Taking 20 credit hours?

Kaylle · Aug 6, 2015

I dropped the micro already, and I'm waiting to hear back from my advisor if they could forcible add me into General Chem this semester since he said it's capped. Hopefully, it all works out for me in the end.

shasbus · Aug 6, 2015

Seems like you are taking 12 credits in the Fall, and then 8 in the Spring. That's an acceptable workload. I took 18 credits in the Fall, then 17 in the Spring, having to ask for permission to exceed the workload from the Dean, I was fine even with all that. 12+8, easy!

NicuGal, MSN, RN · Aug 6, 2015

I'm glad you dropped one class, my one daughter had 20 credits last semester and it was pretty hard on her, and they were more difficult classes like you had. She was ready to jump off a cliff by the end of the semester. She had to jam her classes together due to her internships next spring. and she had a lot of tutoring.

She said she would never do it again.

Dfalck3 · Aug 6, 2015

I think 20 hours without a job is more than doable if you are organized. My school would only let me take 18 hrs and I still had a lot of free time on my past two semesters, even with my part-time job.

SeattleJess · Aug 6, 2015

I think you are cheating yourself by not allowing yourself to spend maximum time on your prerequisites. Once you get to nursing school, you will have no time to go back and do deep learning. I think it's possible to learn the material in depth and to enter nursing school with a 4.0 GPA (I did) and STILL wish you'd spent more time on the prerequisites.

The suggestions about only one lab class per quarter are good, in my experience. A&P and Microbiology are dense classes with time-consuming labs (if you do them right) and I wouldn't recommend taking both at the same time.

Again, it's not about grabbing the external brass rings of GPA and credits and ticking of prereqs, it's getting the tools you need to be the best nurse you can be.

Best of luck to you!

Cakelady1 · Aug 6, 2015

No one can answer if this is okay for you or not. Only you can decide that.

For me, that would be too much. I have children, a house, kids on sports teams, piano lessons, cub scouts, a custom cake business, and a part time CNA job. So, for ME, that would be waaaay too much.

Instead of making myself crazy by taking too many at once, I take advantage of "May-mester" and summer semester. I just knocked out 3 classes in 10 weeks both with "May-mester" and the summer semester. And got As in all 3.

Good luck.

thmpr · Aug 6, 2015

Holy cats! My opinion is NO. Be a freshman. I would rather get into a car accident going 75mph than one going 90mph; but I would prefer to avoid getting into one at all. Anatomy & Physiology, Micro, & Psych; Boom. Ace them.

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Aug 6, 2015

Seems like you are taking 12 credits in the Fall, and then 8 in the Spring. That's an acceptable workload. I took 18 credits in the Fall, then 17 in the Spring, having to ask for permission to exceed the workload from the Dean, I was fine even with all that. 12+8, easy!

That is NOT what she said. She said she is taking 12 credits in fall, 20 credits in the spring.

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Aug 6, 2015

We can't know if this is "doable" for you because we don't know how strong of a student you are, how organized you are, etc. Sure there are students who took every AP known to man in high school, worked part time, established a charitable foundation, and made 2400 on their SAT and 36 on their ACT. There are students who have done all manner of things, but that doesn't mean YOU can do all manner of things.

If you are at a competitive school where it requires a very high GPA to get into nursing school, taking so many hours in order to graduate one semester early could be very counterproductive, unless you are one of those people who can handle such a heavy load.

See how it goes first semester. That might give you an idea of the environment where you will be taking classes. At this point, it's all conjecture and speculation by people who don't know you, your abilities, your specific school, etc.

ETA: looks like you've decided to drop one of the spring classes, so a lot of my post will be moot.

NurseGirl525, ASN, RN · Aug 7, 2015

I think my first semester back I took 15 credit hours. Two of them were the hard science classes with lab. I did fine in all of my classes, but I did devote time to them. What is the average GPA of someone who gets into your program? And what kind of a student are you? That's the question. If you are a dedicated, straight A student then yes it, is probably doable. If not, then no. Nursing school is very competitive. There is very little room for error, meaning getting Bs and Cs in the prereqs is not going to cut it. You are going to need mostly As and maybe a couple of Bs to get in. Do you know what the criteria is to get in? Is it a cumulative GPA or do they look at certain classes? I understand wanting to graduate early, but if taking all of these credit hours screws your grades up and then you can't get in the program, it wasn't worth it. Some people will tell you to make sure you take one class at a time and do the sciences by themselves to ensure As. I don't agree with that either because then you get in the program and then can't handle handle having multiple classes at once. I would do what the school recommends you take for each semester. You will need at least 12 to be considered full time, just don't screw up your grades.

Kaylle · Aug 7, 2015

HeatherMaizey,

I agree with you and other PPs. The criteria for my school is to have at least a 2.75 and B's in A&P 1&2. The rest of pre-reqs I need a C or higher.

I think that I'm a pretty strong student when it comes to education. Plus, I'm a really cheap person when it comes to money so my philosophy is "if I'm paying for it, then I might as well make it worth my while".

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Aug 7, 2015

HeatherMaizey,
I agree with you and other PPs. The criteria for my school is to have at least a 2.75 and B's in A&P 1&2. The rest of pre-reqs I need a C or higher.
I think that I'm a pretty strong student when it comes to education. Plus, I'm a really cheap person when it comes to money so my philosophy is "if I'm paying for it, then I might as well make it worth my while".

What the school lists as a minimum GPA to enter nursing school and what it ACTUALLY takes due to high demand and competition may be totally different. At my school, when all was said and done, it took a 3.8 to get a spot. I don't remember what the stated minimum was, but it was a lot lower than that.