Well, it’s that time of year again. Gotta figure out my schedule for the next year.
So, I’m going to be a senior with a chemistry major next year. I only need 20 credits to graduate with only three required classes (two semesters of chemistry research and an S–social sciences–credit) but I have to take at least 24–12 each semester–to maintain full-time status. I want to take financial accounting as my S credit because, let’s face it, being able to do your own accounting, investments, and so on is more important than ever. Plus, it should be easy after calculus and P Chem and more interesting than intro sociology or politics. I’m also going to take four credits of music each semester, so the basic breakdown is that I need to take 3 real classes in the fall and 3 or 4 in the spring for full-time status (and I could take one or two more if I wanted and juggled the music credits).
So, I’ve got a couple questions. So far, it doesn’t look like I’m going to go to grad school but will look for a job instead. However, I’m not going to burn my bridges (I’ll probably look into putting in applications at NM Tech, UNM, and NMSU if nowhere else) so I don’t want to look like I’m taking it too easy during the last year. Same for a job; I don’t want to look like I’m taking nothing but blow-off classes. However, research does take up a lot of time, even if it doesn’t show on the transcript as credit hours. Plus, I’m probably going to take the last chemistry lecture course I can take in the fall, so I will be completely out of in-major classes except for research for the spring semester. Also, I plan on both tutoring and TAing the freshmen, so that takes up one more afternoon in lab each semester plus evenings and such for the tutoring.
So, I guess that leaves three questions. One: How important is class load in terms of pure credit hours for grad school and jobs? Two: How does it look to take mostly easier classes? Nearly a third or fourth of my credit-hours would be music and I would like to take a couple religion classes, one each semester, plus a class on individual federal income taxation. I suppose I could take some more physics classes, or Calc III or Linear Algebra or a stats course (all of which I have thought about), or even another biology class (though I’m a chemist partially because I don’t like biology). Any other science that I might be interested in (like geology or meteorology or astronomy) would be an intro course. Three: If I am spending a lot of time doing research and TAing and tutoring, would that be taken into account regarding my class schedule?
Any help would be appreciated and of course I’m going to talk with my advisors and my parents.
I’d say ask your advisor just what you asked here. I made the mistake of NOT talking to an advisor until I was called in by the Dean just before my last semester. Seems that I had too many credits in my major and I they weren’t going to allow me to graduate. The Dean was cool though (luckily he had the same major as me when he was an undergrad :D), so we made a deal. I ended up taking a grueling 18 hours in my last semester though.
IIRC, I went to part time status my final semester of college. Since I was living off campus, it didn’t affect my housing, and I saved a bunch of money in tuition. Why take a bunch of blow off classes just to maintain full time status? Fill up on credits the first semester, then take whatever you NEED to finish your requirements, I’m assuming that’s the Chem research class, in the final semester.
Then, with all your free time, get a part time job somewhere, or expand tutoring/TAing. I think that would look dynamite to an employer. In my opinion, employers don’t give a damn about your class load, or what classes you’re taking. You have a degree and job experience on your resume.
To echo what Cheesesteack said, why don’t you take a couple of classes over the summer and then finish up a semester early?
I did that and was able to find “intern” work in my field for the six months leading up to grad school. I saved money on tuition and was able to make more money during the six months I interned then I ever could have with a summer job. Plus, I got experience to add to my resume when I finished with grad school.
Not that I’ve ever had anything to do with the hiring process, but if I saw a student whose last semester was blow-off classes, I’d assume they needed a certain number of hours to graduate and they’d taken everything they needed. I never even considered that someone might think otherwise. I doubt anyone pays much attention to the order you take classes, so long as the important ones have good grades. The only question I was asked regarding my transcript was why I had a “C” in one of my COBOL classes (I was applying for a COBOL position). I told him the truth: that I was getting married that semester and had other things on my mind. I retook the class a year later and bumped the grade up to a “B”. I got hired. I’m still hired.
My spring semester, senior year: 12 credits, class only on Mondays and Wednesdays. One of the classes was called “Action and Violence in Cinema”. Good times, good times.
I took 12 credits each semester my senior year. Only 2 classes each semester were towards my majors so I had a few blow-off classes. They were just ones that I thought would be interesting to take and to help with the well-roundedness. Plus I could take them as Pass/Fail. My last semester was only Tuesday/Thursday classes. It was heaven.
Just say that you finished most of your requirements early and wanted to use your extra time to learn something new and different. It makes you look like you have some sort of outside interests.
First off, most companies, especially in technical fields, don’t ask to see your courselist, they just want your overall GPA. So why not take some easy classes for fun, to keep you at full-time student status, and to maybe help increase your GPA? If anyone asks, just say you needed to keep your full-time status and that your time was also taken up by research, TAing, and doing your job search/grad school hunt.
I just graduated in May and had pretty light courseloads both semesters (I think 13 and 14). I also had some of my highest GPAs those semesters. My current empoyer just asked for my overall GPA.
I found out I had been admitted to med school just after my Senior year started. I needed very few credits and had decided one of my minors was just not worth it anymore (good decision in the end), so my Senior year was pretty grueling. Typically I would make it to bed around 3 AM after 4 hours or so of Tetris. Then I’d wake up and stumble to my noon class. come home for lunch briefly, watch some game shows, go and play some video games at the mall, avoid the girlfriend I was trying to dump, drink some beer and eat nachos with my roommate, play cards for 3 hours or so…then back to more Tetris. That was a tough year.
Seriously, though, I worked pretty hard the first three years to get in that position and am extremely glad I did it that way. Don't kill yourself because looking back, almost 10 years later, I wouldn't have done it any other way. In fact, I think I worked a bit too hard that year. I could have done even LESS and had more fun and it would not have changed where I am now one tiny bit. Once you start down the path to career, marriage, children, etc., its impossible to go backwards. Not that I don't like my life now, but if I had done it differently and for some reason altruistically decided to put in some real hard word that year, I would be regretting it now. As it is now, the only regret I have is that I did not use my soon to be ex-girlfriend enough to take advantage of spending more time with her all lesbian, sex deprived roommates.
This, of course, is one of the main reasons you should look at your undergrad handbook or whatever and be sure you know exactly what the graduation requirements are.
I personally found my “advisors” to be totally useless and essentially ignored their advice. They all thought I was taking classes that were “too hard” my freshman year. Half of them were classes I had in high school already. Just read the handbook on graduation requirements and follow them.
True, but sometimes that’s like saying … that’s why you should read the tax laws so you know exactly how much taxes you owe. You may overlook a fine-print point or two.