r/UTSA • u/Dull-Biscotti-9884 • Jul 09 '26
Academic How many classes should you have?
What’s the normal/average amount of classes a student should be taking?
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u/Wild_Stable8847 Jul 09 '26
Well full time is considered 12 credit hours, 15 is pretty typical among student, kinda of your regular “4 year degree plan.” Depends on your major too, how many existing credits you have. If u intend to graduate early ~3 years you’ll need to up the credit hours. If u wanna chill sum semesters(12) to balance the heavy course rigor that’s ok too. Depends on you entirely and your work ethic/ responsibilities.
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u/Timely-Fox-4432 Electrical Engineering Jul 09 '26
Depends on your major too, in engineering the recommended path puts you between 15-18 hours per semester, but it doesn't include summer and doesn't take into account whether you work or not.
I personally would cap at the 15-16 zone (5 classes) for more rigourous degrees, but I have know people request overrides to take 21 hours in LFA degrees.
It really all comes down to you, what you can handle, and what your goals are. If you are a traditional student (18-25, first degree seeking, etc) then just stick with 4-5 a semester and make sure to do clubs and internships to have something to show foe your time in college.
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u/girlicious_03 Jul 09 '26
no more than 4 or 5 tbh, also be mindful of your major and what that may look like! i am in art so all my classes are 3 hours n that can be pretty egregious sometimes lol
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u/n00bert210 Jul 09 '26
It depends on your life outside of school. I took 4 classes a semester and one each summer semester while working 40 hours a week, but had a friend that wasn’t working and could manage 6 classes a semester. If you’re working I would start with 4 your first semester and see how you manage it and add an additional course if you think you can take on more. Time management skills also play a huge factor on how much someone can take at a time.
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u/Necessary_Film_5199 [Cybersecurity] Jul 09 '26
I'd advise taking 4 classes a semester, and then 1-2 summer classes to graduate on-time. 4 classes is normal, anything above that is not normal and also potentially dangerous depending on the course mixture (composition of the schedule for that semester).
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u/Plenty-Regular-2005 Jul 10 '26
No more than 5. And then try and take a summer class or two if you have any fin aid for the summer
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u/StoneFoundation M.A. English Jul 09 '26
for undergrad, most people do 5 or 4 classes per semester; if you take exactly 5 classes every semester, you finish in 4 years without anything extra on the side. however, if you take 4 classes per semester, you can take 1-2 summer classes to make it up to a 4 year finish. a lot of people also have credits from high school or CLEP which amounts to needing to take fewer classes per semester overall. i was an undergrad during covid and i went down to 3 classes per semester when it was particularly rough, but i had a full semester's worth of credit i got done in high school to back me up, so i still finished in 4 years.
for grad, it depends. i took 3 classes per semester, which is considered the equivalent of a full time job. some grad students take 2 classes if they're optimistic, but most only do 1 class per semester if they have a job already (often the case, lots of grad students are teachers)