Reply to freshman class scheduling; helicopter parent or legit concern?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My student's orientation was yesterday.   Class registration was at the end of the day (students were separate from their parents, who had their own orientation events to attend) so students did this on their own with the help of an academic advisor/upper classman volunteers.)   When I saw my kid's schedule I was upset.   It wasn't the type of classes he was taking, but the fact that he was taking them so close together, with little time in between, and mostly on m/w/f with almost nothing on t/ th.

He is taking a total of 18 credits, and I'm specifically being a little vague with the exact subjects of his classes.  I will mention that the math class is the highest level students typically start off at for this major, most students for this major/school start their freshman year at a lower level.   Students have to test into this, and he just barely made the cutoff to qualify for it, so I was already feeling a little apprehensive about too much "overload."

M/W/F

9:00-9:50  Math (building A)
10:00-10:50 English (building E)
11:00-11:50 "class required for major" (building B)
12:00-12:50 Spanish (Building E)

2:00-2:50 Science (Building C)
3:00-3:50 "Class #2 required for major" (Building D), Wednesdays only

For Tuesday he had just one class scheduled for about an hour in the morning, and on Thursdays that same class, plus the lab for his Science class in the afternoon--so Tuesdays and Thursdays were extremely light.

So just right away, looking at the schedule, I was concerned that he was scheduled so tight from 9-1, with just ten minute breaks between each class.   Then I looked at a map of where exactly these classes were located, and I was more concerned.   Buildings A, B, C, and D are all fairly close together, but Building E is a ways off--according to Googlemaps it's half a mile away and about a ten minute walk, and that's just building to building, not accounting for actually getting into the classroom, and getting in a seat.   And with the schedule above, he'd be making that trip EACH TIME he switched classes in the morning (3 times.)
If the walk to each building takes the full ten minutes, that leaves no time for a quick restroom break, to account for those times the professor keeps lecturing past end time, a minute to chat with a classmate about setting up a study group, etc.

I told him no way.   This schedule was practically pre-destining him for stress and failure.   I wanted him to see about moving at least one of the classes to T/Th to help balance the load.   He gave me a hard time, saying he didn't want too much of a break between classes.  [b]I ended up going to where the advisors were and asking them to help change his schedule.  
[/b]I did NOT want to do this.   I did not want to interfere, I do NOT want to be "that parent."   But I'm about to drop $40k a year, we are not wealthy and I will be making major sacrifices....and that schedule just seemed set up for failure.

Was a wrong?   Should I have just let him keep that schedule, even if I'm pretty certain it was way too overloaded and would be stressful to navigate.   Was I "that parent?"[/quote]

:shock:  :shock:  :shock:

Holy crap lady.  Next level.  You're now known among the advisors.

I would apologize to your son.[/quote]

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