How does choosing college classes work?

Question

My friend tried to explain it to me with no avail. I'm only a high schooler, but very interested in college! She said something about hours and how you can sometimes end up with like, one class a day. Can someone explain to me in depth how this works?

Answer 1

Although it works a little differently at each school, you will be told when you start at college which courses you need to have in order to graduate. Some requirements are very specific (you need to take English 110), while some may be more general (you need 6 units taken from the following list - BIOL 379, BIOL 426, CHEM 379, GEOL 388, PHYS 483, etc., or even more general, like you need 3 units from the lower division courses in the humanities). Each class has a certain number of credits or units attached to it .

The course numbers usually tell you for whom the class is appropriate. For example, a class numbered 101, or something else in the 100s, is usually for first-year students. Something numbered in the 300s or 400s is designed for juniors or seniors. Some courses have prerequisites, which means that you can't take them until after you have taken these other courses. You wouldn't take Spanish literature without having taken basic Spanish, as an example.

Then you will usually be told how many credits or units is considered normal in each semester or term, so you will know that when you go to register, you will need a schedule with 12 or 15 credits.

At this point you can put together a schedule. Classes are offered, depending upon the school, between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., and that may also determine what you take and when. Some students take all of their classes in the afternoons and evenings, saving their mornings for sports practice. Some will take all of their classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays so that they can work or do an internship on the other days. It isn't completely up to you, however, because the class has to be available, and particularly as a freshman, you may have trouble getting into the particular section of a class that you want. Our 8 a.m. classes rarely fill up, but those between 11 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. are usually very full. People also choose classes based upon the teacher; unlike in high school, you can choose a professor who is supposed to be good. Now that ratings are posted on sites like Ratemyprofessors.com, I'm hearing that students are going to the advisors saying that they don't want to take a particular class, or that they feel they MUST take a particular professor!

Once you have put together a schedule, you should see your advisor to make sure you are making appropriate progress toward graduation. I just got an email from a student yesterday who thought she could get away with a light schedule this year, but she didn't understand her schedule correctly, and she really needed almost three more classes to graduate than she thought she did. It was a good thing she contacted me, because without that, she might not have been able to graduate when she thought she would.

The actual signing up for classes is usually done online or by phone these days. Usually, once you have done this, you can continue to change your schedule until the end of the first week or so of classes.

Answer 2

Electives are any class. But they are usually considered outside your major. If you have reached the required number of major classes, I think you can still take major classes to count toward electives. For example, If you finished taking the required 12 english classes for an english major, you can still take english classes for electives. What may be important to remember is if you want a double major, you can use those elective credits to obtain it. So instead of taking a bunch of random classes to fulfill your electives, take classes in one focus to get another major without paying more for college.

Answer 3

You need xxx hours to graduate. Suppose the xxx is 160. So to space it out evenly, you take 40 hours every year 20 every semester.

A class meets 3 times a week for one semester. Usually this will give you 3 credit hours toward your total hours that you need to graduate. Or a class can give you 1 or can give you 2 or can give you sometimes more than 3 credit hours toward your goal. So one semester you take six 3-hour classes and two 1-hour gym classes.

Say you take four 3-hour classes. they all meet on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You also take a 3-hour class (longer class sessions) which meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And your two gym classes which meet on Thursdays only.

So on Tuesdays you have only one class.

Answer 4

when you get into college and go to orrientation they tell you all about it.
you dont necessarily have the same classes everyday
hours just mean like how much credit you get for each class