<p>Rising sophomores and up:</p>
<p>What is the highest number of units you decided to take in a quarter at Stanford? Was it manageable? Were you able to perform well in the classes and still have an adequate amount of free time?</p>
<p>I think the max allowed is 21. Its manageability depends on the specific classes. Some 3 unit classes are much more demanding time-wise then some 5 unit classes.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, it could be manageable to take 4 5-unit classes. But 7 3-unit ones would be insane.</p>
<p>The max is 20, but you can petition to take 21 (only once, though, not counting activity unit petitions).</p>
<p>The most I’ve taken in one quarter is 19. It was pretty hard–the classes were tough, but I did have some free time. Not as much as some of my friends, but I got by.</p>
<p>Took 19 and 20 the last two quarters, trying to take 21 this quarter (but one of them is pass/fail). I was able to perform decently well in the classes, it’s a lot of work, but you still have free time. Though if this is your first quarter at Stanford, I would not push more than 17.</p>
<p>I thought you didn’t have to petition the 21st unit if it was an activity unit.</p>
<p>In any case, I’ve taken 20 or 21 many times, because I have a bunch of activity-type classes (band, etc.) that I can fill my unit load up with. I think my highest actual unit load was 23 or something, when I took some of those classes without registering. That was a bad quarter.</p>
<p>I’m not sure–my understanding was that Axess wouldn’t allow you to add more than 20 units, so you’d have to put in a petition to take more than that, and if it’s an activity unit, then it’s “routinely approved,” according to the petition sheet.</p>