Could you take 30-40 credits per semester at U-M?

Colleges & Universities University of Michigan
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<p>I was reading this article: [Do</a> It Now by Steve Pavlina](<a href=“Do It Now – Steve Pavlina”>Do It Now – Steve Pavlina)</p>

<p>"When going to college many years ago, I decided to challenge myself by setting a goal to see if I could graduate in only three semesters, taking the same classes that people would normally take over a four-year period. This article explains in detail all the time management techniques I used to successfully pull this off. </p>

<p>"In order to accomplish this goal, I determined I’d have to take 30-40 units per semester, when the average student took 12-15 units. It became immediately obvious that I’d have to manage my time extremely well if I wanted to pull this off. I began reading everything I could find on time management and putting what I learned into practice. I accomplished my goal by graduating with two Bachelor of Science degrees (computer science and mathematics) in just three semesters without attending summer school. I slept seven to eight hours a night, took care of my routine chores (shopping, cooking, etc), had a social life, and exercised for 30 minutes every morning. In my final semester, I even held a full time job (40 hours a week) as a game programmer and served as the Vice Chair of the local Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) chapter while taking 37 units of mostly senior-level computer science and math courses. My classmates would add up all the hours they expected each task to take and concluded that my weeks must have consisted of about 250 hours. I graduated with a 3.9 GPA and also received a special award given to the top computer science student each year. One of my professors later told me that they had an easy time selecting the award recipient once it became clear to them what I was doing. </p>

<p>"It took a lot of convincing to get the computer science department chair to approve my extra units every semester, and my classmates often assumed I was either cheating…</p>

<p>[10</a> Tips for College Students](<a href=“http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/05/10-tips-for-college-students/]10”>10 Tips for College Students – Steve Pavlina)</p>

<p>“Now you might be thinking that 12-15 units are supposed to equate to a 40-hour week with all the outside homework and studying, but that’s only going to happen if you do things very inefficiently (which sadly is what most people do). If you follow some of the time-saving tips later in this article, then 15 units should only require a few additional hours outside of class to complete assignments. Obviously I couldn’t have taken 31-39 units per semester if it meant doing double those hours in outside homework. I didn’t succeed by overworking myself.”</p>

<p>“What about prerequisites? For the most part I simply ignored them, and fortunately at my school they weren’t enforced too well. I found that most of the time a prerequisite is listed, it’s geared towards below average students. Don’t let pointless bureaucracy slow you down if you want to graduate sooner. There’s always a way around it — it’s usually just a matter of getting some random form signed by someone who’s too bored to care either way. A smile and a compliment go a long way.”</p>

<p>I guess it would be hard to get by without prerequisites in Engineering, but I suppose this is possible in some of the LSA majors where there are no prerequisites?</p>

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<p>Only if you have a death wish.</p>

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<p>My s is a freshman Engineering student double majoring with a BFA in Musical Theatre. Each degree is approx. 124 credits. </p>

<p>With 28 AP credits going in and careful management of the courses applied to each major, he can take 18 credits per semester, do a couple of classes in the summer back at home (there is a whole spreadsheet of colleges that has credits that transfer to UMich) and carefully planning his course of study, he should be able to have both degrees completed in 10 semesters or less.</p>

<p>I do not believe that UMich allows a freshman to take more than 18 credits per semester. You can petition to take more credits after the freshman year, but I don’t think they would allow 30 credits per semester. It could be extremely expensive as the standard tuition cost is for 12-18 credits and then $$$ per credit hour.</p>

<p>The website is very user friendly and I think you could find the name of an advisor from one of the schools and ask how it might be reasonably done.</p>

<p>Good Luck :)</p>

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<p>^^^Very impressive britbrat61. Best of luck to your s. :-)</p>

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<p>“there is a whole spreadsheet of colleges that has credits that transfer to UMich”</p>

<p>Where is that?</p>

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<p>[College</a> of Literature, Science, and the Arts : Students](<a href=“http://www.lsa.umich.edu/students/transfer/equivalencies/]College”>http://www.lsa.umich.edu/students/transfer/equivalencies/)</p>

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<p>How much does extra credit per hour cost? I guess it could be worth it if it could cut down on boarding fees.</p>

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<p>I was at 19 credits which took a lot of convincing for my advisor to approve. Yeserday I added 3 more to make it 22 credits with 19 credits from the college of engineering. That took me about an hour to convince my advisor I am capable of doing so, and she explicitly said, dont come back looking for more overrides. Nothing else will be approved. Therefore I highly doubt you can take 30 credits at U of M…at least not in the COE.</p>

<p>Also, the thing about this article is that it wasnt clear where this author went to school… For instance, if I went to eastern michigan I could probably pull off 40 credits per semester and get a 4.0 too. My friend failed ME 220 here … like a flat out F… took the equivalent at EMU to get it transfered here during the fall semester and he got an A showing up only a couple times and with almost no studying.</p>

<p>Also, why shortchange yourself like that? You screw yourself out of the routine recruiting seasons.</p>

<p>“do a couple of classes in the summer back at home (there is a whole spreadsheet of colleges that has credits that transfer to UMich) and carefully planning his course of study, he should be able to have both degrees completed in 10 semesters or less.”
to above poster… why screw yourself out of internship opportunity? You will be at a disadvantage come recruiting season.</p>

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<p>they have rules that u can’t go over 18 per term, but like bearcats said you can do it if you can convince them. 30 credits they will never let you do it. In terms of courseload, you’ll probably be fine with 30 if u were a psych major, doing that in the COE or any math/science classes it’s academic suicide, you’ll kill yourself. Most I’ve seen in COE is doing a double major and taking 23-24 credits a term, but you will be studying all the time. I especially don’t recommend loading up your first two semesters, you want to adjust yourself to college first.</p>

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<p>The person in the article went to Cal State U: [Steve</a> Pavlina - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Pavlina]Steve”>Steve Pavlina - Wikipedia)</p>

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<p>[Teen</a> whiz to earn U-M degree in one year | detnews.com | The Detroit News](<a href=“Detroit Local News - Michigan News - Breaking News - detroitnews.com”>Detroit Local News - Michigan News - Breaking News - detroitnews.com)</p>

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<p>she’s also a psych major lol… She took 19 in the fall semester, then 27 in winter. She’ll take 23 in the spring, then seven this summer.
So her max is 27 in a semester of soft LSA major credit which is probably equivalent to the workload for 15 engineering credits which is not unheard of</p>

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<p>This would be a good place to mention it’s not the destination, it’s the journey : )</p>

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<p>That student was remarkable–but she entered as a junior, which helps a lot!</p>

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<p>Double degrees does not mean you take 124 credits for each. The second degree may be more like 30-40 credits.</p>

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<p>Usually it turns out that people who get degrees very quickly come in with some huge number of credits, then take a couple of semesters with a large number of cupcake classes. Not terribly impressive.</p>

<p>I’d be impressed with someone taking say, 20+ credits of engineering courses. That would be intense. Taking 4 history classes and 3 psych classes, not so much. </p>

<p>The writer of the article posted by the OP comes off as a pompous ass.</p>

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<p>I agree with Bearcats and Tetrahedron.</p>

<p>Also note the particular graduate school… not what I would call optimal for such an “amazing feat.”</p>

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<p>Back in the dark ages, (1974) I took 2 history and 2 political science classes (all 400 level classes - 16 credits) in the fall semester.</p>

<p>I worked my butt off. The amount of reading for those 4 classes and the number of pages of papers that I had to write was insane.</p>

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<p>UMDAD: I am presently taking three 300 level political science courses and have anywhere from 200-400 pages of reading to do at minimum every day, after 8 hours of nearly back to back classes. The papers aren’t too heavy, I have two ten page papers due next week, but those are my first assignments for these classes so perhaps they will get harder. </p>

<p>I would argue that the sort of “difficult” used to describe engineering courses isn’t the only kind of “difficult.”</p>

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<p>“I am presently taking three 300 level political science courses and have anywhere from 200-400 pages of reading to do at minimum every day, after 8 hours of nearly back to back classes. The papers aren’t too heavy, I have two ten page papers due next week”</p>

<p>let’s say I would gladly switch work with you because that way I could double my amount of sleep. I have taken a ton of econ classes at 300 - 400 level, 1 polsci 300 and 1 polsci 400 class and they are laughable at best if you want to compare workload. The grading is also way easier, which really help my cause for padding gpa.</p>

<p>and you are approaching it wrong. Those so called “reading” are essentially skimming. Unlike technical classes, you dont need to know anything exactly, therefore you dont need to read it word for word to actually BS the paper; and most people I know get by with cliff notes and do well in soft LSA classes.</p>

<p>i hope this doesnt offend anyone but just want to point out the obvious: All credits are not created equal</p>