<p>I may have an issue; I have read that the State of Florida requires students to take a minimum of 9 hours in the summer term for whatever reason. I'm a graduating Senior and I should enter as a freshman to FSU in fall 2014, with 41 AP credits because by the time I graduate I should have taken/passed 11 AP exams. I've looked at the course catalog and what I'll get credit for and where it will count and not, and to fulfill my "liberal studies" it looks as though I'm only going to need to take a 3 credit hour science class, and 6 hours worth of humanities. Obviously those 3 classes can be taken in my first semester. My problem is that by the time summer 2015 rolls around, I'll have somewhere between 69 and 71 credit hours (assuming 14-15 a semester fall and spring). At that point I'll be taking classes within my major (Criminology), and I don't think there will be classes to take. Money will also be an issue, I qualify for automatic EFC Zero, so I'll have the full pell, plus bright futures, but neither of these is for the summer. I also need to work during the summer to have money for books, food, ect. What should I do?</p>
<p>My daughter started at FSU in the summer of 2011 as a criminology major. She has since added a second major. I can assure you that the criminology department offers a wide variety of courses during the summer terms. Also, so does her second major. I would not worry about the lack of course offerings. Plus, as a criminology major you have to complete either a minor or an internship. As for the financial hardship of taking summer courses, speak to an academic advisor in the criminology department. This question was asked at my daughter’s orientation and the answer was that a student would not be denied graduation due to lack of summer credits. This answer was from one of the criminology academic advisor. I am not 100% positive, but I think all the Florida public universities have this rule.</p>
<p>Yeah, this is a State of FL rule for all public universities. It got changed a couple years ago to where test credits/other credits from high school no longer counted, which made the rule look like little more than a money grab: if you’ve ever seen FSU’s campus during fall/spring, and then again during the summer, you’ll notice it’s pretty much dead for most of the summer, and many majors don’t even offer classes that count towards the major during the summer. </p>
<p>An option for anyone needing summer credits is online courses. There are literally a couple hundred classes offered over the summer that are completely online. Some require an additional fee, some don’t- so unless you want to pay an extra $200+ per class, you may have to do some hunting. Some are good for gen ed requirements, some are good for fun electives.</p>
<p>Keep in mind too that just because you’ll have ~ 70 credits doesn’t mean that you’ll be doing only classes within your major. Most majors have courses that require specific pre-requisites, and there may be other limitations. Odds are you might only be taking 2 or 3 classes within your major each semester.</p>
<p>My nephew entered UF with 40 AP credits. He’s still taking 4 years to graduate because he needs and wants to take some of the classes as a college student, with college labs and university professors, such as biology. He’ll admit that biology in college is a whole lot harder than AP biology in high school, and he needed that harder class to build on, since it’s his goal to go to medical school.</p>
<p>You may find you want to take core classes again in college.</p>