I need advice on college, please read.

[Megoostation]

I attend a California Community College, where I will be returning as a College Sophomore this Fall. My first semester went great! I took 3 classes, which I all passed with an A. My second semester didn't go all too well. My professors were less than amazing and I had to drop my classes after missing 3 weeks after my father passed away.

I can't wait to get back into school and I already have my registration date and different classes picked out. Now I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. First, I'm trying to figure out whether or not I should take 3 or 4 classes. My first semester I had taken 3 classes and it worked out great! My second semester I had taken 4 classes, and due to life events, I fell behind and eventually withdrew. This is going to be my third semester and I'm ready to go to school again. I work part time, I have flexible hours that are always changing (One week I will work 22 hours, the next week I will have 11 hours). In high school I was a straight A student, I graduated high school a year early through an independent study program, while I worked a part time job, so I know I am more than capable of keeping up with the work. I need some advice on what I should do.

My next problem has to do with online classes versus campus classes. Reminiscing back to my first two semesters at the same college, I took all my classes on the campus and my first semester, being at school wasn't a burden. I loved going to class, I enjoyed my professors, etc etc. My second semester was a little more challenging. My professors were all confusing and I didn't feel as if my classes were worth my time. I left early and didn't show up a few times each class and once my dad passed away, I knew I was giving up on that semester with those professors.
Now, the new semester is coming up and I weeded through the class catalog, figured out which courses I need to transfer to a California State University, and started charting down every class I was interested in and needed. Once I had a list of over 20 classes, I looked up every professor on the internet and seen their 'teaching ratings' and weeded out the ones with bad reviews (I should have done this when I picked out my classes for second semester. After the semester had already started, I found the professor rating website and looked my professors up and to no surprise, they all had low rankings). Now, I have 12 different classes to choose from (some classes are duplicates but different professors or some are online classes). I have never had an online class before and now I am choosing whether or not I want to switch my entire school schedule to online or just try one or two online classes out at first.

My third question has to do with the courses that are mandatory that I take due to my major. I am majoring in Communications and there is a list of Communication courses I need in order to transfer with my A.A. in Communication Studies. I was wondering if I should evenly distribute my general education courses per semester with my mandatory Communication classes, or if I should finish all my General Education first or finish my Communication requirements first? I need some opinions on what I should do.

Last but not least, I was wondering if anyone knew how overlapping classes work. What I mean by overlapping classes is, for example, a class like Sociology 101. Sociology 101 is offered as a 'psychology' requirement for a CSU transfer and offered as a 'Lifelong Learning' requirement as well. Specifically, I was wondering if I took one semester of a class, I will use Sociology 101 for an example, will it count for both a 'psychology' requirement and a 'Lifelong Learning' requirement, or will I need to choose which requirement that class fulfills?

Hopefully I can get a lot of insight on my situation! I could need all the opinions and different view points that I can get!

[Reginasfangirl]

I would suggest taking as many classes as you think you can successfully handle. At most schools the minimum number of credit hours required to be considered a full time student is 12 (which is 4 classes). That ends up being an important number because most financial aid things require that you be a full time student. The common schedule of finishing your BA in 4 years requires that you take 30 credit hours a year (or 5 classes each semester). Most of the undergraduate students I know take 4 or 5 classes each semester. That said, it would be much better for you to take 3 classes and get As than take 4 and not do as well.

I took two online classes when I was attending a community college. I didn't have a great experience but that is because I learn better in a classroom environment. You really have to be good at self educating and holding yourself to a schedule and all of that. In my experience, online classes had a lot of busy work but it obviously might be different at your school. Online classes could be a good thing to consider if you did well with that independent study program.

Not every professor is going to have a teaching style that meshes with your preferred way of learning and you won't always be able to avoid taking a class with those you dislike. It can be really helpful to try your best to learn to adapt to more difficult professors.

When I was attending community college, I mostly took one major specific class per semester and 3 gen ed requirements so that I could concentrate on just major and minor classes once I transferred to a 4 year university.


When I transferred schools one class would only fulfill one requirement. CSU might be different though. You should ask an academic adviser to get a definite answer.

[TheDisintegrators]

What is a full time student at your school? If its 12 hours and classes are 3 credit hours take 4 that way you stay on your parents benefits. YOu also might not be considered a college sophomore by their standards.

Also online classes suck balls.