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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Spring semester will be done in a few days and DS is really struggling with his[b] freshman year[/b] at Geprge Tech majoring in Computer Science.  He takes[b] 16 credits in Falls and Spring semester.[/b]  In HS, he spent about 2 1/2 hours a day studying so he had lot of times to play piano, guitar, and saxophone.  On weekends, he didn't study and spent most of his time with sports and music activities.

At George Tech, he spends at least 50 hours outside of the classroom studying just to keep up, and he is still struggling.  He neither has time to date or any other activities, has not touched his guitar and saxphone in months.  He hasn't been to the golf course except during the Christmas break.  He even had to study during Spring break just to keep up.  He said that CS is so hard here.  He is barely keeping his head above water.  He is just now a shell of himself.  I am seriously considering of pulling him out GT so that he can attend somewhere else.  At this point, I don't know where.

How do people major in CS at Georgia Tech or other places have time for other activities besides studying all the time?  Love to hear what you have to say.[/quote]

Most freshman do take 15-16 credits if they want to finish in 4 years.  That is the norm everywhere.  Also, if you only take 12 credits and you struggle in a course, then you literally cannot drop it without becoming a part time student, and that has major financial aid implications (bad implications).  IMO, it's better to take 15 credits but pick your load to not overwhelm yourself (which can be challenging in a STEM field).

So my freshman can take Biology 101 and Org Chem fall of freshman year, along with Calc 3, Intro to XXX Engineering and a Core curriculum or Required Writing course.   This is all due to AP credits.  Well for the other engineering minor my kid wants, they need Bio101/102 to happen freshman year or they likely wont finish in 4 years due to the sequencing and prereqs for courses.  So they have decided that adding org chem to the mix freshman year would not be a smart academic decision and will put that off until sophomore year and make sure they adjust well to college.  As it is, they will still have an extremely challenging schedule, because they have AP credits for Cal 1/2 and Chem.   While there's a good chance they could do the org chem freshman year and succeed, it seems a bit overkill and possibly setting themselves up for too much stress, so they wont do it, as everyone knows that Org chem is one of the hardest courses around.

He shouldn't be taking 16 credits/ semester.  Maybe there are one or two semesters in college you can do that, but Freshman year it should be 12 to start, get an understanding of the work load and after-class time commitment, and get good grades.  It's too late to fix the real problem, but he can dial it back sophomore year.

That said, "he only golfs on breaks" is not the sad story you think it is.  [/quote][/quote]

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