I recently graduated high school, and am going to attend Iowa Western Community College. I was pretty good at maintaining As throughout high school, even in concurrent enrollment classes, like Micro-economics, Composition I & II, American Lit, American Gov, etc. However, I am looking into taking 20 credits my first semester. My classes include General Chem I, Pre-calc, Intro to Information Technology, Concert Choir, Men’s Ensemble, Piano I, Music in Theory and Practice I, and Ear Training and Sight Singing I. Will I survive? Or should I drop piano and end up a semester behind?
I think 20 credits is just too much. Try to stick with 5 classes for the semester. You can always make up classes over the summer. By taking on too much you run the risk of getting overwhelmed and messing up your grades.
Depends on what you’re planning on studying. I’m wondering why you have so many music classes - are you planning on studying music? Either way, I think all those music classes are going to require a lot of time, but your other three gen-ed classes probably won’t be that rigorous esp at a community college, but combined with FIVE music classes, that is quite the schedule. Why do you need to be in two different vocal groups? And why would you be a semester behind if you dropped ONE of EIGHT classes? The norm is 4-5. The course load for college should be about half that of high school. I agree with raclut. Drop a couple at least.
I also think that this is too much. I think that you should drop back to 5 or at most 6 classes and just be a semester behind. You will get there more certainly and with better grades (and probably better ear training and sight singing) taking another semester.
I would start off by taking no more than 5 classes. Don’t over-extend yourself.
I agree…that is too much…those music classes may take more than you think because they may require homework/practice.
Also, will Concert Choir and Men’s Ensemble require travel for performances? Even if they don’t, they’re going to take a lot of time for rehearsal before whatever performances do happen. Those kind of classes can be a disproportionate time sink, and sometimes performances are close to exam time (Christmas shows, for example).
A semester behind on what, exactly? How can you be a semester behind when you are coming in with all those early college credits
Are you trying to do a double major in music and engineering, and in how many years after high school? You should expect a music double degree to take 5 or even sometimes 6 years.