Overwhelmed by Courseload

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>I'm a junior taking 18 credits consisting of:</p>

<p>300-level biochem
200-level math
100-level gen physics lab
100-level intro to ecology
300-level genetics with lab
300-level animal physiology</p>

<p>I'm already overwhelmed and feel a lack of time. I want to drop physiology but I have to pay a penalty of $450 if I drop it. Initially I thought I could handle it but I underestimated the workload of those courses as a whole, especially animal physiology whose prof makes us memorize so many details :(. I've never been good at straight memorizations. I don't feel comfortable with my current courseload but I don't want to lose $450 just for dropping either. Every other course is okay except physiology which I'm really behind in and have lots of catching up to do.
What should I do? (Today is the last day to drop a course without a W on transcript)
If possible, I want to continue with this courseload (because I don't want to sacrifice $450) but I can't be sure whether I'll do well on all of them.</p>

2

<p>Drop it. Being overloaded can mean you do poorly in all your courses. A W is better than a D, and way better than bad grades in multiple courses.</p>

<p>This is a crazy courseload. I hope your advisor encourages you to be more cautious in the future.</p>

3

<p>Then I guess I really should drop it. But I'm a little ashamed to do it--I feel like a quitter. Well, at least it's better than potential poor grades at the end and a semester of hell.</p>

4

<p>Drop it or all your grades will suffer.</p>

5

<p>I finally dropped it. I should've done it sooner (The penalty in the first week is only $100). But it was hard to get an idea of what the workload for the course would be like in the beginning, despite having a discussion with the course prof. I went to 7 classes and 2 tutorials for the course. What a waste of time and energy, in addition to $450.</p>

6

<p>I'd say you made the right call.</p>