When my DD attended the online honors college chatting, she heard the suggestions about having a 4 year classes planned out at the beginning, esp. if you have some special needs like double majoring. DD wants to double major. She attended the orientation last week. She only has one semester classes planned. Should we push for a four year plan at this point? I know students change a lot so it might not be a good idea to do a four year plan now? But she heard it in the discussion and she is nervous that she might not get two majors done in 4 years. (She does have a lot of AP and dual enrollment credits. That helped a great deal in first semester planning thank God!)
Many majors have sample 4 year plans available online.
What are her two majors? Is she going for double major or dual degree?
(FYI, a dual degree is a bachelor degree in each subject, which is different than a combined degree (done in 5 years instead of 6) such as a BS and MS.
To paint a broad brush, here is the site to find links of most 4 year plans.
http://www.gened.umd.edu/for-students/forstudents-4yearplans.html
Note that you want the Gen Ed NOT Core (Gen Ed applies to any student matriculating in the start of Fall 2012 going forward, Core was the predecessor and is still listed only for anyone that started prior to that time)
Here is the “start” page for explaining the double major v dual degree
http://www.umd.edu/catalog/index.cfm/show/content.section/c/27/ss/1585/s/1506
Having a 4-year plan is a good idea, as long as she understands it’s flexible and WILL change (because not all classes are open all semesters, because an incredible opportunity opens up one semester, because a terrific professor or a visiting lecturer will offer a once-in-forever class…)
What she’d do is place the sequential classes (classes may have to come in a sequence, due to pre-reqs or co-reqs); then, she should list everything she MUST take for Gen Eds and place them in such a way her semesters are balanced, with one gen ed OR free space saved for each semester junior and senior year. Then she adds the other requirements and the classes she’d like to take. She can also look at the summer sessions (whether on campus or commuting from home and taking a class at the CC.)
She should play around the course catalogs and explore each field for intro classes that “sound interesting”, and list them separately, then ask upper class students whether any of those is a “must take” - each college has seemingly random classes that are incredibly popular due to the way they’re taught.
Her first semester shouldn’t be heavier than 14-16 credits (unless the excess credit is a physical education class).