Take Up to 19 Credits Without Additional Charge
Joanna Robles
Issue date: 11/20/08 Section: News
Pattarini felt it was necessary to keep the academic rule. "There's still an academic rule that we did not change because we don't want students who are having difficulty taking 18 or more hours," he said. "That doesn't make sense, we don't want people to shoot themselves in the foot academically. They are worried about getting their moneys worth."
Dominic Passalacqua, college registrar, believes students should seriously think about the amount of work that would need to be put into a six-course load. For this reason, the academic rule still stands. "The idea is that we don't want you to get yourself in over your head by taking more credit hours than you can handle," Passalacqua said. Passalacqua thinks the best bet is to meet with your academic dean and advisor before making any decisions.
"If you're considering taking 18 [credit] hours or more, you better have a real good reason why you want to," he said. "It's not required of you, you really need to think about what are you doing to yourself because that is a heavy heavy load."
Passalacqua believes that certain points in the semester can make taking so many classes difficult. "When it comes to crunch time, midterm time, or end of the semester when you are cranking out papers, preparing for final exams, sometimes you're cranking out papers every other week depending upon the course you're in," he said. "Boy, why would you want to do that to yourself."
He also advises that student take careful considerations when deciding to take extra classes, considering that 15 credit hours can be just as overwhelming. "My advice would be: think very very carefully about why you want to do it and what you're doing. Have conversations with your advisor, make sure you are comfortable enough with it that you think you can handle it."
But despite the extra work it requires, Passalacqua believes the change is a good one. "If you feel you need to take 19 [credit hours] you can do it without having an additional-you may have an academic burden that you're placing on yourself-but at least you don't have an additional financial burden placed on yourself and your families, which is kind of nice."
Dominic Passalacqua, college registrar, believes students should seriously think about the amount of work that would need to be put into a six-course load. For this reason, the academic rule still stands. "The idea is that we don't want you to get yourself in over your head by taking more credit hours than you can handle," Passalacqua said. Passalacqua thinks the best bet is to meet with your academic dean and advisor before making any decisions.
"If you're considering taking 18 [credit] hours or more, you better have a real good reason why you want to," he said. "It's not required of you, you really need to think about what are you doing to yourself because that is a heavy heavy load."
Passalacqua believes that certain points in the semester can make taking so many classes difficult. "When it comes to crunch time, midterm time, or end of the semester when you are cranking out papers, preparing for final exams, sometimes you're cranking out papers every other week depending upon the course you're in," he said. "Boy, why would you want to do that to yourself."
He also advises that student take careful considerations when deciding to take extra classes, considering that 15 credit hours can be just as overwhelming. "My advice would be: think very very carefully about why you want to do it and what you're doing. Have conversations with your advisor, make sure you are comfortable enough with it that you think you can handle it."
But despite the extra work it requires, Passalacqua believes the change is a good one. "If you feel you need to take 19 [credit hours] you can do it without having an additional-you may have an academic burden that you're placing on yourself-but at least you don't have an additional financial burden placed on yourself and your families, which is kind of nice."
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Kate
posted 12/15/08 @ 3:56 AM EST
I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. (Continued…)
Rockville Movers
posted 4/28/09 @ 1:51 PM EST
It's good that the credit hour limit has been extended to 19. This lets students learn more while also shortening the amount of time they have to be in college, which reduces their expenses. (Continued…)
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