Too Many Honors Classes?

<p>D got an e-mail from someone at UA today pointing out that she was taking 9 honors credits in the fall and suggesting she spread them out. I personally didn’t think she was overloaded with honors classes. The honors courses she’s taking are EN 103, CBH 101, Outdoor Action and a 1 credit Common Book Experience. She has two other classes that are not honors. Anyone know at what number of honors credits they start sending this e-mail? Does this seem like too much to anyone? Realistically the only course she would drop is the one credit Common Book Experience - she wants to get Freshman Composition over with and she’s not going to drop CBH or OA. Thoughts?</p>

<p>I’m a freshman too and I’m taking 7 honors hours: CBH 101 and Honors Fine Arts. Since Outdoor Action mostly takes place before classes start and the common book experience is supposedly light, I see no reason why her schedule should be a problem. How many hours is she currently scheduled for in total?</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>16 credits total; 4 regular classes plus 2 one-credit classes.</p>

<p>I’m assuming you did not get the e-mail for 7 honors credits, right?</p>

<p>Outdoor Action and the Common Book Experience certainly aren’t a problem, especially since OA will be over before classes begin. I don’t know what the time commitment and work load/expectations would be like for the English class and CBH combined.</p>

<p>11 of my 15 scheduled credits are Honors… should I drop something?? I’m already leaning towards dropping UH155 Coming of Age Story.</p>

<p>My honors credits now are UH155, UH120 Honors Year One (which apparently is no added workload), EC110 Honors microecon, EN219 Honors American Lit, and Alabama Action.</p>

<p>S received the email also, but he is signed up for 12 (!!) honors credits. I guess we were going on the theory that the classes aren’t necessarily more demanding and I think he would appreciate the smaller class sizes. His honors classes are:</p>

<p>CS150 - Programming 1 (2)
ENG103 - Freshman Comp (3)
MTH145 - Calc 1 (4)
ENG142 - Engr. Concepts/Design (1)
UA103 - Alabama Action (1)
UA120 - Honors Explorations (1)</p>

<p>He has 16 CR and I suppose he could postpone ENG103 until 2nd semester - but we were thinking we would see how things go and if it was too challenging for him he could drop at that time. Thoughts?</p>

<p>UH120 and Alabama Action won’t be a problem at all, tommy. I think you’ll enjoy both. I have no experience or wisdom regarding the others.</p>

<p>My advice is to be careful not to overload on Honors classes (for first semester anyway) until you have tested the water and become familiar with college life and expectations. Have a little fun and get your feet wet first.:)</p>

<p>I’ve got a semi-related question. Would 18.5 hours be too many to schedule? Either 5.5 or 9.5 of which would be honors.</p>

<p>Does anyone know how EN 103 compares with EN 101/102? Is the workload that much more? By way of background, D had honors English senior year but not AP (AP English is inexplicably restricted to a select few at her HS) and had a 35 on the English portion of the ACT, so I think she’s ready for EN 103.</p>

<p>It’s hard to tell if one is comparing apples to apples when comparing honors courses and their respective loads/challenges. FWIW, my son took the following honors courses his first semester at UA: EC 110 (Microeconomics), EN 103 (Advanced Composition), UH 101 (Moral Forum), and UH 104 (Outdoor Action). That’s 10 honors credits, though Outdoor Action (1 credit) was done before the semester actually began.</p>

<p>He found this load quite manageable, though Moral Forum turned out to be a big load because he advanced to the finals in the debate tournament. Many of you know this story, but for those of you who don’t, his labor was offset by winning the $2,500 cash prize awarded to the four tournament finalists in this course. (I’m not sure how much the current award is).</p>

<p>He reports that EN 103 was an enjoyable blast (Rhetoric of Comics and Cartoons), but then again he had a superior teacher for this course (Melissa Hull).</p>

<p>Hope this helps.</p>

<p>One caveat in choosing honors classes: son was told by Kiki from Honors College that he had taken too many UH 210 courses even though the subject matters were completely different. Apparently, there is a limit of two classes with the same UH course designation. He was able to get a waiver to get credit for the extra classes.</p>

<p>Thanks for posting that, soph. Will keep that in mind for scheduling honors courses.</p>

<p>@Beth’s Mom, No I did not get the angry email and considering that your D is way above the 12 hour minimum line I see no reason why she shouldn’t wait and see how her first week goes and then she can drop something if she REALLY sees a problem. Personally, I think she’ll be fine.</p>

<p>That’s probably a good idea, lterry. And I’d characterize the email as “concerned” more than “angry.”</p>

<p>My D got the same email. I’m glad that someone is taking the time to look at their schedules and send an email that should give them pause to think about whether or not they have too heavy a load. Or maybe it is just computer-generated, but nonetheless I am glad they are keeping an eye on these incoming freshmen. </p>

<p>D has 11 honors credits scheduled. AA will be done before school starts and the others are CBH 101, UH 155 Int’l War Crimes, and FR 201. She already has CLEP credit for the French course and is taking it to ‘regain her love of French which was lost in her AP French course last year’ so she hope that it won’t be surprisingly challenging. She is satisfied with her schedule (18 hours total) and doesn’t want to make any changes. However, we tell her frequently that she can drop a class if needed.</p>