Hey, all!
I’m currently a college student and ever since being in school I’ve always wanted to take more 4 classes since that’s how high school life was. From experience, handling 4 college courses are a lot of work and can be difficult, but for time purposes, what opinions, advice, tips, etc. do you all have on taking more than 4 classes a semester? Right now I’m registered for 4 and am thinking of adding a 5th.
I take 5 academic classes a semester, plus a bunch of music ensemble and lessons credits. I’m a math and CS double major, music and dance double minor.
For me, it’s doable but I try to plan my courses carefully so that I don’t have all hard classes and I spread the subjects I’m taking out so that I don’t have all STEM or all humanities classes in a semester. Generally I take a math, CS, and dance class every semester and then two classes that are gen eds, music, or a second of math or CS.
I keep a pretty detailed calendar and list all my assignments and due dates, plus any tests and quizzes I have coming up on a sticky on my computer. That way I can check things off as they’re completed and know I haven’t missed anything.
Are your classes 3 credits, 4 credits, or 5 credits?
What are the classes in question?
What have you already taken and what grades did you get?
Depends. If all 5 classes upper level STEM classes, big no-no.
For example, I would not take Ochem, physics, biology, math, and inorganic chem in a single semester. However, I would be willing to take 2 science classes paired with a Chinese language course, an intro art class, and another lower level humanities course. The latter 3 classes would be relatively less time consuming because a) I’m a native Chinese speaker, b) I thoroughly enjoy art, and c) I’ve always found humanities to be easier than STEM. It’s really a matter of looking at your strengths and how much time that you think you’d need to do well.
Keeping up with deadlines and homework is a must as well.
I took five classes last semester, and I’ll be taking five next semester for sure. But one of the five that I took last semester was pass/fail, so maybe see if that’s an option. That said, it did make things harder for me because it turned my Tuesday-Thursday schedule, which was supposed to be 9:30 to 12:30, into 9:30 to 2:00 (I signed up for the last course on a whim).
With all that being said, I’m a little concerned about your reasoning right now. College is different from high school, and I would strongly advise against taking another class just because. If there’s another class you’re interested in, then go for it–but don’t take on a fifth class just for the sake of having a fifth class.
My reasoning for 5 is for time purposes. I’ve been at community almost 3 years now for the fact i started out just taking my time and doind 2 to 3 classes. I’ve also switched my degree numerous time because I was unsure what I wanted. Right now I have principles of chem and intro to bio for this semester and they are both 4 credits. I have college writing, american history, and philosophy which are all 3 credits.
If you have 3 credit courses, it would be expected that you take 5 classes per semester to graduate on time. That is assuming you are going to school full time.
If however, you are working as well you need to take the number of classes that you can do well in.