<p>It'll be my second semester as a Freshman and it seems my schedule adds up to 25 units. I have Beginning Programming, Pre-Calc, Statistics, U.S Hist., Figure Drawing, Communications, and Japanese. </p>
<p>Now I figure Communication, Figure Drawing, and U.S Hist are easy for me but 25 units seems like too much. Even if I dropped Figure Drawing I'd still have 22. Also I will not be working. Should I try for 25/22 or ease up and drop 2 classes? Advice appreciated!</p>
<p>I did it last semester and ended up with 3.8+ so it’s completely possibly. I initially started off with 21 and then added 4 during add/drop. </p>
<p>It’s entirely doable anyway but if you want advice, I’d say know all of your courses grading and absences policies before your register. I would say, just put every paper/quiz/etc… that you need to do or study for in your calendar and see where there are conflicts.
I had 2 quizzes and a paper the same day and only realized it 2 days before so I had to decide failing 1 quiz (ie not studying and putting random answers) so that I could study for the rest.
Also, there will be days when you’ll just be sick of going to class and will want to skip so maybe try to choose instructors who are rather chill about attendance (and maybe that the TA is known for accepting late assignments or really help you in recitation and try to bump your grade rather than “catch you”) or even better drop one of your quizzes/assignments grades, so you can have a “down time” at some point in the semester. 2 of my instructors decided to drop my As to A minuses because I missed so many classes.
Honestly, it sounds like a big number, but in fact I still had plenty of time for a life. Sometimes, the more you have to do, the more you get done (ie. when I have little homework, I procrastinate and eventually do none, but when I know I have tons of ***** to get done, I just do it).</p>
<p>Oh, if you just messed up your 1st semester DO NOT take 25 units. You DO NOT need to make up for anything. It’s OK to have a bad semester, it can happen to anyone. This is why you have 8 semester to earn your credits to graduate so you have plenty of time. Take the regular 5 classes, get back into good study habits and techniques, have time to cover the material in depth, go to office hours, do your reading properly and discover fun extra things around whatever your classes teach you.</p>
<p>Well, it <em>can</em> be done because I knew a guy who took 27 units (all intro classes, like intro to psych, intro to sociology, etc., although some where honors classes), but even though he got straight A’s, he admitted that he had absolutely no time to do anything else.
I suggest that you cut it down to at the most 21-22 units. Or, if you are determined, try out the 25 units and see if the schedules let you do it. You can always drop classes.</p>
<p>It’s always interesting to see people say they’ve done it without listing their classes.</p>
<p>Languages take a lot of time to learn, especially one like Japanese that has completely different characters. If you aren’t familiar with the language, then that class’s difficulty could have an impact on how you perform in your other classes.
Same for math. Pre-calc requires a good amount of memorization (imho but I hated math). If you’ve struggled with math in the past, adding a language and programming to that would just be bad for you.</p>
<p>Don’t double up on classes because of 1 semester. If you only took 2 classes your first semester, you don’t have a good idea of the work load of taking 20+ or just being full time. Stay aware of the drop dates for your school.in case it gets to be too much to handle and you won’t be stuck with them or a W.</p>
<p>In general, yes it’s possible…but I would NOT do that if you were only able to handle 2 classes by the time you got through first semester. I’m surprised an advisor would even let you sign up for that after what your first semester was. DON’T go from 2 all the way to up to 7 classes. That’s way too much of a jump…that’s what, from 8 credits to the 25 you mention? That’s a lot. I’m going to 22 this semester, but took 19 first semester so that’s a lot different.</p>
<p>Dont do it unless you have a real specific reason to do so (fin aid problems/etc). If you take 20+ credits your putting yourself in a position to miss out on alot of what your paying the big $ for in college. Meeting people, finding yourself, doing research, etc. Its not worth killing yourself in classes to leave early and miss out on these things.</p>
<p>On a small side note. Why do so many people here take crazy schedules like that:</p>
<p>Yeah a BA/BS seems to be just not that useful. I also question how much someone actually learns from a dual degree program. It just seems like you’d kinda know two fields but would be missing the deep understanding required to master both.</p>
<p>That being sad. I doubt 90% of the posters of these questions will get a dual degree (seems to be mainly freshman who dont yet understand that class is only part of the college experience). I personally know of no one i went to school with who got two bachelor level degrees.</p>
<p>BA for History, and BM for Music- Piano Performance…very different subjects.</p>
<p>Yes, I could get a BA in piano, which would be half the major requirements of the BM, but I want the BM because I’d want to take those classes anyways and a BM is better for grad school in piano performance than just a BA.</p>
<p>So yes I do need that.</p>
<p>Also, I am going for 5 years…still with the 22 semester hours at a time…because my school just has that many requirements for my 2 degrees (plus I’m taking a few extra fun classes- organ lessons, extra ensemble, and will take harpsichord lessons also, and I’m doing composition lessons too), and that’s 5 years even after I tested out of Spanish and AP credits, so that’s a year’s worth of classes done.</p>
<p>But I agree…I don’t understand that much why people get a BA and BS…they’re not as much different as a BM/BA combo or BS/BM combo.</p>
<p>Why are you taking history in addition to a music degree if you are just considering going to grad school for music? If your doing it just so that you can have a non-music major as well id consider at least going with something more marketable (history and music are two really rough fields to get decent paying jobs in these days).</p>
<p>I don’t think those are hard classes, but together, they will be a lot of work.</p>
<p>I used to overload on credits. Now, I have occasional dreams in which I suddenly realize that I’ve neglected to attend one of my classes for 5 weeks. Then I wake up. (true story)</p>
<p>I’m not saying this will happen to you, but what I’ve learned is to balance my schedule and have a good GPA at the end of this. I hate being stressful.</p>