<p>We keep getting conflicting advice on this subject. So many people at UF seem to take only 12 or 13 credits (the minimum for full time status) for their first semester (Freshman year) but a true full courseload is 15 credits/semester (to graduate in 4 years with the requisite 120 credits). My daughter and I are having a hard time getting a straight answer on if people are taking less credits so they can have more "party time" or if the classes are really that much more demanding than they are used to that they need the adjustment time. My daughter went to a very rigorous (lot of work/tough to get high grades type of) private prep high school and was told by many of our alums that college is soooo much easier than high school (work-wise). She is organized and responsible when it comes to both classwork and her social life. She has registered to take 15 credits (3 tough tracking courses for her business major and 2 supposedly easier GE science courses) and is planning on adding the 1 credit First Year Freshman class. When she asked an advisor at the business school about this, they suggested that she drop a tracking class and thus go down to 13 credits. What is the deal here? Is she too overloaded to be successful (get a good GPA) or is this some routine advice given to all incoming Freshman (the majority of which may have come from easier/less labor intense high schools OR are too immature to handle both schoolwork and being on their own for the first time in their lives?</p>
<p>when i was at preview, our preview staff advised for 15, although the minimum is obviously 12. When i went to sign up for my classes the advisor was trying to get me to drop a class and go for 12 but I told her no. If your daughter went to a good prep school then maybe she can handle the 3 tracking course. its also great she balanced it out with (im guessing easy) GE courses. Now that I think about it, I have 3 Tracking courses too for the fall(can't remember if my english class is so maybe 2). There is always Drop/Add period, so if she can't handle it, then is the best time to re-do her schedule.</p>
<p>I'm taking 15 credits because I dont want to take the bare minimum and God forbid I fall behind I dont have that much to make up. I do plan on partying and going out too.</p>
<p>My son took 15 the first semester and handled it okay. I think it depends on the classes you're taking, though. </p>
<p>Keep in mind -- if your daughter has a lot of AP credits, she can afford to take 12 hours instead of 15. That's one of the advantages of coming in with a bunch of AP credit at UF (unless she's looking to graduate earlier than 4 years).</p>
<p>She is only coming in with 6 AP credits (will not know if she passed AP Lit until mid July...if so then 9 credits). Will probably do as ufstudent suggested...wait and see if the 16 credits seems doable. I guess she "can" drop one of her tracking classes if she wants to during drop/add as ufstudent suggested.</p>
<p>it depends on the courses, UF's business classes, even the crit tracking courses are not that tough I've heard, and compared to something like engineering they'll be a piece of cake. Personally, I'm taking 14 for my first semester:
Calc 1 (already had AP calc so it should be fairly easy for me)
Intro to stat (a very easy class according to my bro, and looking through the text book it looks easy)
european history (to get a humanities and an I out of the way, shouldn't be hard)
macroeconomics
intro to engineering (a one credit attendance based course)</p>
<p>while some poeple may think that's a hard schedule, math has always been simple for me, and I don't think it will be at all difficult for me if I apply myself. It's all the courses you take and what you can do well. If I wanted to I think I could handle another class, but I have always slacked off in HS and with 30 AP credits I'm not worried about graduating on time, if your schedule is loaded with physics w/ calc, chem, and everything else, I wouldn't advise more than 13 or 14, but with a business course load I wouldn't be afraid to take 15.</p>
<p>Yes, she has a business courseload so hopefully 16 credits will be no problem. Microeconomic (3 credits), Calculus 2233 (3 crd.), Prob. Solving using Computers (3 crd.), Wildlife issues (3 crd.), Man's Food (3 crd.), Warrington Welcome - FYF (1 credit).</p>
<p>that doesn't seem too bad to me, that calc I believe is just survey of calc, not calc 1, which may be easy or hard depending on whether the girl is math oriented or not. Man's food I've heard from my brother is one of the easiest courses at the college I think. Warrington welcom is attendance based, no study required. Micro depends on the person, I've heard the teacher isn't that great though. The other two I don't have any knowledge of, but don't sound like killer courses.</p>
<p>As long as your daughter is the type to just screw around and party and blow off classes I think that schedule is reasonable. Myself I don't quite trust that much, and I may party a little more than I should just like I did in high school, so I'm taking a lesser course load of 14.</p>
<p>My s signed up for 13 the first semester and did alright. In the spring he signed up for 13 again and wished he had signed up for more because he wanted to drop one (that he ended up getting an A in, but had been looking at the class average instead of his the whole semester, and thought he had a C, DUMB, but effective, he worked really hard to bring up that C haha)</p>
<p>gatordan, my s had also already taken ap calculus and gotten a 5 on the test, but took it again because he wanted to go to med school. It ended up being one of the classes he got a B in. He thought it was much harder than ap. Not to scare you or anything, just stay on top of it and you will do fine!</p>
<p>My S, an undeclared engineering major, has registered for 14 credits (Physics with Cal, Physics Lab, Cal III, Microecons and French III). At first I thought it seemed a bit on the light side since he already excelled in math and physics in HS. But this being his first semester and we decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.</p>
<p>He also has several AP credits. Throw in some summer courses and we would expect him to graduate slightly ahead of the 4 years.</p>
<p>However, having gone through college life and a greater part of working life, I know college life is really a great fun-filled learning sojourn and one should not try to curtail it in any way. So may be we would get him to work some (doing nothing during summer months seem like a waste).</p>
<p>From the websites (ratemyprofessor.com, campusopencourse.com, etc) I've read, MAC2233 Survey of Calculus (which is basically calc for biz majors) is a lot easier than MAC2311 (which is the general Calculus 1 course).</p>
<p>I'm taking 13 credits this fall semester. I figured I'd "take it easy" as I adjust to a new atmosphere. I also brought in a nice amount of credits from dual enrollment. I'm registered for ECO2023 (microecon), MAC2233 (survey of calc 1), man's food, age of dinosaurs, and warrington welcome (first year florida)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Are you referring to Prof. Rush? Again, from all the websites I've read (including livejournal).. all have praised Rush. I'm not sure how skewed the statistics are, but his average is 4.6. <a href="http://ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=53144%5B/url%5D">http://ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=53144</a></p>
<p>I'm also a business major. I have not had my preview yet, but I am most likely going to try and register for this schedule:</p>
<p>CGS 2531 Problem Solving Using Computer Software
ECO 2013 Principles of Macroeconomics
STA 2023 Intro to Statistics 1
MUL 2010 Intro to Music Lit
FOS 2001 Mans Food
SLS 1102 Warrington Welcome</p>
<p>With this schedule, I get 3 tracking courses out of the way. I also get a H, I, and 6000 words for MUL 2010, which is supposed to be fairly easy. I get a B for FOS 2001, also ridiculously easy. Although it is 16 credits, I think I can handle it.</p>
<p>If anyone has any input on the difficulty or amount of work for any of these classes, please let me know.</p>
<p>fall 04 - 15 credits
spring 05 - 15
summer a -6
fall 05 - 15
spring 06- 14
summer c-12
fall 06- 14</p>
<p>I do believe it's Rush, but I'm just going off of my brother who took micro with him. It's just one person's opinion, but I generally value his especially as he's an economics major. I'm not worried though because I anticipate having AP credit for micro and am jumping into macro semester 1.</p>
<p>I thought music lit was fun. The hardest part for most is memorizing the 10 songs for the second part of the test and writing the 2 3,000 word essay.</p>
<p>Seiclan, your daughter is FINE, don't let the advisors tell you otherwise. She's taking Man's Food, and Wildlife issues, both supremely easy. I've taken the former myself, and skipped the lectures, just bought the einstein notes, studied the night before each of the three exams and got over a 100%. Business Calc isn't too tough, supposedly a little less difficult than Calc 1 with Analytic Geo., which is what I took. And professor Rush is supposed to be amazing, I'm taking Micro in the fall myself. So, no worries! Let me know if you have any more questions!</p>
<p>Oh and ag54... did your son have Kozinski? Because the SAME thing happened to me, 5 on the AP Calc AB test, took Calc as an easy A, then ended up getting a B+... I was very angry. Kozinski is under review now though, as his class average was a mid-D.</p>
<p>If you need some easy credits, sign up for Age of the Dinosaurs. My friend took that class and got an A and said it was super easy (and pretty fun!)</p>
<p>Just got home from preview tonight. I'm a business major, a lot of the information about business presented at preview was interesting.</p>
<p>Here's what I decided on for my schedule:</p>
<p>Intro to Music Literature (H, I, 6000): MWF-Period 2
The Insects (B): MWF-Period 3
Survey of Calculus (M): MWF-Period 4 and T-Period 5
Intro to Statistics (M): T-Period 5 and WEB
Warrington Welcome: T-Period 6
Man's Food (B): WEB</p>
<p>Since i got AP Credits for Micro/MacroEconomics, I chose the next 2 tracking courses (Calc and Stats). I opted not to choose CGS 2531 (business tracking) because the teacher who is teaching it this semester (De Simone) is supposed to be pretty poor. I am hoping that this class will be available spring semester with a better professor.
Music Lit is supposed to be one of the easiest H/I courses.
And as for the two B/P courses I am taking... one is for B/P credits and one is just an elective to boost the GPA.
I am thrilled that I have no school on Thursdays!</p>
<p>I just got back from Preview and decided on the following, though by the end of the semester I may want to slap myself for my schedule.</p>
<p>FRE2201 Intermediate French 2- MWF 3
GLY2010C-Physical Geology- MWF 4 M 8-9
PHY2048- Physics W/Calc I- MWF 5 R 7
PHY2048L- Physics Lab T 3-4
FRE2241 Intermediate French Conversation 2 TR 6
MAC3473 Calculus 2 Honors MTWF-7</p>
<p>Amazingly no one tried to stop me from taking 17 credits, but I think thats because I am in Honors. I don't know though. Most of the other preview staffers stopped their students at around 13 or 14 from what I was hearing.</p>
<p>I'm taking 16 credits, and I would have tacked on another course I really wanted if they had let me (it would have put me at 19).</p>
<p>HUM2230 -- Western Humanities 2 (Honors course)
CHM2046 + CHM2046L -- Chemistry Lab/Lecture
GRE1130 -- Accelerated Ancient Greek 1
MAC2311 -- Calculus + Analytic Geometry-ish ness</p>