<p>She should be careful in the future since workload is not always consistently proportional to credits. In particular, if the current 14 credits seems light, and she bumps it up to 16 credits later but happens to include 3 lab courses compared to 0 lab courses now, it may be more than 14% more work that the credits indicate (it may be as much as 75% more work due to the labs).</p>
<p>One strategy is to schedule more credits when the courses are known to be light (no labs or large term projects) but fewer credits when the courses are known to be heavy (labs or large term projects).</p>
<p>DD1 is 15 credit hours architecture, which is like 75 credit hours for normal courses due to the long hours in the studio even from first semester… Their advisors wisely did not let anyone go over 15 first year. This will mean, however, that free electives will have to be done in the summer in order to finish in 4 years (BS Arch - pre-arch program).</p>
<p>“Error on the side of caution!” - That sounds wise. There’s a lot of adjustment when you head off to college. But it would depend a lot on how much outside work is required. </p>
<p>Most colleges consider 12 credits full time. I even heard of one college that set a limit of 12 credits first semester.</p>
<p>My freshman D goes to a school with 7 week terms. She is taking 3 classes, plus she is playing a varsity sport, which counts as a Phys Ed class. She is takign Calculus 3, Physics, and Spanish. She is in class for a total of 17 hours a week: 11 hours of lectures, 3 hours of 'conference" and 3 hours of labs. </p>
<p>At her school, the maximum number of classes that you can take per term in 4, and you can only take 4 classes once per 2-term semester before you have to pay an overload fee.</p>
<p>My D is doing a double major in Music Performance and Music Ed. Her first semester she had 24 credits hours, 2nd was 25, 3rd was 22, 4th was 25 and now as an RA everyone tells her how busy her schedule is with 19 credit hours and she is laughing saying this is light. These do not take into account the 15 to 20 hours of private practice she does. She is holding an overall 3.98 GPA and loves it because now she can take some general interest courses that she does not need for her degrees but really interest her. I really believe it is all in the study habits as whether they can handle the work load or not. She had to get permission every semester to overload and once they saw her GPA and dedication they have never questioned again. She still has time for a social life as well. She has always been a very busy student and taken on more that what is required but her study habits are impeccable. Perhaps it is because I am a Project Manager and my W (her mom) is a paralegal and we live our work lives by schedules and it has rubbed off on her. Her Elementary school forced them to properly use an agenda from grade 1 on and HS was the same thing.
PS: we have never been charged an overload fee and actually have never heard of that</p>
<p>There is such a thing (overload fee) - rarely used but I have seen it if one goes over X credit hours in an all-you-can-eat tuition system. I’ve seen it in colleges where anything over 12 hours or some such is full time all-you-can-eat credit hours.</p>
<p>In terms of hours per week, DD1 has MWF 12-5 all Arch studio and theory (2 courses) and TT 11 to 5 3 courses (math (3), writing (3), a couple electives (3 total). But studio being studio, she reports a couple hours before class, a couple hours after class, and 10-15 hrs on the weekend. </p>
<p>She’s on her way to the Freshman **negative **15 pounds… She had a very easy senior year (one science course, two easy electives, three art courses) and walks right into this :-). She loves it tho. </p>
<p>Maybe it’s the way Architecture is taught in the US I guess. Back in my days in the old country I don’t remember it being this intense (majored in Civil, minor in Arch)</p>
<p>Son is required to take 30 hours per year to keep his academic scholarship. He took 15 hours 1st semester Freshman year and 16 second semester and ended up with a 3.8 GPA. He did lobby to take only 4 classes both semesters but we discouraged that because it would guarantee he would be in summer school. Plus he’s always been a good student, so we felt he could handle. For the most part, he was taking the type of classes he likes and excels in. I think he was concerned he wouldn’t be able to keep up his grades but now that he’s proven to himself he can do it, he seems fine. I think with two labs, he’s taking 17 hours this semester.</p>
<p>I do think it’s important to take into consideration the type of classes your student is taking, their strength and weaknesses and their ability to handle stress. Just make sure if your student is getting any type of scholarship that you know the number of hours required to keep it.</p>
<p>Keep in mind it’s not always an option to start out slow, especially if you don’t have any credits coming in. If I had taken a lighter schedule my first semester, I would’ve had to max out (18 credit hours is max) my other 7 semesters to graduate in 4 years.</p>
<p>Picked up D1 for weekend yesterday. Seems like they have freshman start out slow and 2 of her classes will be very heavy writing. She already knows most of her schedule for the spring semester and it includes 3 classes in her major, so she’s happy. Only bummer is due to Hurricane Irene, the club/activity fair was postponed until next week, but she has already looked into the few that interest her and plan to attend meetings next week.</p>
due to the long hours in the studio even from first semester… Their advisors wisely did not let anyone go over 15 first year. This will mean, however, that free electives will have to be done in the summer in order to finish in 4 years (BS Arch - pre-arch program).</p>