<p>I will be taking orgo 1, so I'm mostly worried about that, given the reputation of the class. However, I took 6 AP's this year in high school and got excellent grades. Even though AP classes don't compare to college courses, I think I have a good stamina. Obviously I will try to ace all my classes, so should I start with the minimum number for credits (12) in order to do well on orgo or should I bump that up to 14-16? I'm pretty sure I'll major in biochemistry, if that helps, so I'll be mostly doing prerequisites and/or general college requirements this coming fall semester.</p>
<p>I still haven't decided if I want to graduate early (I have over 30 AP credits) or take it slow and graduate in four years. Anyway, I would really appreciate anyone's input. </p>
<p>What would the other classes be other than Orgo? For instance, taking 3 science classes is probably harder than taking Orgo+Lab and 13 credits of easy stuff. </p>
<p>At 6 APs this year, you can probably handle a full (16-18 credit) load fine, but you may want to give yourself some rope with it. That said, at least sign up for 18 credits to start with, and drop something before the drop deadline if you start to think you won’t be able to handle it. There’s no penalty for dropping before the drop deadline, it’s 3 weeks into the term I believe.</p>
<p>Orgo itself, I thought it was difficult but others had no problem with it. Depends on the person. </p>
<p>18 sounds like too much for me right now. Anyway, I’m thinking about taking calculus 2, a FYWR course, and some HU/race and ethnicity requirement course along with Orgo 1. Would that be easy to handle? </p>
<p>What AP classes you are taking or already taken with 4/5? You may want to estimate the number of AP credits you may get first. You may not want to have 55 credits or above too early that it will cost you extra $1000-$2000 more per semester.
Also consider if you are going to declare a major with more stringent GPA requirement. If so, you certainly don’t want to overwhelm your freshman year and suffer in GPA.</p>
<p>“I still haven’t decided if I want to graduate early (I have over 30 AP credits) or take it slow and graduate in four years. Anyway, I would really appreciate anyone’s input.”</p>
<p>You can probably do both. I am graduating a semester early (with 7 additional credits).</p>
<p>-I came in with 31 credits
-I took Calc 3 at a community college over the summer</p>
<p>Below is the number of credits I took each (or will have taken) for each semester.</p>
<p>If you want to be considered for awards like University Honors and Angell Scholar, then you need to take at least 14 credits in a semester (with at least 12 credits of graded classes)</p>
<p>I would not recommend taking 18 credits your first semester! Your first semester is a big adjustment period. College classes ≠ high school classes, and it’s also the time to find your “place” on campus so to speak; meeting friends, joining clubs, etc. etc. I think 14/15 is more manageable/realistic. (I took 15, fwiw.)</p>
<p>I took 16 credits, and I think that’s a reasonable load. If you sign up for four classes of four credits each, you have room to drop one class, stay at full-time status, and not be overburdened. Eighteen credits the first semester is generally a bit much for most students. </p>
<p>My daughter came in with 29 credits and will not be able to graduate early. She will be able to take just 2 classes her last semester which will save us some money. I don’t recall all of the specifics but it seemed like there are only so many requirements you can use AP credits for so you still need to take a class, just an upper level one. And, with 30 AP credits you will become a Junior very quickly which is higher tuition. </p>
<p>Thank you everyone! I think I’ll start with 14 credits. I would have preferred to take 16 credit hours but there’s nothing I can put there that I need to get to that number. Besides, I think the classes I’ll be taking are hard enough together, and it’s only my first semester. I should be fine.</p>