We were told to have them take more hours, but with it being the first year, doing a work study, and being known for having lots of homework through high school, he felt it would be best to start with less hours (concurrent HS credits would keep him on track). We never thought the would need to drop so did not worry about it.
But … even when your kid is a hard working, wants to do good, lots of effort, 4.0+ honors high school student - they might just run into a class or two that isn’t working. It does not have to mean the kid isn’t doing everything right - it might be the way the class is taught, the combination of the class load (ie tests in critical subjects fall back to back regularly), or even just a subject they struggle with.
Even after using all the appropriate resources, it might be necessary to drop a class, but that can put them below 12 hours if they aren’t taking 15-16 hours. Like most things - when you experience it and start talking to others, we found lots of highly successful people who had “that one class” or more that they struggled with. Often dropping and retaking again later.
In my kiddos case it was two tough classes and the tests kept falling back to back. No matter how early preparation started, how much time spent in office hours or in resource center, no missed classes, there just wasn’t enough time in the day to dig in and give both classes everything it took to be successful. Eventually, all that asking for help got him the opportunity to drop one class and pick up another well into the semester to maintain the 12 hours.
I’m extremely proud to say that he handled it all, kept plugging as hard as he could and not only was able to catch up on the new class (lots of time spent over spring break) and maintain all his other grades, he was also able to pull up the grade in the remaining troublesome class just enough to end up on the honor roll!! On top of it all, he learned some great lessons on advocating for himself, persistence, additional resources for help, and having one on one conversations with professors. Oh … and changed his major to go a different direction.
How far into the semester can they allow students to ADD a course? Every place I’ve taught ends DROP/ADD after about 2 weeks. I would not even teach at a place that still let students join a course after that. Even two weeks is sometimes a nightmare.
I had this discussion with my son and although he was hesitant to listen he did schedule accordingly and it paid off. A class changed midstream due to a professor leaving and took a turn he was not willing or prepared for. He ended up dropping the class (took a W) but preserved his GPA. He now thinks I am a genius.
The point isn’t to add extra courses after the semester starts. My son always registers for 18 credits. After he meets all the professors and reads the syllabi, he culls the list. He generally takes 12-15 credits/semester.
My kids always took a normal course load. One school had a “shopping period” to try out classes for a week or so at the beginning of each semester. At the other kids’ school, it is impossible to take more than a normal course load.
Interesting here how some seem to really strategize to maximize or preserve a GPA. Can’t say we ever took that tack in our family. Some classes/profs you click with, some you don’t. As long as my kids are learning and growing, none of us place the importance of GPA first and foremost. Unless they were going to totally fail or were ill, I personally can’t see myself recommending a course drop.
I had S17 take 17.5 credits the first semester. One of his classes, drafting, was so difficult for him - he literally spent hours every day in the lab drawing. Although he was running a B in his gen ed history class, he opted to withdraw from it because the reading load was increasing (S17 is dyslexic and reads slowly) and he was spending so much time on drafting (a required course in his major) that he didn’t think he could sustain the B. I endorsed his decision. He took an online class over the winter break and made up the gen ed with an A. This semester, he took 15.5 credits and finished them all. This wasn’t an effort to maximize the GPA, but it was a decision made to maximize S17’s mental health. The reduced stress didn’t really help his drafting grade (although he passed) but it did give him time and space to breathe.
Sometimes, you find yourself in a class that’s a big mistake. If you have signed up for enough credits so that you can drop it and retain your full-time status, the decision is an easy one. I did it twice myself. I think at least one of my kids did it, too. It’s an even easier decision for the current generation because they often have plenty of AP credits.
My daughter dropped two classes (in different semesters) in college, but she added replacement classes. All of this was done during the brief add/drop period.
It depends on whether the school charges one fee for 12-18 credits or charges per credit. My D’s school charges by the credit, and the drop w/o charge date is about 7 days into the term so you don’t have long to decide. You can drop a class after that, maybe 3-4 weeks into the semester, but you don’t get a full refund.
Dropping 1-2 classes two weeks into the semester isn’t very fair for those waiting to get into the classes that are full, @austinmshauri
Class drop is very popular at my DD school. In fact school allows them to drop classes as late as one month before finals. DD always takes more classes then she can handle and drops one or two. Add date usually ends somewhere mid semester.
Sometimes, it did not happened in the first semester. My D took 18 credits in her first semester. Did extremely well. She took 16 credits this semester. Not sure what went wrong. It could be a combination of over confidence from the last semester’s success, underestimating the actual time commitment needed to study each of those classes, too much socializing, etc. She has struggled big time this semester. Finally, she dropped two courses ( 3+1 credits) and stays with the remaining 12 credits. Her school allows about a month before dropping out (I do like it)
Lessons learned: 1) need to have plan B regarding course replacements. She did not have a plan B this semester.
2) if a student can take more than 15 credits a semester, do it. It will help balance out overall credis needed to graduate.
At my D school, a student who takes an average of 15 credits per semester will graduate in four years. D took 18 the first semester, 12 the second so she is on par with average of 15 credits per semester. Had she not taken 18 credits the first semester, she would be in a hole right now.
I think there are two schools of thoughts regarding freshmen enrolling in classes:
take less (12 credits) so a student will have time to adjust as everything is new at college
take more courses because freshmen’s classes are easier. Classes won’t be this easy after freshman’s year.
post #3 is a really interesting idea! (registering for a few extra classes, trying them out and then deciding). dont know why we or our kids hadn’t ever thought of that. S15 had a prof he could not stand this year in a required class; he should have switched. I’ll share this idea with my 2 college kiddos.
When my friend’s child attended Geneseo, none of the freshmen were allowed to take more than 12 credits the first semester. Most of the kids had AP credits, so it wasn’t a real problem. The theory was to let them ease in.
I went to a college that had a two week shopping period. I used to go to ten or so classes before deciding which one I’d actually take. I think I went to the first two weeks of Music 1 more than once. I loved the class, but it always conflicted with something else more important and that I was also likely to do much better in. After freshman year I always took an extra course, but I usually took it pass/fail. We weren’t charged extra so it was no big deal. I don’t know what the drop dates were because it never was an issue.
Another reason to drop is that sometimes you just hate the class. In law school, I really looked forward to taking Environmental Law. About 2 weeks in, I realized that the class was just SO boring. I dropped it and didn’t look back. I could have passed it. I just didn’t care enough to do so.
“Class drop is very popular at my DD school. In fact school allows them to drop classes as late as one month before finals. DD always takes more classes then she can handle and drops one or two. Add date usually ends somewhere mid semester.”
I’m really surprised by how much policies seem to vary from school to school. At my kids school, if you dropped so late, past the first few weeks or so, it would be a withdrawal on your transcript. One or so over 4 years would be too bad. Stuff happens, illnesses, etc. But definitely not something you would be wanting to happen more than that let alone every semester.
As far as adding mid-semester? That’s nuts IMO. You’ve missed half the class! That would be an auto fail based on attendance alone at many LACs.
So for students taking all these extra classes, are they graduating in 3 years or something? What are they doing with the extra credits?
Are my kids the only ones taking a regular full load for 8 semesters and just making that work?
“post #3 is a really interesting idea! (registering for a few extra classes, trying them out and then deciding)”
I agree with another poster that this strategy could keep other students from getting into the classes they want. My older kids’ college that had the shopping period worked the best IMO.
“we found lots of highly successful people who had “that one class” or more that they struggled with.”
This is a very good point. For any student, no matter how strong, you just might run into a tough course with a bad teacher. For me this was Control Theory as an undergrad. For the next student it might be something else. There is also the risk of a course that you just don’t like at all.
“The point isn’t to add extra courses after the semester starts. My son always registers for 18 credits.”
I think that this is a good plan. I used to do the same thing. I always dropped a course by the end of the second week, usually by the end of the first week, leaving me with a regular course load.
Getting a bit ahead is also a good plan so that you can drop something if needed. One daughter is about to take a summer class that will leave her well ahead of schedule. We have made sure that she is very aware that this gives her the option of dropping a class if needed in the fall semester (which is going to be a heavy semester for her).
I think you’re misunderstanding me. I didn’t say he drops them 2 weeks into the semester. He drops them after getting access to the syllabi and meeting the professors. His schedule is generally set by the 2nd day of classes. Not all the students decide that quickly though. At his school it’s common for students to change courses for the first week or two of classes. That’s the way the system is set up.
I don’t think it’s a student’s responsibility to make sure other students get the classes they want though. They’re each responsible for getting the education that’s best for them. That’s why the drop/add period exists. A student who picks up a course someone else dropped probably also has to drop a course to fit it in, and maybe that course was something another student was hoping to get. They’re all trying courses out and making adjustments.
My son’s college doesn’t seem to have a huge problem with closed out classes. The upperclassmen register first, so the classes taught by the most popular professors or the most popular electives may fill up, but the underclassmen just put those off until it’s their turn to register first. There are multiple sections of the courses required for the majors, so it’s not a problem getting into those either. I can see it might be a problem at smaller schools, but registration at the smaller schools I’m familiar with is handled differently.
The reason for flexibility with classes at DD’s school is because school offers so many amazing classes for the fixed price for semester that everybody try to fit as many classes as possible. Also classes are extremely hard. There are different programs not to let them fail. For example they can take one class per semester as exploratory. If they like the final grade it will stay on GPA. If not they can change status to listener after semester grades are out.