How many credits did you take a semester?

[jellybean13]

I keep seeing these threads "should I take a W, I overwhelmed myself and took 18 credits".

I am confused, I took >18 credits, usually 20 every semester in undergrad.

How many credits did everyone take a semester (avg)?

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[MLT2MT2DO]

I keep seeing these threads "should I take a W, I overwhelmed myself and took 18 credits".

I am confused, I took >18 credits, usually 20 every semester in undergrad.

How many credits did everyone take a semester (avg)?

Avg: 23 while working fulltime.

Was taking a single 3 credit class this last fall and took a "W"...life happens.

 

[familyaerospace]

I mostly did 18 when I was in undergrad. It was pretty rare to get approval to go over 18. That isn't to say I wasn't able to do it, I did 20 hours twice.

The lowest I did was 12 but in those three classes, I wrote several hundred pages.

I routinely overloaded in graduate school and only did 6-8 as a post-bacc.

 

[nardini46]

I call BS. Average credits most college science undergrads take is around 14-18. You guys must be going to an easy school if you can maintain those grades with ECs on the side.

 

[ShyRem]

I took 21 every semester. As a math and chem double major. I was married and had two small children at home with no family around to help us out. It is totally possible if you are disciplined enough to pull it off. Most people just aren't that disciplined.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

I call BS. Average credits most college science undergrads take is around 14-18. You guys must be going to an easy school if you can maintain those grades with ECs on the side.

Call what you want, though I'm not sure what I'd be gaining off lying. I went to state schools, I wouldn't consider them rigourous but they weren't diploma mills either.

 

[Lijia4]

I usually took 18 credits while working 60+ hour weeks, the majority of those hours being 3rd shift. It's doable, unhealthy, I hated it, and my grades weren't as great as they could have been--but I really didn't have a choice if I wanted to keep a roof over my head and eat. It's not normal, so I'm confused at your confusion. So many of my colleagues, pre-professionals alike, constantly informed me that I was crazy and there was no way they'd be able to do it (let alone take 18 credit hours consistently).

Everyone handles their workloads differently and the intensity of courses may vary significantly by school. I wish I didn't need to take that many credit hours at once, I think I would have enjoyed my undergrad more (much like those did who took 14-16 credits hours, which is the real norm). I would never advise any student to take that many credit hours semester after semester if it wasn't a necessity.

So you took 20 credit hour semesters during your undergrad---are you expecting a medal? I'm not sure what you are looking to gain from this thread, and you're more likely an attention seeker than a "confused" poster. Perhaps that person you are referring to over-ambitiously took 18 credits worth of ridiculously challenging courses--regardless, that many credits can be brutal for anyone--except for you, of course.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

I took 21 every semester. As a math and chem double major. I was married and had two small children at home with no family around to help us out. It is totally possible if you are disciplined enough to pull it off. Most people just aren't that disciplined.

See, now I don't know if I would have been able to pull off such a fate if I had two kids on top of everything else. Very impressive.

 

[ShyRem]

If y'all think 21 credits in undergrad is too much and you can't do it, you're in for a rude awakening when you get to med school. Which, BTW, looks like a ton of free time compared to intern year.

 

[Fay8]

Just to provide a different response.

I took between 12-16 credits/semester. I got sick in school, and had to take 12cr/semester for a few semesters, but that was still considered FT. I also had to work. At our school, the norm was 16 credits.

Best,

Fay

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

I can't speak for shyrem, but my decision to take such a heavy course load ended up coming down to two factors:

1. I knew I could handle it and still maintain good grades

2. I'm a non-trad and if I didn't do a heavy course load I would have had ~10 credits a semester (which seemed like not enough to keep my interest) and been a year later in the cycle.

 

[azide10]

18 a semester for my first 2 years. 5 classes x 3 credits each. Junior year I started integrating science classes into it, so I'm not too sure but it went up slightly. Junior year is also when I started volunteering, although not building it up like a typical pre-med, but I still had time for more volunteering and to socialize. 1 semester senior year, 12 just to graduate.

16 at the local CC to finish up prereqs for what I thought I was going to go into. Then decided to become premed. 8 credits over the summer, 16 credits last semester, 9 credits this semester (+ MCAT studying). Working and volunteering during this time.

But I'm going at my own pace and will be taking another year off before applying. Some people can take a bunch of credits and get things done faster or people can go a little slower, all preferance. With a little work and discipline everyone can handle it.

 

[IamaBanana]

At my school a class was a class was a class, labs or not. Each was 4 credits and we took 4 per semester. It was also pretty tough to take extras (ie the list of signatures you needed for that was long). Point is, unless we take a look at the school, the level the courses are taught to and so on, we really can't compare one person's schedule to another.

 

[quenton cassidy]

I think it depends on how hard your school is. All schools are not created equal and difficulty can vary widely.

 

[MedIsInMyBlood]

I call BS. Average credits most college science undergrads take is around 14-18. You guys must be going to an easy school if you can maintain those grades with ECs on the side.

SDN is not average. Furthermore, the people who are most likely to post in this thread are not people with 14 credits per semester.

So, I don't really "call BS" like you do. I think the ones who posted that they took 20 credits per semester and worked full-time and/or had kids are telling the truth.

But, I also realize that for every one of them that decided that info was worthy of a post, there were like 3-4 others who took the average 15 credits and didn't really feel that that is worthy of a post so they just read this thread without ever posting and moved on.

 

[Poliscidoc]

21 this semester. I would say it's been around 18-21 credits every semester. Im a business major so taking 4 business classes (3 credits) and then taking two science classes isn't to bad.

 

[DOwnage]

I find people's responses in this thread kind of weird, just because I've been to 2 different universities and neither of them allowed you to get over 18. You basically had to get special permission from several different people if you wanted that much. They strongly discouraged even getting up to 18 and 15-16 was the average for everybody.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I usually take between 13-17 ( Average around 14) credits a semester. I also take a lot of summer/winter classes. But yah at my school the average class is ( 3credits) and a lab class is 4 credits. My friend going to another university has a different system in place ( average class is 4 credits and labs are 5 credits). Effectively meaning that my 4 class average ( 12 credits ) v.s ( 16 credits for her 4 classes).

 

[cheekiemunky]

I rarely take more credits than I need to be full-time. I stay between 12 and 15. That's advice that was given to me by most of the doctors I've talked to about it.

Most of the people I've talked to in real life who take 15-18 every semester don't have obligations outside of school. I have a ton. Obviously, there will be exceptions to this though.

I've never met anyone at my school that took more than 18. I'm not even sure if it's allowed. Also, in pre-med land, comparing "credits" is pretty meaningless. At least at my school.... a "2 hour" lab is 6 hours of the week in class, and then more work outside of class than the "real" classes. Same goes for "1 hour" labs. So I've had semesters where I was taking 12 credit hours, but was spending 18 in class. And then I've had semesters where I took 15 credits that made that one look like cake.

You'll have 4 years to do nothing but study when you get to med school. Chill out and enjoy college.

 

[Slane]

Eighteen to twenty every semester except for the one right before the MCAT (I took twelve to maintain full-time status while giving myself time to study.) Plus eight to twelve every summer for three years. I majored in computer science though and had to do all my prerequisite courses on top of the ones required for my major. Only took nine to twelve then when I was a graduate student since I was working three jobs at the same time to save money for school.