<p>Is anyone taking more electives for interest than needed, ultimately delaying your graduation date?</p>
<p>just wondering</p>
<p>Why should taking more courses than needed delay your graduation date? You can easily do the same just by taking more classes each semester. I always take the maximum (18 at my school) so that I make sure I’m maximizing my opportunities to take all of the classes I want to take.</p>
<p>Chandi, if you took heavier loads than were required you could be taking all the credits you need only for your major instead of the normal amount required for your major and things you are interested in. For instance, if your major required 119 credits and your degree required 128 credits (and say you could take up to 22 a semester), you could complete that in 6 semesters, but if you only took 15 credits required for your major every semester it would still take 8 semesters to do it. Thus you are implicitly delaying graduation by 2 semesters.</p>
<p>Furthermore, looking at an 8 semester schedule where every semester you take 18 or fewer credits a semester, if a major requires 119 credits and degree requires 128 credits then you can really only take 3 credits or so a semester for interest. If you had interest in more than 24 credits then you’d have to take longer. </p>
<p>I am, in that I was planning (and would have realistically been able to) complete my degree in 7 semesters, but I am planning on 8 or 9.</p>
<p>With the way the prerequisites work in my major there’s no way to take all of the required classes at once. For example pchem 1 is only offered in the fall, pchem 2 is only offered in the spring, methods 1 only in the fall, and methods 2 only in the spring. Methods 1 requires you to have your pchem sequence done as well as the organic chem sequence, so the only way to actually skip a year would be to double up on organic chem and pchem… but then you’d still have to fit in biochem, inorganic chem, analytical chem, and not to mention all of the labs. It may be possible but it’s not advisable. And it’s really not possible to trim off just one semester with that set up.</p>
<p>I am picking up two minors, though, so the extra classes I’m adding on are organized to some degree. I can also add in more classes of interest by taking a full load in the summer as well. However, the maximum load here is 18 credits per semester. I have a full scholarship that lasts four years so I don’t care about graduating early, but I will be graduating on time.</p>
<p>Taking math classes to be eligible to take math classes for my degree.</p>