Obviously classes are harder in Grad school, so should I cut back my credit hours?

Graduate School
1

Just curious… starting to do some academic planning for grad school and was wondering if I should limit myself on credit hours. That is, more cautiously than I did when an undergrad.

Thanks in advance to all. Happy new year!

2

Talk with your advisor about this. Each program sets its own requirements for completion, so the people there are the ones who are best able to help you sort things out.

3

PhD or MS/MA? The answers will be quite different. The masters programs will be quite proscriptive. You will e expected to make satisfactory academic progress towards your one-year of two-year degree.

For a PhD, as @happymomof1 said, it will be program specific. As an example, my son is in his first year as a PhD engineering student. He took just three courses first semester and is taking only two second semester. These five “approved doctoral core courses” were selected from a department-approved list with his advisor’s approval . He has already started on his graduate research and applied for three national fellowships. At the end of the second semester, he will be expected to pass oral exams to demonstrate proficiency. Preparing for the oral exams is expected to be very time consuming, hence the lighter course load second semester. Some of his friends took four classes first semester and just one second semester.

Assuming (fingers crossed) he passes his oral exams, he will move from being a pre-PhD candidate to a PhD candidate.

4

Each program is different. To start, you should follow the norm as that would be what others are doing and what has been tried and proven. Then if you need to make changes you can reassess. Also grad school might be easier. You will now be studying something you hopefully love and have a strong interest in, with few courses to distract. Good luck.

5

Thanks for all the advice and responses! It’s a masters program, totaling 31 credit hours, but 6 of those are usually completed in the summer semester as research or a thesis paper. Thinking this is doable in one year?

6

In general, graduate students take about 9-12 credit hours a semester. So theoretically, a 31-credit program should be doable in one year including summer semester, especially if some of those credits are research, teaching, internship, practicum, etc. But it really depends on your program, so talk to your advisor.

7

As @juillet says, 3-4 courses is a typical full load for a graduate student.