Jump to content
Urch Forums

Does Course Load matter?


Castial

Recommended Posts

I've sort of alternated between 5 courses and 4 courses throughout my undergrad.

 

The reason being primarily because I work 20 hours during the week apart from school and alot of the time my work timings conflict with some class which prevents me from taking a 5th. Also, it's quite exhausting to do 5 courses and work.

 

Do I mention this in my application or do they not really care if you do 4 or 5 each term?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, it varies greatly by school. I know at Columbia, undergrads take a lot of courses each semester. At my undergrad institution, a liberal arts college, taking 5 classes was considered a heavy load. I highly doubt that the adcoms know the differences between schools, so I'd bet that they'd just assume that whatever course load you are taking is ample.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unfortunately, the general consensus is that adcoms do not really care what your workload is (both in terms of # of courses or what courses you are taking at the same time).

 

This is simply untrue. I've heard that this matters from numerous visiting professors at the top universities. It won't make or break an application, but it will greatly help it if you have taken many challenging courses rather than two hard classes with one "easy" elective.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd consider courseload to be a fairly marginal factor. I don't think 4-5 courses is considered abnormally low. If you met the # of credits to be a full-time student every semester and graduated on time (in 4 years), I don't really think adcoms would view it as suspicious. Perhaps a very short mention in the SOP mentioning that you balanced being a student with working 20 hours/week or maybe a recommender mentioning that you achieved academic success despite also having to work a lot would be reasonable, although I don't think it would hurt you if you do not have any such mentions. Assuming you graduated on time, probably the adcoms would think that the # of courses you took was appropriate for your institution.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is simply untrue. I've heard that this matters from numerous visiting professors at the top universities. It won't make or break an application, but it will greatly help it if you have taken many challenging courses rather than two hard classes with one "easy" elective.

 

Everything will vary by individual and by the 'mindset' of the committee at any particular school. That said, this is true on average. When we consider the validity of such statements, consider the reasoning. Why should they take into consideration lower grades for a semester when you took an abnormally difficult course load? Wasn't it your mistake for not realizing that you shouldn't have taken calc 3 at the same time as DifEQ and RA and upper level stats and starting your honors thesis? Shouldn't you have planned better?

 

Very few schools have schedules that pigeon hole students to such a degree that you have almost no wiggle room. (Some engineering schools come to mind where you need pre-req after pre-req for subsequent semesters, and these courses are ONLY taught every 2 years because they expect ALL students to follow them - in which case you are in the same boat as all the other students to begin with). In most cases, it is the student's choice in one way or another, even if that choice is delaying graduation by a semester/year.

 

I have discussed this with professors (past and present). Their attitude was always that it was the student's fault. When preparing to take two difficult courses (by the same professor at the same time), one professor even told a friend of mine that he was playing with fire, and that he shouldn't expect to get an A in both, or possibly either. -And the student didn't.

 

On the opposite side-if you took all these courses at the same time and Aced them all, it might be a slightly positive factor. -IF they even look at when you took them rather than if you took them. They are more concerned about if and the grade, not the when and what other factors existed while taking these courses. After all, everyone has their own mess to deal with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I partially agree with you EconHead. Getting good grades in a difficult semester shows more than getting good grades in an easier semester. However, doing badly in any course is not offset by the difficult of your semester. That is what I was trying to get at.

 

If you have two students with the same grade (all else equal), the one with the heavier course load will be looked at more favourably (again from what I heard from senior professors in seminars and conferences)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...