<p>The average seems to be 18. Do you know of any that have a higher maximum allowed credits per semester?</p>
<p>What I’ve found is that 18 is the max for the first semester and then the number increases – this is not true for all schools though, and the number and policies vary across the board. Some schools allow you to petition to take more than the max number of credits as well. But the maximum isn’t there to inconvenience you; it’s put in place to help you so that you aren’t overwhelmed by an unmanageable amount of work. </p>
<p>I took 21 my 1st semester senior year because I was in CO and wanted to learn something about CO’s geology before I left college, but it’s not conducive to learning. IIRC, I paid for anything over 18 credits. I just couldn’t get all the work done and actually enjoy my courses the way I had planned. Something happened for me between 18 and 21. It wasn’t fun.</p>