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I am 42 years old and have returned to school full time (Junior) to finish my degree. Fortunately, I am in a position where I do not have to work and go to school. However, 6 classes is still A LOT OF WORK!
Out of curiosity, I am wondering if anyone else out there has ever taken more than 18 hours a semester. If so, how much? And, how were your grades?
Thanx!
21 credits (but only 6 classes). Hardest science class I took was during this semester, physical chemistry. Hardest math too, diff eq. But the rest were fairly easy.
as in...? Granted there are some GREAT classes and some GREAT profs and some GREAT classmates,
I would love to find some challenging college classes (I'm just about ready for a "Senior Citizen Discount". I would like to get more Economics / Sociology and go back overseas to live and work. I partnered with trade schools and industry and really enjoyed that in my previous career.
My best edu, was a very disciplined apprenticeship taught largely by Eastern Europe escapees / immigrants to USA. That career fed my family very well, and every day was very creative. (and PRECISE...). I took significant pay cuts when I transferred to Engineering (5 different times) to help release new products.
Another goal is to become more proficient at financial management (since everyone in USA is supposed to be a 401k Money manger. )
I took 21 hours one semester in college. Most semesters I had between 16-18 hours. I finished four years of college in two and a half years. I didn't have to work although I did have some part-time jobs during my undergraduate college years. I eventually completed two Bachelor and two Master degrees. I loved college!
As a a freshman in the early 80s & taking my pre-engineering courses, I signed up for 18 hours (labs included) - I quickly realized that wasn't going to work and knocked that down to 14 hours. Big relief. No job at this time of any kind - just loans.
Last time I was in school in the late 90s I also took 14 hours. No job this time either but some savings from an unrelated FT job and lots of grants helped with the finances. I also found that school was much easier this time 'round since I had matured and learned from my mistakes in the past (this time I had good study habits, didn't allow prof's personality to interfere with learning, etc etc).
Grades were good to very good but as far as revealing actual GPAs, not as long as companies use those internet search services for prospective employees.
I have no problem admitting I am not the most dedicated student though I love learning and never skipped classes or labs and always made sure homework was completed before I did anything else.
There are plenty of employers who don't place GPAs at the top of their priority list because they know that is not the only part of a successful/productive employee.
I am 42 years old and have returned to school full time (Junior) to finish my degree. Fortunately, I am in a position where I do not have to work and go to school. However, 6 classes is still A LOT OF WORK!
Out of curiosity, I am wondering if anyone else out there has ever taken more than 18 hours a semester. If so, how much? And, how were your grades?
Thanx!
My goodness that's a lot of schooling! I've never taken more than twelve and I work just under full-time. I can't imagine doing that many classes even if I were not working. Good luck to you.
My goodness that's a lot of schooling! I've never taken more than twelve and I work just under full-time. I can't imagine doing that many classes even if I were not working. Good luck to you.
I've also had a handful of 12 hour semesters when the courses were particularly challenging & didn't want to risk blowing my chances to receive loans/grants. Yea there's a reason one of my fave music genres is called chillout.
I am 42 years old and have returned to school full time (Junior) to finish my degree. Fortunately, I am in a position where I do not have to work and go to school. However, 6 classes is still A LOT OF WORK!
Out of curiosity, I am wondering if anyone else out there has ever taken more than 18 hours a semester. If so, how much? And, how were your grades?
Thanx!
Saying you're in your "junior year" dosen't mean anything. Some save all the core curriculum classes until the very end. If you're taking 3 major classes and 3 core curriculum classes, it should be ok. Or maybe it even includes 1 or 2 online classes etc. That all makes a difference. Also, what kind of work? Writing an essay would be easier than doing math, especially when you gotta go through all the material to find out how to even start the problem etc. That's frustrating and harder than writing an essay, for instance.
I am 42 years old and have returned to school full time (Junior) to finish my degree. Fortunately, I am in a position where I do not have to work and go to school. However, 6 classes is still A LOT OF WORK!
Out of curiosity, I am wondering if anyone else out there has ever taken more than 18 hours a semester. If so, how much? And, how were your grades?
Thanx!
That's a lot, but it depends on what you're majoring in.
18 credits of Sociology and Anthropology and other humanities wouldn't have been that bad. You could skip some classes and fudge some papers.
18 credits of classes like Discrete Math and Linear Algebra and crap like that would be insane!
When I was in college I took 21 credit hours twice, 16 credit hours once, 17-18 credit hours four times and 19 once.
How it came out depended on where I was in my life. The semester that I took 19 did not go well and I only completed 12 with poor grades (Cs and Bs). (My girlfriend of three years dumped me, my best friend tried to commit suicide, and another close friend was killed in a car accident, plus I was working, competing in Karate and Debate - [plus I was partying too much.) My first semester I took 16 credits and completed all of them, but did nto do that well. I think I got 2 Cs and only one A and the rest Bs. Once I got to my second semester of my junior year, I got my act together, re-prioiritized my life and got almost straight As no matter how many credits. It really is not about how many classes you take, but about how dedicated you are. Even 21 plus credits is manageable if you devote 10 - 14 hours a day 5-6 days a week.
I was lucky in that most of my jobs allowed me to sit and read while I was between customers. One job even allowed me to assign others to do research that helped with a paper I was writing (teaching High School debate and coaching the debate team).
I usually take 19 Credit hours while working. Fulltime (+ 2 PT jobs on weekends)
I did take 21 one semester, & limited my full time 'night' job to 6hrs / day (retained my weekend jobs, as they were my favorite, (one was truckdriving 846 miles / night through WY/CO & SD... Think snow, ice, wind helps keep you awake!))
I only worked PT during my latest Masters Program, but also was running 3 side businesses.
Work and/or School is EZ compared to growing up @ Dairy Farm Boarding School.
My degrees were engineering(ME and Civil), not exactly trivial.
GPA 3.92 undergrad
GPA 3.96 Masters
(I was also a caregiver for a disabled parent during undergrad (and for 32 yrs following)
Life happens, but I WILL SAY 'new school / academics / workload' was gravy when returning in my 50's. I think school (college) has become VERY ez. Unfortunately, most are just 'puttin-in-their-time' (students and professors) BTW: I am currently employed PT by a College, it is EZ too. (compared to milking cows at 4AM and 4 PM x7x365)
At first I thought that this had to be BS, but then iI looked at the numbers.
If you spend 56 hours working, 19 in class, 42 sleeping (6 hours a day), 14 eating showering and driving, 1 hour in church. You still have 36 hours a week to do homework. If you spend 36 hours a week doing homework for 19 credit hours (plus whatever time you can get in during work) and you are even reasonable smart, you can get As in most classes. While some classes will requrie more than 1.8 hours of homework a week, others occaisionally require less, plus you can sneak in some homework during work.
If you are totally dedicated, can live on 6 hours of sleep a day and do nothing else but work study and sleep (have no social life at all), it is certianly doable.
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