<p>"This course is not light on the amount of assigned work: if you are taking an overload set of classes or working fulltime consider dropping this course or one of your other courses duties." </p>
<p>I'm thinking 18 units is considered overload? I'm a transfer student so just wondering if the workload is more intense for upper division. I've taken 21 units and 18 units in the past, while working 32hours per week mostly nights (2:00 - 9:00am). Those were all lower division courses though so likely easier. Right now I work around 16-20 hours per week, pretty easy job 4-5hours shifts, and currently I've enrolled in 15units. I'd like to enroll in 18 units but unsure if that's wise so looking for some insight. </p>
<p>I would imagine anything above 15-16 units would be considered an overload set of classes, but you seem to have handled that amount (18-21 units) before. I would just try it out, and if it seems like it’s an unreasonable amount of work, drop one of your classes.</p>
<p>I should also mention the course above has 5 books (required reading) plus about 20 or so pdf files (additional readings). The grading is broken down as follows: 10 weekly essays (5% each) totaling 50%, mid-term 10%, final 20%, class presentation 10%, and final paper 10%. </p>
<p>The other 4 courses I’m enrolled in (3 units each) are upper division core courses, essentially a more advanced adaptation of the lower division core requirements. I’m thinking 15 units will be fine but am unsure of taking 18. My problem is whenever I take less of a course load I end up mid semester wishing I had taken the additional class. My only experience is with lower division coursework so far; thus I’m kind of weary taking 18 units of upper division coursework considering it may be a huge leap from the lower division workload.</p>
<p>It depends on how well-prepared you are for the courses and what the courses are.</p>
<p>When I was in school, I got AP credit for most of the prerequisites for my major, so I went straight into upper-division coursework and I didn’t think it was a particularly huge leap for me. But it depended on the class. Developmental bio and cellular neurobio was a lot of work for me because I didn’t have a lot of background in those classes, it was a lot of new information, and I wasn’t particularly interested in the subject. Genetics and molecular bio were super easy though, because I enjoyed the material and most of it was just adding details, mechanisms, and exceptions to things that I already new.</p>
<p>If these classes are building on courses you already took (and you feel comfortable with the previous material), I don’t think it will be exceptionally hard, but it depends on a lot of different factors. Keep in mind that my courses didn’t have a lot of work during the quarter (they were all 40% midterm and 60% final, with optional and ungraded problem sets), so it may be different if you are in the humanties, for instance, and have to write three papers and read a book every week for each class.</p>
<p>When is your deadline to drop without a W? At my school, it was week 4 (out of 10 weeks in the quarter), which was around midterms and was plenty of time to figure out if I could handle the workload or not.</p>
<p>Also, do you need this class to graduate on time? If you don’t need it, you can always start off with 15 units to get a feel for the workload, and then scale up or down next semester, depending on how this goes.</p>
<p>Above 16 units sounds like an overload set to me. I would not do it. But if you have worked and done 18 units in the past, you can give it a try and see how it goes.</p>
<p>If you think you can handle it feel free to try it out - I’m guessing you have at least a week or two to drop a class once you get an idea of your workload. But personally, the idea of a 18 credits plus working 20 hours a week seems a little overwhelming, unless you’re not planning on doing much else socially. I personally got a bit stressed just doing 15 credits and 10 hours a week (though I also had a leadership position in a club with a big time commitment, going to 2 day tournaments about every other weekend), but everyone has different limits so see if you can take advantage of your school’s add/drop period to try to get an idea of yours.</p>
<p>From experience, upper division courses are generally more demanding than lower division. </p>
<p>What I would do is plan out the rest of your semesters here and see if you need to overload yourself. If there’s no reason for you to overload yourself to graduate on time, then I’d stick to 15 credits now. It’s always better to be safe than sorry because you might have to suffer the consequences of overloading (drop in GPA/grades, dropped class so a W on your transcript, wasted money).</p>
<p>If you’re taking classes to the point where your health is suffering, your sleep suffers, and you’re not having any fun while in college, then you’re probably taking too many classes.</p>
<p>Normal load is 15 units per quarter or semester, so an “overload” would typically be considered more than that (well, maybe not 16, but probably 17 or more). However, if you have previously taken 18-21 units while working a job as well, then what may be an “overload” for you may be higher than what the school assumes for most students.</p>
<p>If you know how well and quickly you read, you can make an estimate of the reading workload by the size of the books and papers listed for the course.</p>
<p>You may want to sign up for the course, then drop it if it seems to be too heavy a schedule.</p>