<p>Hi everyone, I'm going to be a freshman this fall, and previously, I have been homeschooled. I did well on my standardized tests, but I'm still nervous because of the heavy course load I am taking:</p>
<p>^ Not my choice, my school assigns all first year freshman in my academic program to the same classes.</p>
<p>I'm specifically worried that I won't have the base knowledge that other students do because I was homeschooled, as well as that I will be completely overwhelmed by the amount of work that I have to do.</p>
<p>How will I have any time to socialize, or even just BREATHE with a schedule like that? How much homework is usually assigned on a daily/weekly basis (or is it more studying in college)? I know that this varies depending on the professor, but I just mean in general.</p>
<p>Worrying won't get you anywhere. If your school assigned you that schedule then they must believe that you can handle it. </p>
<p>That said, you do have a very heavy course load. I suggest studying during the breaks between classes. This will help minimize the work you will have to do at night and will give you more time to socialize with your friends. The rule of thumb is that you should study 2 hours for every hour in class. This, however, varies from person to person.</p>
<p>I would say that courseload is simply too much to handle, but if all freshman in your program are taking the same courses, it must be feasible at your school.
no worries.</p>
<p>That isn't that heavy of a courseload; it's 6 courses. Those arts courses will be easy, as will bio be. You only have 2 labs... I had 3 my first semester of Uni and didn't find it that bad. </p>
<p>Kids in engineering take 6 (sometimes 7) difficult courses every semester. You'll be fine with 6 easy one's.</p>
<p>That's 6 courses only if the labs are part of the lecture courses. At my school, chem lab is an entirely different course with its own exams. If thats the case for your school, I hold that this is a pretty heavy courseload.</p>
<p>ps russell,
Engineers at my school (a pretty rigorous engineering school) don't take 7 classes, and usually not even 6 in a single semester.</p>
<p>CaseSpartan10, they are all different courses, not just lectures with lab sections. Each lecture is 3 s.h., and the labs are given credit for 1 s.h., but they are 5 hours/week each.</p>
<p>That definitely seems like a tough schedule, but I echo the sentiment that if this schedule is assigned to a large number of incoming freshman, it must be somewhat doable.</p>
<p>Drop at least one of those classes. Six classes (with two labs) is just rough for your first semester. I'm a firm believer that the first semester in college should be spent taking a light course load and finding yourself.</p>
<p>That being said, if you really want to do this it won't be impossible. Calculus is the only class there that would have weekly homeworks. Two of your classes will be essay-based (Eng + writing), two will be lab-based (chem + bio lab), and three will be reading/test-based (chem, bio, psych). If you have solid time management skills, you'll survive.</p>
<p>Again, though, I would not recommend doing that to yourself your first semester.</p>
<p>It does seem like a rough first semester but if you do well it will be a great start to college because you will already have a few gen ed requirements out of the way.</p>
<p>I do wonder what that schedule is credit-wise? It seems something like 23 on a semester schedule which seems like too much. If it is a standard courseload/given to everyone I'd say just stick with it. Even if it seems tough it's better to go in there swinging than sitting there pondering what a hard courseload it is.</p>
<p>if your school is like mine, the first week is add/drop a course week. So if you find yourself struggling right at the beginning, you can try dropping a course or two.</p>
<p>*That's 6 courses only if the labs are part of the lecture courses. At my school, chem lab is an entirely different course with its own exams. If thats the case for your school, I hold that this is a pretty heavy courseload.</p>
<p>ps russell,
Engineers at my school (a pretty rigorous engineering school) don't take 7 classes, and usually not even 6 in a single semester.*</p>
<p>Oh, we don't have separate lab courses at my school that I know of. Labs are always 3 hours (sometimes 4 hours) per week on top of lectures. And yes the labs have their own midterms and finals as well, but you have to take them at the same time as the lecture. The results from both (lecture and lab) go into one mark for the whole course.</p>
<p>Your engineering school can't be that rigorous then if they're only taking 5 per semester. Every other major takes 5 per semester and the whole argument as to why engineering is so difficult is the course load (and work load in each individual course).</p>
<p>Evidently that's the case at your school. But at actually rigorous engineering schools, that don't have 5 courses per semester, the course load overshadows the course difficulty by quite a bit.</p>
<p>And I'll second the fact that Case Western is a very rigorous engineering school. You can't really judge other schools based on yours. Curriculum is different, courses are different and teachers are different. I know about Case Western because I know a few people who go there and also it was on my list of schools I was looking at which also included another very rigorous engineering school, Rose Hulman, but it was too expensive. lol</p>
<p>*Okay the fact is, Case western is a rigorous engineering school.</p>
<p>please get over it, not all schools are the same.*</p>
<p>Dude you're getting too worked up over this. I'm just saying that with 5 courses a semester, I have my doubts how rigorous it actually is compared to engineering schools with higher course loads. Your statement isn't "fact" just because you find it hard. I won't/don't need to get over anything.</p>
<p>edit: Actually I just looked at the Mec E program outline for case western. LOL at the number of humanities electives that you guys get. Your intro courses don't even look like they have lab hours. A physics/chem course at my Uni without a 3 hour lab is unheard of over here. And they can't be serious with the "physical education activities." Definitely missing a crapload of courses that we do. A bunch of the basic courses that we do in 1st/2nd years don't get done until 2nd/3rd years at Case.</p>