I will be a first freshman this fall in college and was wanting to know if more than 16 would be to much? I will be a biology major and here is what I have so far:
Gen. Psych. 4 credit hours T,Thur
Gen. Bio. 4 credit hours MWF
College Algebra. 4 credit hours MWF
Comp.1. 3 credit hours T,Thur
New student seminar 1 credit hour Wed.
I kind of also want to graduate early so I can save money and I also want to take Portuguese to complete my foreign language requirement in 2 semesters instead of 3.
I recommend no more than 16 credits your first semester. That will give you a feel without too much risk of getting overwhelmed. After that you can increase your load if it feels doable.
I don’t think the number of credits is too much, but the type of credits could be. Psych, Bio, and Algebra are all 4 credits rather than 3… Do all three have lab components? I personally wouldn’t take more than two lab classes at once unless I had to. They’re a LOT of work in my experience.
You won’t graduate early if you need to retake classes you did poorly in because you overloaded yourself.
Kind of depends, ive taken 16 credits that are okay for the semester and 16 credits that are awful and I get barely any sleep, plus I never took more because tutiton only covered 17 credits , so anything more than that cost me $850 a credit. Personally you should ask yourself how early it will make you graduate, a semester isnt worth it, a year maybe. And thats a maybe, just my personal opinion but think about it to graduate a year early it would be getting 32 credits done ahead of time.
Going above what your school considers a full course load during the first semester is generally not recommended. You really need to give yourself time to adjust. If graduating early is really important to you, there will be plenty of chances in later semesters to take extra classes if you think you can handle it.
Your schedule looks doable.
Well, with Bio being the only lab course it definitely seems doable. 16 is within the recommended range of credits per term at most schools.
16 credits is a good starting point. However if you’re planning on graduating early you’re eventually going to need to load up on credits at some point.
Average undergraduate program = 120 credits
Average udergraduate program length = 8 semesters
Average credits per semester = 120 / 8 = 15 credits
Modified undergraduate program 1 length = 7 semesters
Modified credits per semester (1) = 120 / 7 = 17 credits
Modified undergraduate program 2 length = 6 semesters
Modified credits per semester (2) = 120 / 6 = 20 credits
Just keep that in mind