College Credits Question

[MissChloe]

This fall, I will be starting pre-nursing courses at a University. I will take them for 1 or 2 semesters (depending on what I can get into right away), and then apply for the nursing program. I will be graduating this June with a Biology BA. The thing is, my current school runs on trimesters, and our credit system is unique (a full load is 3 classes of 6 credits each, so 18 credits). I'm looking at my potential courses for next year, and I have no idea what a full load is at a regular university. I want to take as many of my prerequisites before nursing classes start as possible, but I just don't know what is realistic. I'm used to having a lot of work (our courses only run 10 weeks, so we have a lot to fit in!), but I also want to work at least part-time. I haven't yet been assigned an adviser or anything like that at the new University, though I will be contacting someone there to try to get specific answers. I basically was just wondering what sort of course loads other people have taken, what is a typical "full load," and how many credits people were able to take while working part-time. This is all COMPLETELY foreign to me after being in the bubble of an isolated school that is completely different from many other schools. Help!

[gardnerg729]

At my university in NC a minimum full time student is 12 credit hours. Throughout my education, I have taken anywhere from 12-16 credit hours and maintained a part-time job and sometimes full-time job. It really depends on your situation though. How demanding are the courses you are taking? I would say if you are doing basic prereqs like history, math, English then you could probably take 14-16 credit hours and work part time. If you are taking hard science classes like microbiology, organic chemistry, etc. then you would probably want to do the minimum of 12 hours. Good luck.

[gardnerg729]

Then again, you said you are graduating with a biology degree so the science classes might not be too difficult for you. I feel you could handle 12-14 hours pretty easily.

[caliotter3]

This info will be contained in the school catalog and online. Typically a full time course load for both academic progress and financial aid reasons is considered to be 12 units or four 3 semester unit courses. Students may take 15 or 18 units at a time and some will petition to take up to 21 units in any given semester. Your guideline will be determined by your ability to handle the course load and maintain good grades. Remember that you will be competing for nursing school admission with students who have maintained a 4.0 GPA in a minimum of the nursing prerequisites, possibly their entire academic record. Another limiting factor is your ability to get the courses you are aiming for. A person can go for four semesters without being able to get the required physiology course due to demand from all the other prenursing students who sign up for the course before them. You can alleviate this problem by taking online courses. But you still should not attempt to take on more than you can reasonably expect to earn As in your courses. HTH