Your first year at college can be daunting and a little confusing as you try to grapple with harder classes and new schedules. One of the many things you will have to learn is how to structure and schedule your classes. Cramming too many courses into a single day or taking only morning classes when you’re not a morning person can lead to burn out. Here’s how you can strike a balance with your schedule and have a great first year of college.
How Many College Classes Do You Take Freshman Year?
Full-time college students usually take around 10 classes during their first year – or 5 per semester. To graduate with a bachelor’s degree in four years, you want to aim for 30 credits each year or 15 each semester. If you’re attending college part-time, you’ll sign up for 3 or less classes a semester.
7 Tips for Structuring Your First Year College Classes
If you’re getting ready to make your first or second semester schedules, follow these tips to have a successful freshman year!
1. Meet With Your Advisor
Flickr user Jeremy Wilburn
Your academic advisor is there to help you schedule courses, but they can also assist with finding a study group, your major options, and the best classes for your goals. If you have any questions about your degree requirements, you can reach out to them at any time.
Most schools require you to meet with an academic advisor to schedule your very first semester. Depending on the school, you may need to meet with them again before creating your second semester schedule. They’ll review your intended major, go over required classes, and help you pick out courses that interest you.
2. Plan Ahead
You don’t have to wait until sign-up day to look at the available classes! You’ll likely be able to view the courses ahead of time. Take a look now and start crafting a list of classes that call to you. Write down the available times and days. If two courses you’re considering clash timewise, you can cross one of them off the potential final list now.
You can also use this time to look up potential professors. If there are two similar classes but one professor is poorly reviewed, you can sign up for the course with the better-reviewed instructor.
3. Take Required Classes
Most incoming first year college students have to take certain courses during their first semester or year. Usually schools require at least English 101, but they might also require you to take “Introduction to College,” “Diversity and Inclusion,” or others. If you’re part of a honors group, you’ll likely have to take a discussion honors course as well.
When creating your schedule, start with these required classes’ times before selecting other courses.
4. Start Knocking Out General Requirements Now
Your college has general requirements – classes that all students need to take in addition to any major and minor classes and electives. They’ll be in everything from math to science. Due to prerequisites, you likely won’t be able to take many major-related courses during your first year (if any). Instead, you’ll be focusing on general requirements.
Look at the subjects your college requires and pick out a few that interest you. “General requirements” doesn’t mean your classes are boring. You generally have a lot of leeway in the types of courses you can take – and there are going to be ones that spark your interest. Take them! Always wanted to learn how to make clay pottery? Sign up! Interested in paleontology but don’t necessarily want to major in it? Give it a shot.
5. Consider Credits
To be a “full-time” college student, you need to take 12 or more credit hours per semester. However, to graduate within 4 years, you need to take 15 credits each semester on average. Most classes are worth 3 credits (and courses with labs are often worth 4), so you need to plan to take around 5 classes.
While you might feel compelled to take 18 credits or more, this isn’t always advisable, especially for your first year. Now’s the time to get used to college life, and taking on more than you can chew can result in disaster. If you feel you can handle the workload, talk over taking additional credits with your academic advisor before future semesters.
Be honest with yourself, your goals, and your schedule before overdoing it. Too many classes can easily lead to F’s in several of them. And 5 classes are not the same thing as 5 classes in high school – you will have a lot more work and responsibilities!
And don’t forget about homework – and the more classes you have, the more homework you’ll need to complete. When creating your first-year college schedule, think about when you’re going to complete homework and assignments and when you’ll study.
6. Make Time For You
College life isn’t all about homework and classes! You need time for yourself, too. Make sure to have enough time in your schedule for you-time, extracurriculars, clubs, work, exercise, and other responsibilities.
7. Take Classes in Time Slots That Fit Your Schedule
Classes that begin at 9 or 10 a.m. are hugely popular for a reason. They are not so early that you struggle to get out of bed, and they are not so late that you start to get used to an easy schedule. Waking up for your 9 and 10 a.m. classes can be beneficial to your sleep schedule.
However, it’s important to keep your schedule in mind. Are you someone who doesn’t wake up fully until noon even with coffee? Or just does better as a night owl? That’s okay – you can generally work your schedule into afternoon and night classes to best fit your needs.
Some may argue with you that this type of approach to your schedule is “lazy”, or you need to be up at 8 am – but you really don’t and it’s anything but lazy. You’re just being honest with yourself and giving yourself the best chance of succeeding! There will be classes where you have no choice and have to wake up at 8 am because it’s the only one available, but that will likely not be now.
First-Year College Classes
If you ever have concerns about your first semester classes or your schedule at college, be sure to reach out to your advisor as soon as possible. They can answer any questions you may have or get you in touch with someone who can answer them if they can’t! It’s important to take the right approach to your first semester classes or you could be regretting it for the next four years!
While you don’t have to select your major just yet (most schools require it by junior year), it doesn’t hurt to have some subject in mind! College Raptor’s Major Search tool helps you find the best areas of study for your goals, interests, and needs in education. Use it today for free here!
