Hello,
This is my first time here so hopefully I am posting in the right section.
I am going to be attending College of San Mateo starting Spring 2015 full time. I am planning on transferring to UCR for business administration. I wanted to know your opinion on my planned schedule.
ACTG 100 Principles of Accounting (3)
MATH 200 Elementary Prob and Stats (4)
ENGL 100 Reading and Composition (3)
GEOG 100 Physical Geography (3)
MATH 222 Precalculus (5)
AQUA 109.1 Water Polo I (1)
I’m pretty strong in math, but have a harder time in English. I will not be working while at the CCC. I placed into a calculus course but decided to take Precalculus instead since I didn’t finish Precalculus while in high school. How do you think this schedule sounds? What are some tips that you have on managing this load of course work?
A typical number of credit hours is 15-16 for a full time student. Your schedule is a bit on the heavier side, and without knowing your academic background, it would be hard to assess whether it is manageable or not. A lot also depends on the amount of work expected in these courses. You can see if past syllabi are posted on the college’s website to find out the expectations.
If you plan to transfer, make sure all these courses will transfer to UCR. Also, you need to keep an eye on your GPA for transferring.
If you go ahead with this and find that the work load is too intense after a few weeks into the semester, you can withdraw from one of the courses and get a "W’ (you have to do this within a certain time limit). While a “W” doesn’t look great on a transcript, it’s much better than really low grade which will torpedo your GPA.
Give it a try. If you find it too difficult, you can:
drop a class by 02/02 and get a partial refund
drop a class by 02/16 and it will not appear on your record (no refund)
withdraw from a class by 04/30 (it will appear on your record as a W)
Good luck & enjoy CSM! Also if you haven’t done so already, make an appointment with an adviser and get a Student Education Plan.
Since you’re strong in math, the large number of math classes probably won’t be an issue, especially if you placed into calculus.
Make sure your English class will transfer, though–if it doesn’t, you’ll have to take another one when you get to UCR, and it’ll be very frustrating.
You do look like you have a heavy courseload. Since it looks like you can drop a class until February, I’d say go with the schedule for now, and if it’s too rough, maybe drop Physical Geography (I don’t think you’d need it for business?) or English if you plan to take it at UCR.
Good luck!
I don’t think it is a good idea for the first semester. You haven’t been to college yet, right, so you have some adjusting to do to assess the workload. You will have problem sets to do in a couple of the classes at least, even if you are good at math you will have that work to do. It can be very difficult to assess how you are doing until you get past the drop dates when you are further into the course. It can be very difficult when you have midterms and finals all together and papers due too. Better to start off a bit slower and keep the grades good than to be one of the people we see here whose semester just got away from them and imploded.
College is quite different from high school when it comes to the amount of work load…especially with math and science subjects. On top of that you say you are weak in English but are taking multiple classes that might take time out for writing essays or reading works assigned to you. My recommendation for you first semester of college would be to at least shave off 1 of the courses you have mentioned.