<p>Hello,</p>
<ol>
<li><p>There are 2 semesters at U of M right? </p></li>
<li><p>how many courses do students generally sign up for each semester? </p></li>
<li><p>can we backpack yet?</p></li>
<li><p>Is it a good idea taking diff eq if you took calc 3 at a community college? I read that diff eq is unrelated to calc 3 but is it still a good idea to take such a high level math course as a freshman?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>thank you</p>
<ol>
<li><p>There are 3 semesters, Fall, Winter, and Spring/Summer. Most students only take Fall and Winter semesters.</p></li>
<li><p>Depends on your major, but usually 4-6.</p></li>
<li><p>I believe you can backpack if you’ve been to orientation? I’m not sure on this one.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Just curious…what does “backpack” mean?</p>
<p>backpacking is listing courses you want to take on your student account but you don’t actually register for classes, its only a tentative list you make as a rough estimate.</p>
<p>@be_somebody
is the standard semester is 16 total credit hours? this means that you go through 16 hours of lecture every week?</p>
<p>^^Thank you!</p>
<ol>
<li><p>There are two semesters that most students attend (Fall and Winter). Some students stay at UofM for the summer term (which is broken into smaller segments called Spring and Summer), but most don’t because it is cheaper to take classes at a community college and have them transfer.</p></li>
<li><p>Shoot for 15 credits. 14-16 is preferred, 17 is do-able, 18 is tough (don’t do 18). I wouldn’t do 12 or 13 either because you’ll spend time recovering the lost credits in future semesters.</p></li>
<li><p>Unless they changed it from last year, you can already backpack even if you haven’t been to orientation. However, you won’t be able to actually register until the last day of your orientation. (ty4collegehelp, backpacking is placing all of the classes that you are considering into a virtual “locker” or “backpack” before your registration time. That way, when you get to your registration time, you can quickly select the exact classes you want to take, and then submit it. It helps to have a “first” schedule that you want, and then also a “second” schedule of different times/classes that you can use if your first schedule is full of closed sections.)</p></li>
<li><p>It depends on your major and how far you want to go in math. I’m not an engineer and I have no interest in pursuing higher math classes, but I needed a strong quantitative class, so I took diff eq as a first semester freshman without taking Math 215. I got a B, but the class was fairly easy. Go to lecture and copy down the entire chalkboard, and then study those problems for the exam. I should have gotten at least an A-, but I was a lazy freshman.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>thank you very much</p>
<p>DEQ and calc III (multi-variable) are not related and most colleges allow you to take either one first and neither is a pre-requiste for each other. So I don’t think it matters.</p>
<p>I wish i got credit for calc iii last year</p>
<p>Others have answered the questions but I’d like to address question four.</p>
<p>Definitely take DEQ if you have any (and I mean any) desire to take higher math courses or major in engineering/physics/any science major. If you’re going into engineering, taking DEQ will mean that you have 12 extra credits you can use to take electives over the course of your studies.</p>
<p>It doesn’t sound like a lot, but 12 additional credits for electives can definitely help. Say you want to go into engineering, but decide to change your specialization, these credits will make that transition a lot easier, while still enabling you graduate on time.</p>
<p>Wait, how do u get 12 extra by taking diffy q’s</p>
<p>^I think because calc 1, 2, and 3 are total of 12 credits (each is 4 credit hours)</p>
<p>thank you for responses</p>
<p>Oh, i thought he meant by just taking diffy qs.</p>