Agreed with that. High school was indeed brutal, even for the top-tier students.
And college is a lot of unknowns - different writing styles may be expected, classes will be held differently, one might be with a completely different group of new people each class (and see them only once a week), one will have to figure out how to relate with professors, benefit from office hours - and be completely independent with personal and academic time management,…
I think it’s wise for the first semester to allow for a little breathing room to figure things out. Better it wasn’t needed when looking back, than realizing too late one can’t handle the full load on day 1.
My daughter took 15 credits, but there was
- a first-year writing seminar (as she expected, an “easy” class, but still informative),
- a class that was somewhat of an extension/flavor of one of her AP classes (yet differently enough, and a good way to ease into a completely different teaching/learning style),
- a class to knock off a distribution requirement,
- a 1-credit class to knock off a P/E requirement - plus
- one genuinely advanced 4-credit class.
So not a “slacker” semester as far as credits, but course topics picked that left her with breathing room outside of class to “learn how to do college”.
Also, at her college, students typically sign up tentatively for one or two additional classes each semester, and after sampling for a week or two, decide which classes/professors/demands may not be a good fit, and which ones put-together do seem manageable for a semester.
By the second semester she was “in full swing” and by the end of sophomore year had completed six major related course to land a summer research internship.