<p>Im going to be a freshmen at the U of Alabama this fall, and Im choosing my classes. I am a biology major, in the Honors College, and on a five year plan for an MBA. My first semester is looking like its going to be about 16.5 credits, and my second is looking like 18.5 credits. I dont want to spend all of my time studying, in fact, I was thinking of rushing. Any advice on how I can balance my course load/GPA and my social life? Im pretty nervous about how I am going to manage my life this fall.</p>
<p>Always put your schoolwork first. Remember, your primary reason for being in college is to LEARN. If you have good time management skills (and if you don’t, you better them ASAP), you can get all/quite a bit of your work done before the weekends, and just use them for social events.</p>
<p>16 credit hours is not bad. 18 may be a bit stressful at times (like finals week) depending on the classes you take and how many classes. What are you taking? Bio 101, gen chem and a few electives?</p>
<p>Princess you have got a good point, and I’ll tune up those skills as much as I can. Ladeeda, for my first semester I’m taking Gen Bio and lab, chem 101 and lab, eng 101, calculus, and some honors business course. Second semester I’m taking gen bio 2 and lab, chem 102 and lab, eng 102, Spanish 315, history 110, and an honors business course.</p>
<p>Hi, I’m a freshman college student and I took 20 credits my first semester, and 20 this semester, and it went fine…
16 sounds light, and 18 is average only, it’s not too much.</p>
<p>And classes I took this semester include writing, calculus 2, programming, physics, discrete math which appears like difficult schedule but is really not bad.</p>
<p>And I have plenty of time to do things I like, like go to the pool and swimming, watch tv shows on my laptop, go with friends to cafes. I think it is a good balance, and I expect with 18 you will have a bit more more time for rushing, but enough.</p>
<p>Like the other person said, school is more important.</p>
<p>My first semester will comprise of 14 credits, maybe 17.
I think 14 - 17 is best for me as I adjust.
I need 30 credits/year for two scholarships, also.</p>
<p>That sounds like a lot with calculus. Personally, I wouldn’t like that because I struggled in gen chem and I hate math. But just make a habit out of staying aware of add/drop dates.</p>
<p>Luckily rush will be over by the time I have that 18 credit semester. I appreciate everyone’s help. I was getting a little bit worried, but I think if I manage everything well, and keep a healthy balance of school/fun then I will succeed. Roll tide :)</p>
<p>generally, 15-18 is normal. I took 19 first semester and 22 second semester.</p>
<p>@iluvpiano
damn, how many classes did you take 2nd semester?</p>
<p>2nd semester now, I’m taking 13 classes, but 3 are 0-credit classes, so 10 that fit into 22 semester hours. I’m double degree (piano performance & history) and music classes tend to be weird with credit hours like that, they’re not all like 4 semester hours or whatever the norm is for lecture classes at a particular university, they have weird numbers.</p>
<p>I’m a second semester freshman at UA. You’ll be fine with 16 credit hours, and your schedule should be do-able. The toughest part will probably be taking bio and chem together since they both have labs. But even then, there are tons of freshmen who do that and depending on your professor and TA, it might not even be that difficult. </p>
<p>Most of my friends took at least 15 credit hours. I have a friend back at home who only took 12 hours (weird nursing maximum for freshmen there) and she was bored the entire semester. I took 18 credit hours last semester and held down a job in retail. Holiday season was awful, but my grades didn’t suffer. And I still had time to hang out with friends and procrastinate. </p>
<p>I know a lot of people would argue differently, but I personally think that if you’re responsible and motivated enough to handle it, freshmen year is the best to load up on credit hours. Just because 18 hours of 100-200 level classes are easier to handle than 18 hours of 300-400 level courses.
Also, at UA, if you want to take over 18 credit hours you need to petition for them. Just make sure you know to talk to your advisor.</p>
<p>That was actually very helpful, thank you!</p>