Question About College Course Scheduling

[Mickey's Minion]

I have no advice...but an anectdote.

I had several "major-related" pre-requesite courses that I took in my earlier years related to my major. This kept me on track so that I could accomplish the upper division course work in a timely manner for an on-time (4yr) graduation. The course numbers were in teh 2000s, one would only take them if they took my major...but one would take them in their sophomore year, typically.

I was going to say the same thing. Scheduling courses seems to be akin to a giant jigsaw puzzle. If you don't take the 2000 courses that are prereqs to the upper level courses in your sophomore year, you will be in trouble in your Junior and Senior year. You can't take the upper level courses until you complete the lower level ones. So, if you don't start taking major courses until your Junior/Senior year, it will be year 5 or 6 before you can take the upper level courses.

 

[Cindy B]

She could complete some gen ed in community college and transfer them over during her summer break. She could take the accelerated time courses (the 3 to 4 week ones) and finish up 2-3 classes that way.--so that way she can complete so many of the gen eds in a short time span.

 

[LilyWDW]

I was taking major courses in my freshman year... but I was premed/med at that time so if I didn't, I wouldn't have been ready to start the special program I was a part of.

If she only wants to get her Gen Ed, then she needs to transfer to a community college or to the school she wants to be at for the long haul. Honestly, right now she is taking advantage of a very nice perk of that university. Now its coming to bite her in the tush... I don't blame the adviser for insisting she take classes in her major. If she was using the program for what it is SUPPOSED to be used for, she would need to take these classes.

 

[Christine]

I don't blame the adviser for insisting she take classes in her major. If she was using the program for what it is SUPPOSED to be used for, she would need to take these classes.

No one is blaming anyone here nor are we trying to get over on the system.

My daughter, when accepted at WVU, was provided information on this program through the admissions office of WVU and one of the alumni of the school. WVU has several hundred students from Northern VA attend and probably more than half of them take advantage of the ACM program for the first two years to keep the costs down. After that point, they either change schools or pay full price for the following 2 years *if* they want to change their major. It's all out in the open, every knows about it, and it was recommended to me by the school that I do this. So please don't think she is doing something sneaky. I would have never known about it unless the school had told me. My DD is very open with her advisor about her intent to change her major (and stay at this school) but she would like to wait until the last possible moment to do so (end of sophmore year) and get most, if not all of the gen ed out of the way. Yes, she can go around her advisor and reschedule courses.

As for my question, I am just truly naive when it comes to course scheduling and only have my own 1980s and early 1990s experience to draw on where I did not start taking courses related to a major until the end of my second year.

I can see that with some majors this is no longer the case and that's fine.

 

[laurafergie]

I have three in college and they all have control over the courses they take - however, with your DD in that special program, I would assume that there is much more control over her classes. I think everyone agrees on this.

But I don't think the 10 hours was addressed. If your DD is only signed up for 10 hours, she will drop below the full-time status of 12 hours. This can have serious ramifications to her financial aid, maybe that program she is in and of course, health insurance. I would revisit that issue at least.

 

[Christine]

I have three in college and they all have control over the courses they take - however, with your DD in that special program, I would assume that there is much more control over her classes. I think everyone agrees on this.

But I don't think the 10 hours was addressed. If your DD is only signed up for 10 hours, she will drop below the full-time status of 12 hours. This can have serious ramifications to her financial aid, maybe that program she is in and of course, health insurance. I would revisit that issue at least.

Oh, she will definitely be looking at the issue. I have actually not spoken to DD in a few days. Apparently she was signed up for English 101 but it is now not on the schedule, leaving her with only 10 credits. She would have had 13 with that class. Her courseload this semester is 18 credits and last semester she took 15 so I'm not sure what happened but I'm sure there's a good explanation for it and there will be another class added. It was just really bizarre when I saw her new schedule with the 10 credits and two of them being towards her major. I figured there might be one of her major courses and the rest being gen-ed. The whole thing just looks odd.

Oh well, it will all work out in the end, I just didn't know how courses toward your major were scheduled. It is different from when I used to go. My college didn't even ask us to declare our major until sophomore year.

 

[chisnpeke]

I took classes pertaining to my original major (education) my first quarter that I was in college as a freshman. They seem to push them earlier now.

 

[Katie's Butterflies]

I changed my major several times during my first few years in college and each time I received a “schedule” of classes over 4 years. Although all of my majors were radically different, they all started with classes during Freshman year.

The major that I am in now has classes which are prerequisites for others which are prerequisites etc. There are 8 classes that are a part of this chain. A couple can be taken with another, but the shortest length to complete these major classes is 6 semesters, so in order to graduate in 4 years, it would be best to take classes Freshman year. It would also be necessary to take at least 2 during the Sophomore year.

Also at my school, we have advisors, but a computer does most of the actual advising. It looks at the major and then recommends classes to fill requirements. Is it possible your daughter's advisor is just using a computer program and not taking your daughters situation into consideration? I know some of my advisors were rather incompetent without the computer printout and gave me very unhelpful (and irrelevant) information