15 credits a semester or higher.

Totally depends on the school. But advisors will be very eager to let DC know how much is typically required for on-time graduation! To calculate yourself, look up in the university regulations how many courses or credit hours are required for the bachelor's degree that DC intends to pursue (whether a B.A., a B.S., or something else). Divide that number by 8 semesters (or 12 trimesters/quarters) depending on the school's schedule. That will tell you how many courses or credit hours typically need to be completed successfully every semester in order to graduate in 4 years. You can make that "how much do I generally need to take" number smaller by coming in with AP credit or taking summer classes either at your own school or elsewhere; you can make that number bigger by double-majoring, adding minors, or failing something.

At a school that teaches mostly 3-credit-hour courses on a semester calendar, students would usually take at least 5 of those per semester in order to graduate on time, sometimes 6 in hard sciences or professional disciplines. Add additional credit hours at will for things like labs, workshops, and studios, and bear in mind that some courses are 4 credit hours if they have more contact time (not that that helps anyone graduate faster or anything).

Folks might also want to know that "credit hours" represent academic expectations that are involved with university accreditation. A 3-credit-hour course typically has 3 contact hours per week (a contact hour can be something like 45 or 55 minutes, however long a class usually really meets), and expects about 2 to 3 hours of homework, preparation, reading, or other work per contact hour of class. Multiply this out and five 3-credit-hour courses basically adds up to a full-time job, which is what it pretty much should be.

Elite schools are 4 classes a semester and state schools and regular privates are 5 classes a semester. Yup, you heard that right.

Depends on the school, but when deciding I would say the number of CREDITS is more important than the number of classes. At my DD's private university which is on a semester schedule most classes are 3 credits so the typical would be to take 5 classes (15 credits) but a smaller number of classes are 1, 4, or 5 credits so that can shift things. Also rigor is a consideration, last year when my DD was a sophomore she was in a notoriously difficult 5-credit organic chem class so decided to take four classes that semester (three 3-credit classes and the 5-credit class)

Depends on school; at DC's SLAC, students take 4 courses every semester.

Could be 4 or 5 depending on multiple things

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never hurts to start with the minimum, but the real answer is school dependent. Look at the degree requirement, divide by 8 ( if semesters) then you know the expected course load. At schools where 4 is the norm, there will be a heavier work load per class.

This is my opinion too. DC went to a school on the quarter system with quite a bit of AP credit so took only 3 classes (two 5 unit and one 6 unit class) each quarter the whole first year. This is a state school where kids usually take at least one summer session, if not two, in order to get the classes they need. If they'd gone to a semester school I would have been fine with 4 classes of 3 credits each. So much learning outside of academics going on that first year.

Taking on the low end of credit can also leave more time for an on-campus job, getting involved in more time-intensive ECs, or working on research with a professor. My DS at a big state U has tended to take 4 classes and is on track to graduate in 4 years because he also had a good amount of AP credits. In the time that frees up he works as a TA and participates in an undergrad research program.

Anonymous wrote:Never hurts to start with the minimum, but the real answer is school dependent. Look at the degree requirement, divide by 8 ( if semesters) then you know the expected course load. At schools where 4 is the norm, there will be a heavier work load per class.

This is my opinion too. DC went to a school on the quarter system with quite a bit of AP credit so took only 3 classes (two 5 unit and one 6 unit class) each quarter the whole first year. This is a state school where kids usually take at least one summer session, if not two, in order to get the classes they need. If they'd gone to a semester school I would have been fine with 4 classes of 3 credits each. So much learning outside of academics going on that first year.

Anonymous wrote:12 credits is full-time generally. That is usually 4 courses. However, students often take 15 credits, which could break down into 5 courses. Anything in between is also normal. So 13 credits because you have four courses, but one is a 4 credit lab science for example.

At my DC"s school, 12 credits is the MINIMUM to be considered full time in a given semester. If someone took just 12 credits it'd take them an extra year to graduate. I think this sort of path would more likely be red-shirted athletes. I think if you go below "minimum full time" you can't live on campus etc.

Anonymous wrote:Both 4 and 5 course per semester schools have the same class time — 2 1/2 hours a week per class.

5 course school kids are in class for 12 1/2 hours a week; 4 course school kids are in class for 10 hours a week. Bang for the buck, I guess.

At my private college and my DC's too - a 3 credit course is 3 hours a week in class. That's why it's called a credit hour.

It is not a matter of classes, but credits. My kids math class is 5 credits alone. Most colleges reccomend 15-17 credits.

12 credits is full-time generally. That is usually 4 courses. However, students often take 15 credits, which could break down into 5 courses. Anything in between is also normal. So 13 credits because you have four courses, but one is a 4 credit lab science for example.

Anonymous wrote:Never hurts to start with the minimum, but the real answer is school dependent. Look at the degree requirement, divide by 8 ( if semesters) then you know the expected course load. At schools where 4 is the norm, there will be a heavier work load per class.

+1. Students at schools where 4 is norm are told each 1-CU course can be 14-18 hours IN Addition to class time per week. Depends on the student and the course. Definitely true for courses like Orgo: hours on end prepping for lecture and working problem sets before tests is the stnadard for those who want to beat the mean and get a B+ or higher for that premed GPA.

Anonymous wrote:I would look at the credits more than number of courses. Most schools require around 120 credits to graduate (more for engineering). So student should take about 15-17 credits a semester. That could be 5 3-credit courses but some courses (usually those with a lab) are 4 credits. Sometimes there is a 1-credit course required for major. I actually had a 6 credit course in college.

So for example my (Freshman) DS is taking 17 credits this fall, four 4 credit courses and a 1 credit course required for major.

This has been our experience as well - that it’s mostly about the number of credits needed to graduate on time rather than the number of classes. And if labs or clinical are involved, that’s a different set of math (to figure out how many to take each semester). Some degrees have very scripted 4-year plans and any deviation can sometimes cause unforeseen havoc.

Private elites and ivies , non-engineering: 4 “1 cu” classes most semesters(they do not do hours, but they say they are all 4hours per CU, so 16 hrs per sem), 5 a couple semesters (unless the student used AP credit for electives whic can only be used for 2-3cus. Total is typically 34 CU to graduate.
For engineering at the same schools, there are courses that are 1.5CU(1 cu plus 0.5 lab), and the credits needed are often 38-40CU to graduate, so 4.5 - 5 classes most semesters, 5.5 some semesters, again 1 CU=4 hours at these places, so 18-22 hrs per semester.