<p>follow astros advice. Many students think that college classes will be the same as hs AP. This is not true, they expect you to perform at a higher level…look back when you were a freshman and how you felt that you were sent warp speed when you entered hs, now mulltiply that and you will realize what professors expect.</p>
<p>Many of you will be in classes like Psych or Econ where they have 200+ students and the TA teaches it, add into the equation that you overloaded your schedule one day a week so you can have Fridays off after 10 a.m. all of the sudden you will be slammed every week on that day with papers and tests and now you are spread too thin because you took 18 credits. </p>
<p>Get your feet wet, learn the campus, learn living on your own (that means no folks to help with laundry or scream are you up yet, after hearing your snooze button go off for the third time :eek:) and get a taste of what the avg professor demands. There will always be time later on to either take 19 credits or a summer course at home that you can transfer over to IMD to catch up. You wouldn’t want to take 19 credits or the summer course because you need to clean up your college transcript (got a C or D in one class)</p>
<p>This is a new adventure that you will be embarking on. This is not a sprint, but a marathon, so it is best that you see it that way. Many kids go 4 yrs+ because they initially entered with the thought of placing the bar so high since hs was easy that they incorrectly assumed college would also be a breeze.</p>
<p>Another reason to take less credits in the 1st semester is then you will make Deans list and each school has scholarships available to students that make the list. It is not publicized, but it is true. UMD will see that your higher GPA proves your ability compared to anyone else. They do not look at the credits, only the GPA. DS walked in for fall taking 16 credits and pulling 3.5+, he took 19 for the spring and pulled a 3.196.</p>
<p>Finally, depending on your major you may be required to do a lot of term papers and read books (Scholars Govt and Politics is this way). If you overload your schedule it could become an issue since you will stress out. One class DS had required 9 novels to be read, another required 6, and the third required 8. All of them had term papers due after each book. In other words he had to read 23 novels and write 23 papers for 3 classes on top of his other 3 classes and scholars seminar(seminar also requires papers) within 15 weeks. You can quickly get fried, especially if you want to have a social life on the weekends.</p>
<p>Side note DS came home during winter break all excited that he had arranged his schedule for Friday as an off day and no classes until Monday at 3. I looked at him, smiled and shook my head in a negative response. He was positive that I was wrong (I had explained to him that I did the same thing and it was my lowest gpa semester in my college career). He learned that I was not wrong, and now he has realized that one day off kills the entire week and places stress on you. Fall semester he has them all spread out, only difference is he will start at 10 and end by 2 everyday (except for ROTC and scholar seminars). He decided living under the gun for Friday off was def. not worth it, especially since all of his buds were at class and he was bored, he did not use the day off as a day to get ahead, instead he was a typical college kid and waited until Sunday night to do it.</p>
<p>The other thing that students do which causes issues is having very large breaks (2-3 hrs+)thinking that they will go back to the dorm and hang for a couple of hours. What typically happens is they get back to the dorm, hang out with friends that are done for the day and end up skipping the class…thus, pulling a low grade.</p>