How many college courses are "TOO" many?

[gmr535]

I am in high school and my school offers very little in the way of higher level STEM classes. I want very badly to delve deeper into this topics so I want to take college classes over the summer. I want to take a Computer Science class and if possible I want to take an Enginnering or Science class. Since they will all be introductory and I am a (not to brag) bright student, how many classes do you think I could get away with and still get As? Also, what specific course will fit my areas of interest? (software, engineering, medicine, business/economics). I live in Florida if it makes any difference.

 

[Choppy]

It's pretty late in the summer right now to register for summer college courses. You might want to find a specific school in your area and look at the courses they have to offer and see if you can still register for them.

Summer courses also tend to be rather condensed, so normally you should limit yourself to one or two. Typically they condense about 3 months worth of material into one month. That's a lot to go over. And if you add labs add labs and homework in, your time disappears quickly.

Considering you haven't taken a university level course yet, you might want to start out with just one and see how it goes.

 

[amys299]

I would definitely listen to Choppy on this one. End of June seems extremely late to start summer classes. Does your school offer a dual high school/college credit during the semester?

A word of advice, college is nothing like high school. Even in an introductory college course, they will not hold your hand. Being smart may make it easier, but college requires a lot of initiative and self-discipline. Take it from someone who took 4 AP classes and 3 college STEM courses beginning of my senior year - it was extremely taxing and no amount of brilliance would have changed that. Start out with one and see if you have the ability to handle more.

 

[radium]

Summer courses at my institution started around two weeks ago so you probably won't be able to do any this summer.

Depending on the situation, people usually only take 1-2 in the summer since they are very condensed. I know from friends who have taught such courses that a 6-8 week course will basically go twice as quickly as it would during the semester and you will probably have twice as much class and homework.

 

[jtbell]

I know from friends who have taught such courses that a 6-8 week course will basically go twice as quickly as it would during the semester and you will probably have twice as much class and homework.

It can be even more condensed. The college where I work has two four-week summer terms. The first one just ended, the second one starts next week. I used to teach one term or the other, of the two-term algebra/trig based intro physics course. Instead of three 50m lectures per week, we have five 1h:35m lectures per week. Instead of one lab per week, we have three labs per week. My nickname for it is "Firehose Physics."

 

[radium]

Wow, that's rough for the instructors. The grad students I know teaching 7 week courses already have to put in 11 hours alone before grading.