Is 18 credits a reasonable number of credits to expect a student to take if you aren't making them work? They?

Question

have enough money saved up from working several jobs over the summer that there's no reason for them to work this semester, they seem to have average intelligence, but are in a challenging school as a commuter student. Thoughts?

Answer 1

If it is their first semester in college, i think 15 hours is enough.  If they are enrolled in any lab science classes like chemistry, 18 hours is too much.

Answer 2

No.  For a student such as you describe, the limit is really 15.  A typical collegestudent who is not working can handle that load and make good grades without overly pushing themselves (many don't, but htat's another issue).

Let me illustrate with an example. Suppose a student is majoring in computer science.  A 18 credit (6 course) load would be something like:

English composition, History, Physics, Calculus, Discrete Math, Intro to Computer programing.

That is too much. CAN an aerage student do this much?  If you are willing to sacrifice quality and overload the student, yes. If you want the student to be able to really learn the material and still be able to "have a life"--no.

Many students seem to regard taking a lot of curses and "getting through college fast" as a plus. It isn't. Potential employers really don't care ifa student took the full four years--or even 5, 6, or 7 years--to complete a degree. They do care about the quality.  A student who gets through in 3 years with a 2.5 average sin't going to win any prizes. The grad who gets the good job is the guy with the 3.5 average--even if it took 5-6 years.

Finally--if a student is simply "trying to get school over with"--they need to drop out until they have grown up enough to appreciate the value of college and act like an adult.

Answer 3

Yes, I think that is very fair.  If you have no other obligations; if you do not have a job or sports and/or other campus activities that you must attend to, then there should be no reason that you cannot handle taking 18 semester hour credits and find more than adequate amount of time to get the homework done.   Maybe I'm a hard-*** but I think this is very reasonable and manageable!