<p>I’m a senior and I already underloaded last semester and am considering underloading again (12 credits) due to tough grad-level courses and job searches. Is this common among seniors?</p>
<p>It’s fairly common. My university suggests seniors to keep their courses at 12 credits to help with job searches an the like.</p>
<p>Depends on what your definition of “underloading” is. I’m a senior.</p>
<p>I’m taking complex variables, real analysis II, applied probability theory, and abstract algebra I this quarter. That’s 16 units. My last quarter I’m taking 16 units. I was going to take 20 units my last quarter, but I managed to get added into complex variables this morning. </p>
<p>I’m doing my job searching, but it’s kind of awkward when your teachers assume you’ll become teachers yourselves. I kind of figure that’s a natural extension of getting a degree in mathematics, but I’m not a pure math major. I don’t think there’s a lot of opportunities with just a bachelors degree, so I am applying to graduate schools fairly soon for master’s to do retraining in computer science or engineering. Any job that’s been offered to me had nothing to do with mathematics.</p>
<p>Not rare. Even less than 12 the last semester, if they don’t need to take more and are looking hard for a job.</p>