Worried about college course load

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Hi,
I had a medium tough course load through HS. But now I'm worried that I might not be able to do 17 credits.
I am in the Honors program and will be doing a 3-2 engineering with WUSTL. I will also be working at least 3 hours a day. These are the courses I will be taking:</p>

<p>Physics Sci/Engin lab:4 credits, 1 hr 50 m, 3 days a week. MWF</p>

<p>Maths Calculus : 4 credits, 50m, 4 days a week. ( I have this in the bag) MTWTh</p>

<p>Transitioning to college, 1 credit. 1 hr 50 min. 1 day a week T</p>

<p>Honors humanities, 4 credits. 1 hr 50 min. 3 days a week. MTW</p>

<p>Chemistry, 4 credits. 1hr 50 mins 4 days a week. MWTh</p>

<p>I might be able to take a CLEP and drop Math for the first semester and replace it with CMPT. </p>

<p>All this while, I will be working 3 hrs a week.
I'll be at Westminster college Utah.
Do you think this is doable? Or should I do something about this?
Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Come on now :smiley: Bump</p>

3

<p>First, it helps to realize that the people on the Parents Forum do not tend to be on CC in the middle of the night. This may sound strange to you, but we older people tend to keep more conventional hours than you do.</p>

<p>Second, I don’t see anything unusual about your schedule. You will have to be disciplined, though. You have courses with a lot of class hours, and you will be working 15 hours a week, so you will have to carefully schedule your time to allow enough hours for studying and completing assignments.</p>

<p>Third, please be careful about acronyms. Often, people don’t know them even though they may understand the concept that the acronym stands for. I could not comment on your ideas about CLEP and CMPT because I don’t know what the acronyms mean. I suspect that if you told me the words, though, I could say something sensible about them.</p>

4

<p>That looks exactly like my freshman year schedule 30+ years ago (minus the transition to college). I did okay freshman year (I didn’t start to screw up until later). But of course, the rigor and workload of your school might be different than mine was.</p>

5

<p>First of all, Marian,all due respect, I don’t see a reason for you to try and be extra-assertive. I bumped because the thread already had 35 views, and I am an international and I live across the world.
If you have to talk exclusively in sarcasm : ‘This may sound strange to you, but we older people tend to keep more conventional hours than you do’. Then I suggest you show your skills off some place else. Thank you for your help in either case.
P.S: All results on google refer to the same CLEP. [Let</a> me google that for you](<a href=“LMGTFY - Let Me Google That For You”>LMGTFY - Let Me Google That For You)</p>

<p>bovertine, thanks. Do you think I’ll be fine? I’m an alright-good student.</p>

6

<p>I didn’t realize I came across as that cranky. I shouldn’t have posted before having a couple of cups of tea. Sorry.</p>

7

<p>

</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Will you be working 3 hours per day or per week?</p>

<hr>

<p>Is what you posted the standard curriculum for your program? If it is, then there is a presumption that students are able to do it. However, you might inquire with a knowledgeable person at the school, rather than with people on an online forum, whether someone with your background–an international student with whatever your grades have been, your test scores, etc., who will be working 3 hours per day or per week, as the case may be–should begin with something less demanding than the standard curriculum. </p>

<p>Do you have a freshman advisor yet? If not, perhaps someone in admissions could refer you to a person knowledgeable about the WUSTL 3-2 program.</p>

<p>Think about a backup plan. What if you started this curriculum and found it to be too demanding? What would you drop, and when is the deadline for dropping it without penalty?</p>

<hr>

<p>When asking for help, one thinks about how best to get a complete response. The use of acronyms increases the probability that a reader will not respond, or respond only partially.</p>

<p>Also, the use of patience, and the overlooking of perceived slights, will increase the probability that people you meet in person or online will be willing to help you to the best of their abilities.</p>

8

<p>I believe that every standard engineering program requires math, physics and chemistry in the first year. Therefore, if you don’t take these you will fall behind. </p>

<p>I think the advice above given is correct- you need to speak with an advisor at your school regarding your course load. Also, make sure you know exactly which courses you must have completed in order to transfer to WUSTL and what their prerequisites are.</p>

<p>If you want to ease up a bit, why not take an easier humanities course rather than honors humanities? Also- doesn’t your school require a freshman composition class?</p>

9

<p>

If I had to guess I’d say you probably will, but I can’t say for sure not knowing you or how difficult those courses are at your school. But, as others have said, I think those courses are pretty typical for first year engin or science majors.</p>

<p>THe fact that you think the math should be easy makes it look like you’ll be okay. I think where many people get into trouble is accelerating too fast into advanced coursese, rather than taking too many courses. I think this happens a lot in Math. I could have skipped an entire year of Calc, but knew I wasn’t ready so I started at the second quarter (after the differential stuff). </p>

<p>At some schools labs are very time consuming. Again, it depends where you attend.</p>

<p>ADad’s post looks pretty right on.</p>

10

<p>Marian, you didn’t come across as cranky. I really hate people who bump their threads after only a few hours.</p>

<p>There’s no way for me to comment on your schedule. My older son would have found it too easy, my younger son would (probably) have found it somewhat challenging, at least at his current school, maybe not at yours.</p>

<p>I’ve heard of CLEP - though it’s not used in my part of the world that I have heard of - because years ago my sister in law got lots of CLEP credit at the U of Florida, but lost it all when she decided to return to Harvard after all. Courses with the same titles were super easy at U of Fl not so much at Harvard.</p>

<p>Never heard of CMPT and not interested in googling to find out what it is.</p>

11

<p>I really hate people who bump their threads after only a few hours.</p>

<p>Blame Sesame Street, some were raised to think in terms of sound bites & instant gratification.
;)</p>

12

<p>I thought Marian’s second paragraph was spot on!</p>

13

<p>DD was an double major, engineering and biology. Her courseload for freshman year was much like yours. I hate to be the bear of bad news your upper level years will have MORE of the STEM courses and less of the “other”. Your courseload looks like every other STEM major’s courseload.</p>

<p>Re: work…Why three hours a day? That is over 20 hours a week. Do you have a JOB already for that many hours? If not, I would suggest that for freshman year, at least, you limit your employment to 10 hours a week…well at least for the first term. Then you will have an idea of how much time OUTSIDE of class you will need to spend to complete your coursework. The reality is that time outside of class often exceeds the inclass time for college courses. YMMV.</p>

14

<p>It’s a typical schedule-nothing out of the ordinary. </p>

<p>–Don’t procrastinate
–Stay on top of your work from day 1
–If you need help with a concept, don’t wait. Seek out clarification ASAP</p>

15

<p>I agree with what others have said. Except I would not assume you have math "in the bag. " Is this calc 1? Have you taken any AP calc? Many HS calc classes do not adequately prepare kids for college calc. The schedule you list is rigorous but typical for kids going into engineering. As pamom said if you are headed towards engineering why not drop down a level in humanities? I also agree that working 3 hours a day is too much.</p>

16

<p>Make sure that WUSTL will accept a CLEP credit for Calculus. My guess is they may not accept it.</p>

<p>Your schedule looks quite normal for any engineering student. I suggest giving it a try and adjusting after the first semester if needed. It will not get easier from a workload perspective.</p>

17

<p>To be fair, CLEP is a) well-known and b) the acronym is better known than the actual title. Also, Westminster has a self-contained honors program where students opt out the ore/general ed requirements and instead take 7 honors seminars (2 humanities, 2 science, 1 poli sci/econ, 1 fine arts, 1 psychology/sociology), so for the OP to drop down from honors humanities would mean dropping out of the honors program entirely and having a whole different set of general ed requirements to complete instead. It also explains why he’s not taking, say, Comp 101 but is taking what will likely be a very writing-heavy honors humanities course,</p>

18

<p>Well, looking at the number of replies I’ve received, I can only apologize Marian. I’m not used to posting here; it seems parents are very regular.</p>

<p>ADad, excuse me, its actually 3 hrs a day. Regarding the course load, I think I am the first to be in the Honors program and a 3-2 Eng at the same time. Honors is already very advanced and on top of that, I’ll be doing my physics degree in 3 years. The Honors program is very prestigious and one of the main reasons why I am going to Westminster. Its unique, as correctly pointed out by psych_. In other news, I reacted the way I did because at the time I felt that I was being blamed wrongly. </p>

<p>I concede the fact that I was unclear and that a heavy workload has a different meaning for everyone. I think I might have panicked when I noticed that people actually take 15 credits on average.</p>

<p>Please try your best, with these stats in mind to envisage me with 17 credits.</p>

<p>SAT: 660Cr,720M,700W=2090 </p>

<p>A levels,first year, As Level> Maths with statistics and mechanics :A, Physics :A, World History :A, Marine Biology: A, Biology : B, Chemistry : C (bad day) </p>

<p>I had the toughest course load in my school. However I am not exactly a hard worker and rely more on day-before-exam sessions and run on ‘exam adrenalin’. I realize this HAS to change.</p>

<p>National swimming team. Good at, and passionate about physics, have a number of awards.</p>

<p>I am taking the CLEP to skip some college courses, and that has nothing to do with WUSTL.</p>

<p>Mathmom, hate is an exceptionally strong word and I think one should keep that sort of vocabulary on a leash regarding people you haven’t even met. CMPT is computers.</p>

<p>thumper1, thanks, advice taken! :)</p>

<p>nysmile, thank you, and yeah, the college has free tutoring so thats cool.</p>

<p>mamom, I’ve done a few AP practice exams, and A level maths in way harder and more detailed than AP math. So I should be good.
How many hours would you say I’ll have to play on my Xbox? </p>

<p>Thank you everyone. I never realized that parents were so very quick to reply and help out.</p>

19

<p>

</p>

<p>I appreciate very much the maturity and self-awareness shown in your post # 18. </p>

<p>It is highly relevant imo that you are the first, or among the first, to try the plan that you have in mind. It looks like you will have a great deal on your plate. This makes me all the more recommend that you speak earnestly to an advisor or advisor(s) about this plan, and that you have a backup plan in place if everything proves to be too much. (I assume that work is 5 days per week, am I right about that?). I am sorry that I don’t know enough to offer an opinion about what you would find doable or not doable. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Don’t allow issues of blame, or other emotionally charged but peripheral issues, to distract from what you are trying to accomplish. Before defending yourself, ask yourself if it really matters who is to blame. Here, it seems to me that your main goal is to develop a plan for your course work. As far as I can see, it doesn’t matter for this purpose whether or not someone was rude or was wrongly blamed. </p>

<p>In general, imho, it is best to let stuff like that go, preserve equanimity, and remain exclusively focused on the task at hand. You will never know what help you could have gotten (in person or online), but didn’t get, what relationships you could have established, but didn’t establish, because you allowed yourself to get into an argument over something peripheral.</p>

20

<p>Three years to finish your physics degree? That might be a bit too ambitious. A lot of physics classes are sequential (only offered in Fall-Spring) so you can’t really leap frog a few classes and subsequently finish your degree earlier.</p>

<p>Your school might be different class wise, but IMHO, you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself. I was a physics major myself and I can tell you that upper division physics classes will take a good chunk out of your available time.</p>