Is taking 6 classes in a semester too much?

Hey, does anyone of y’all have experience in taking 6 classes in a semester? How was it? Did you work part time? Was it stressful?

What is the normal number of courses or credits students take in a semester at your school?

If courses have variable numbers of credits, are the 6 courses mostly smaller or larger ones in terms of number of credits per course?

Are the courses the kind that tend to be high workload, such as those with labs, art studio, music performance, big term projects, etc.?

@ucbalumnus Well, people usually take 5 classes in a semester, in order to graduate on time. 6 credits would be 18 credits and no labs. Mainly major classes and free electives.

If it’s only one over the standard load and no labs, it sounds totally doable as long as you keep on top of everything.

Assuming that you have taken 5-course schedules before and know how much time is needed, you should be able to estimate out how much more time a 6-course schedule would need, and therefore estimate how well you can handle it, assuming no unusually high workload courses.

I mean I was asking, because I keep hearing about how “stressful” it is.

Well, it can be stressful depending upon the classes. 6 STEM classes in which a couple of them have labs would probably be over the top. A balanced schedule which included an easier class or two probably would not be so bad.

It depends on the classes and your ability to manage your time. I’ve done a full load two different semesters and got As and Bs both times. Technically I did work as well but I set my own hours (I worked for my school) so it wasn’t too limiting.