<p>As an international student unfamiliar with the US college system, I’m a bit unsure how to choose what classes to register for.</p>
<p>I’ve been accepted as a transfer student as my grades from UK college courses were transferable, so I’m only doing 2 years at college.</p>
<p>I’ve got a list of what areas I need to cover - eg ‘scientific inquiry’, ‘quantitative inquiry’, etc - and how many credits I need for each. But when I look at the full course list, I’m baffled! I know what I’m doing with my major and what classes to register for in that regard, but how do you choose what classes to take to fulfil the GE requirements? Do you just pick ones that look interesting, or is there a ‘formula’? How many credits is ‘normal’ per semester?</p>
<p>Can anyone point me to a website or book that explains all this for dumb foreigners like me?! ;-)</p>
<p>It’s really hard to give you general advice without knowing the college you will be attending because academic policies vary from college to college.</p>
<p>In general you can pick any class marked as fulfilling a certain requirement to fulfill that requirement. My college requires e.g. a lab science. We can pick which lab science we want to take (e.g. physics, geology, psychology) and at which level (the intro course or a higher-level course if we have some previous experience in the area). Students usually take the classes that appeal the most to them, or in the absence of an interesting class one that does not entail too much work. In some cases you can use the general education requirements to take courses that relate to your major. For example, a political science major might find it useful to take a statistics class to fulfill the quantitative/math requirement.</p>
<p>A few colleges have a “core curriculum” instead of general distribution requirements, which is more restrictive. A core curriculum is a set of classes that all students at that college have to take (with courses like Academic Writing, Great Books or Into to Western Civilization). But it does not sound like your college has a core curriculum.</p>
<p>The ‘normal’ course load is usually 15-16 credits if your college counts credits in semester credit hours. At these places anything in between 12 and 18 credits would be considered a regular course load, though some students might take 20+ credits a semester. But there are different ways to count credits: at some private colleges the normal course load is 4 credits (where most courses are worth one credit), and colleges on a quarter system count credits differently too.</p>
<p>as a first time student,either transfer or freshman,
your advisor should be the one who put you a schedule (at first).
ask your advisor,he/she should be the one you put your first semester schedule,then if you dont like the classes/ not too comfortable with the schedule,you can change it by yourself before the first week of class ended. (change it via-web.)</p>
<p>usually students take 15-16 credits. Min. 12credits to be a full-time student. But me, even as a new transfer, they give me 18credits to take,</p>
<p>You dont hv to take all of the gen ed. classes all at once, take what you like,and take classes that will help/suit your “major” classes…(for example, if youre a math major and you will take 1/2 hard math class/es, well dont take hard gen ed. classes… take like maybe an drawing class that you’re interested)</p>
<p>Usually the university also hv a “4yrs normal schedule”. You should check that and see what courses that you hve taken and what’s left. Youll get the picture of what classes you will need.</p>
<p>By asking the advisor, he/she can also mix and match the courses, for example if you’re a sophomore,but you’re a smart one and you’ve taken a few important “major” courses,so you can take some junior classes…</p>
<p>I disagree with clam_chowder about the role of an adviser. Your adviser’s job is not to come up with a schedule for you. At my college our advisers would not even do that if we begged them to because it is against college policy. An academic adviser’s role is to make sure that you understand all academic requirements correctly, make suggestions for classes based on your interests and verify that your schedule is in general appropriate for you. Advisers make suggestions and express concerns, they do not come up with a schedule for you. </p>
<p>I agree with clam_chowder that it might be a good idea to meet with an adviser to discuss your schedule for the fall and your plans for the next two years to make sure that you will meet all requirements. Coming from the UK, you are probably way ahead in your major but far behind on your general education classes. With the exception of a few technical fields, American college students usually spend most of the first two years fulfilling gen ed requirements and the last two years studying their major.</p>