Is each class the equivalent of a class that normally occurs over a ~15 week semester, just squeezed into 2.5 weeks? If so, I definitely wouldn’t recommend it, especially if you want to get A’s in all of them. Is there a maximum number of units you can take over the winter? There often is for normal semesters (and summer sessions), so I would expect there may be a limit over the winter session as well. At my school, summer sessions (5 week long courses) had a maximum of 12 units that a student could take. The idea was that each summer class was twice the pace of a normal 10-week class (I went to school on the quarter system) so they made the unit limit much lower (almost half as much) as the limit during the normal quarter. So I would expect students to only take 1-2 courses over the winter session, not 6.
At many schools, 18 units (6 classes) is considered on the heavier side for normal semesters, so I would imagine the workload would be immensely heavier over a 2.5 week session. I agree that you should talk to your advisor to see if this is a good idea or not. I would ere on the side of not doing it. What’s making you want to take so many classes in such a short period of time?
Thing is that I don’t want to spend another whole semester to complete my requirements. If I could complete these courses over the winter I’ll graduate on time. I’m in community college and as an international student, the University I want to transfer to only accepts fall applications for internationals. Which means if I don’t do these courses over the winter I will waste a whole year in my college career waiting for next fall…
If you did take an extra semester to finish your requirements, could you spend the time between graduating from community college and attending university doing something non-academic, but still productive? I don’t think it would be a waste if you were saving up money or gaining workplace experience in the place of attending university.
If you’re one of those students who can actually take in everything in the specified amount of time I think you’ll be just fine with waht you’re thinking
What has been your academic history so far? How many credits have you taken at once in an average semester , and what grades have you gotten thus far ? What happens if you don’t get all As in the classes? Will you blow your GPA and make chances for transfer more difficult ?
It depends on the school, but if those hours represent what is usually a full semester, you should not be going anywhere near more than 6-8 range. You should be taking 2 classes, at max 3. not 6.
ABSOLUTELY too much. Only do 1 if you want to get an A.
Normally you do 3 hours/week (+ homework). for 15 week session. So that is a total of 45 hours. So for a 2.5 week session, you need to do 18 hours of class time per week plus homework. Let say you do 2 classes…that is 36 hours per week which is almost a full time job.
Let’s put this into perspective as if you were taking these courses in person: at my university, the 6-week classes (3-week classes are all online) meet Monday through Friday for 2 hours and 40 minutes. 6 of THOSE would be nearly 16 hours a day of class time. So theoretically, six 2.5- week classes are equivalent to over 32 hours per day of class time… you see the issue here: there aren’t 32 hours in a day, and even if there were, eating and sleeping are kind of important. Obviously the amount of work could vary from school to school, but I think it’s incredibly impractical anywhere.
Also, you may not even be allowed to take that many. My school has two 3-week online sessions every calendar year, and students are limited to one course during each.
Thanks guys for all the responses! You’ve all helped clear my mind a lot and perhaps 6 classes is a bit ridiculous… I’ve decided to 2 courses over the winter and let the others slide onto another semester. Like @blurryface said, I’ll work or get an internship while I wait to transfer. Cheers xx
If the school is granting you the permission to do so and you believe you could balance everything out then it’s not to much but are you really in a hurry to study everything and limiting yourself some time.
Do you guys think it would be possible to manage A’s in 4 courses?
@HumphyDumpy input?
Woah! Hmm, in my opinion (and situation) keeping A’s on 4 courses is quite challenging though I wouldn’t know if it’s be that hard for you at least. You seem quite eager on this so I think you can make it happen 
Would be very hard in 2.5 weeks to take 4 courses, let alone get As. I guess it might depend on the classes and how easily you learn and perform.
The original 18.5 units sounded insanely difficult! When I was going to community college, I decided to make use of the winter session to try and transfer a bit faster. The absolute max allowed at my system of community colleges was 10 units of work. Given the trouble it took me to petition for 21 units (18 is the max they allowed during a normal semester), I didn’t want to try and go over the limit for winter. I only took 3 classes (psychology, sociology, and a general education health course). It was insane! We covered 3-4 chapters every week and had tests/quizzes almost daily. Granted, this was a six week session, but it was still quite difficult for me to keep up with all the reading. I could never imagine doing double the units (I took 9) in less than half the time at an actual university. I think 4 courses may be doable, but that less than 3 weeks timeframe really worries me. You’d probably cover like 6-7 chapters of any given textbook per week.