What are the most credit hours you took in one semester in college?

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madoka

Diamond Member
Jun 22, 2004
4,344
712
121
While I never went and got the degree, I finished all the credits for an Associate's degree while in high school. In college, I finished three majors in four years. There were semesters where I had 13 hours worth of just class time every day. Not until I went to a top five law school did I find other students that worked as hard as me.
 

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,081
136
When this thread started, I was not in college. So, zero.

Now I am.
The most I've taken is 13 credits. And it didnt go well. I am not a great classroom learner.
Normally its 12 or below so I dont get swamped.
 

eyo5069

Junior Member
May 31, 2019
1
0
11
Just graduated from college, and the most I've taken was 24 credits in my last semester. It was not as bad as I expected, but it definitely was not fun.
 

GearFace

Member
May 31, 2019
29
6
51
My first semester I signed up for every class the school offered. I forget exactly how many it was, but it was in the thousands. I did not pass any of them.
 
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dasherHampton

Platinum Member
Jan 19, 2018
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I think it was 24 in my last undergrad semester, but that was aided by a kind professor who went ahead and passed two three-hour independent study classes I had never finished to help me graduate that year. Otherwise I would have had to turn down a really nice TA opportunity at a different school (The person originally slated to take it dropped out at the last second).
 

nbackhaus

Junior Member
Jan 6, 2020
1
0
6
I'm going to two colleges, taking a total of 31 credits, coming to a total of 11 classes while working 30 hours a week.
 

Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
41,920
2,161
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I took 21 while working full time. Regretted it and got C/D grades. Waste of money.
 

Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
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11,255
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In a regular semester the most I did was 21, most were 19 or 20.

One summer I did 12, were 8 were in 8 weeks and 4 was a 4 week class. So the month of June I was doing 32 hours. Calc 3, Differential Equations, and Material Science.
 

JPS35

Senior member
Apr 9, 2006
890
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I took 27 credit hours one semester and passed them all. In fact, I got a much higher GPA than a friend of mine that was in a few of my classes with me.

I found that some things just had to go. For instance, one class I could have received an A for I had to accept a B in because I did not have the time to put together a 43-page project in that class. I would have suffered too greatly in other courses.

Has anyone taken more than 27 hours? Did you pass them all?
How do you get a B and not turn in a 43 page paper? Seems like that would be worth a lot of credit.
 
Dec 10, 2005
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My college didn't do credit hours, just flat classes. Never took more than 4 per quarter (10 weeks of class, 1 week for finals), but two quarters, I took two classes each with weekly 4 hour labs. In the one year I took classes during my PhD, I think I stuck to 4 classes per semester.
 

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,391
1,780
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When I was 18, I pledged a fraternity and was on the rowing team. One faithful evening, I ditched the fraternity and chose to go to IHOP with a girl I liked. I was eating a Tbone stead when all my pledge brothers went to jail that night.

Anyhoo...by 19, I started working full time while doing a maximum of 15 hours. Shortly after that, the college picked me up on salary and I was getting comped tuition up to 9 hours per semester...so that's the most I took after that until I finished my MBA....so 15 hours is it for me. At this time, most schools would allow you to take classes for free beyond 12 hours (full time). Those days are over and you are billed per credit hour.

In my opinion, as long as you don't have scheduling issues, it's possible to do more hours. With online courses, maybe you can do 20+ easier, but schedule offering for whatever major you're in is what makes it difficult to take more classes unless you have a really good plan and can combine hard classes with gen ed courses to maximize what you take. All it takes though is one or two labs that require 5+ hours to complete assignments and you can be hurting.
 

clamum

Lifer
Feb 13, 2003
26,256
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"Psycertified" must be a code for "I'm so retarded, I necro a 13 year old thread for no apparent reason except to brag about nothing important."
LOL. What was he searching for "people taking less than 28 credit hours?" Up comes the OT thread. He thinks "pshhh look at these plebs, lemme show em what a real man is."
 

kage69

Lifer
Jul 17, 2003
31,276
47,416
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21 credit hours and 20 hours of work per week. Weekends were free from both school and work.

That's how I did it too. 18 or 21 hrs packed into the Monday/Wednesday/Friday group, maybe one class Tuesday/Thursday mornings.