Wife and Mom. How many pre reqs is too much.

[Hannah8708]

Hi, I have 2 children ages 9 and 6, so they are both in school during the day. I am currently taking an accelerated math class which is 6 credit hours. It begining algebra and intermediate algebra. I have been doing really well and next semester I can start my Pre reqs for the ASN RN program. I signed up for English 1, College Algebra, A&P 1, A&P 1 Lab, History 2, and a college success which is like orentation class and is only 1 credit hour. All together it is 14 credit hours. I am just worried that taking 6 classes will be too much. I was homeschooled so this is new to me and I just wanted to see what you guys thought of this. I would love to knock these all out but I do not want to lower my GPA if I put to much on my plate at once. I am married so my husband is the only one working so I would not have to work during school.

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

That is a standard load for a college freshman.

[araew2129, ADN]

it depends on how much time you plan to devote to school yourself. The rule I have heard is for every credit hour a course is, you need to spend 3 hours per week outside of class time, studying. So, for example, my a&p class/lab is 4 credit hours. So I would expect to spend about 12 hours studying for this per week. And that's about right. I go to the lab twice a week for 2-3 hours (outside of our class lab) in order to study anatomy. I spend another 2 hours per week doing homework assingments. And I try to spend at least 3-4 hours (split up into an hour or two a couple times per week) studying lecture. Sometimes more, sometimes less. But that's the average. For classes like history, math and Eng you won't have to devote as much time (I wouldn't think), and obviously I doubt there would be much more to the 1 credit course. So can you fit that into your schedule? Its really important to get the highest grade possibly on your prereqs, specifically science prereq. If you have the time to devote, go for it! If it'll be a struggle to get study time in, I'd say drop at least one other class (maybe even 2): history, math or Eng. And spread your non-science prereqs out over your courseload.

[gere7404, BSN, RN]

That's a pretty heavy load. Is there any way to sub out English for an elective or something? English, math and A&P are going to be very time consuming with homework/studying/reading altogether. When completing my prereqs, I always tried to take one hard class, and fluff the rest of my schedule with electives.

[jess.mont, ADN, RN]

You might be able to CLEP the humanities classes and take a placement test to exempt you from the algebra class if you've studied these things before. I would definitely try to take the English and history online so that you don't have to spend additional time in class.

Otherwise, I agree that this is a pretty standard load, but most college freshmen don't have two kids. With 14 credits, plan to study about 40 hours outside of class + 14 hours of classroom time. Try to carve out study time early in the morning before your kids get up - say, two hours every day, even weekends. If you're really disciplined and organized and a good student, you can do it.

[Josh Runkle, RN, EMT-P]

Sounds pretty normal. I am taking 21 credit hours (12-18 is full time, I got a waiver for 21). I am married and we have one 3 month old. I work 3 jobs and watch my daughter anytime I am at home. I get 1-4 hours sleep a night. But...the trade off is that I can make a really good paycheck 3 years from now (I'm a senior and I'm waiting on acceptance to an FNP program). I CHOOSE to work really hard so that I can provide for my family. I lose sleep, my health and time with my family in the process.

Life is about choices and trade offs. You can do anything you want if it means enough to you and you are dedicated enough to make it happen. Just understand that you will have to make some sacrifices in exchange.