Way ahead in my undergrad career. How hard of a schedule should I have for L-SchooL?

<p>Here is my situation. I currently attend a big state school. I got 30 credits from AP Classes and I'm taking or have taken 29 credits in college. I'm in the second semester of my freshman year, so I have 59 credits in my freshman year. To graduate, you need 120 credits. </p>

<p>I'm planning to double major in History and Economics, but my main question is, how hard of a workload do I need to have? Most people take 15 credits per semester, but for me to graduate at this point, I only have to take 12 credits each semester and I'd still be over how many credits I need to graduate. Do Law Schools care how hard of a course load you have each semester? If I only take 12 credits each semester for the next three years, will that hurt me? And if I just take the normal 15 credits like usual, what would I do with all those extra credits? I'd prefer not to graduate early, if possible.</p>

<p>If courseload is a factor they will be more concerned with upper lever classes your junior and senior year, not with how many credits each semester. Your grades will be a bigger factor so I would take advantage of the slightly lighter load.</p>

<p>you might also consider whether your college offers joint BA/MA programs so you could graduate in 4 years with 2 degrees. GPA is the most important thing though--it's probably better to have a 3.9 and a BA than a 3.4 and an MA.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll probably talk to a pre-law advisor or someone at my college who can help me out some more. Has anyone else ever been in a situation like this from AP credits and all? And what did they do?</p>

<p>I had the 40 units out of 90 or so needed to graduate with one major at Berkeley, but they all ended up being useless. </p>

<p>For premed you have to retake all those classes; I wish I had known I was going to be a lawyer beforehand before I wasted all my time.</p>

<p>I wouldn't worry too much about the AP's, use them if you must, but try to get the most out of your college experience if possible.</p>

<p>Will you be able to fulfill all of your breadth and major requirements by taking only 12 units a term? </p>

<p>With your extra units, you could explore thing you otherwise wouldn't, maybe improve your skills and abilities thorugh a logic class, for instance, or make your life more interesting with an art history class or a music class. There's a lot you can do- depending on what your school has, internships or community services may count as credit, which makes you a more attractive candidate and probably a better person. You could learn a language, or study abroad, maybe do some research or design a major project. Explore your options.</p>

<p>Well, I've been looking over my schedule, and I plan to do an Honors Major in history and a regular major in Econ.</p>

<p>Again, I would only need 12 credits each semester. I covered my breadth requirements with AP credits and Freshman year credits, and my only concern would be getting the 80 credits outside of a single department. However, as a double major, I don't think that's as much of a concern, as I believe the 80 credits outside of a single department is just to prevent someone from taking 100 credits of history, so my credits in History and econ should work together.</p>

<p>So, just looking for a straight answer here. Will Law schools look unfavorably at my schedule if I took only 12 credits each semester (that amounts to 3 classes approximately each semester). I am doing an honors track in history, so it would really help my grades a lot if I only had to worry about a few number of classes each semester.</p>

<p>They care about overall workload. If you are taking near the minimum but are also working on a lot of other things they won't care.</p>

<p>GPA matters to them as a way of boosting their USNews rankings. It also matters to them because they want to know you'll be able to do the work once you get into college.</p>

<p>Fill your schedule with activites outside of classes and you shoudl be fine.</p>

<p>For JD/MBA you may need to take specific business classes to be admitted into the MBA part.</p>