<p>I am a senior attending UT in the fall, at the end of my senior year I will have 20 hours of college credit. I am contemplating taking 2 classes over the summer which would give me 26 hours. What are the benefits of starting ut as a sophomore instead of a freshmen and how do you change your status?</p>
<p>Hi Tjanderson: My daughter started UT with 36 hours college credit. Congratulations to you, you’ve obviously worked hard to gain those credit hours. It’s great to have credit hours like that because that gives you a little breathing room if you want to change your major later, or take fewer classes one semester, or take extra classes that aren’t required like my daughter did.</p>
<p>The only disadvantage that I saw was that she was not able to be part of a FIG group. That’s a small freshman group (there are many) that they put you in and you share some of your freshman classes with the same students. She did meet some people in a FIG group and hung out with them a bit, so it wasn’t really a problem. </p>
<p>She never did anything to get her status changed. She did however, graduate in 3 1/2 years and was able to take 12 to 15 hours a semester which was great for her. </p>
<p>Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>My son is currently a first year student at UT.
He started with over 30 credit hours from AP tests which made him a sophomore (30-59 hours) If you have 26 hours, I think that will keep you in Freshman status.</p>
<p>He had no problem getting into a FIG because they signed people up at Freshman orientation and the designation had only to do with being a first year student - not how many hours you already have. A lot of first year students are sophomore’s by hours but are in figs.</p>
<p>The benefit to being a sophomore is that you get priority over freshmen when registering for classes in the fall (registering for spring classes).</p>
<p>You do not have to do anything to have your status changed - it is automatic.</p>
<p>FIG Stands for First-Year-Interest Group, so you should have no problem getting into that if you so choose.</p>
<p>Other than just being classified a Sophomore, you will get to register at earlier times for the following semester before Freshman. However, since Seniors and Juniors will still have priority over you, this won’t make that big of a difference.</p>