The fifth year college student, or “Super Senior” is becoming more and more common these days. I’m pretty sure that, while the reasons vary, most fifth year seniors are where they are because of mistakes they made as Freshman. Whether its not taking enough classes, failing, or not being aware of all of your requirements, several hangups can delay your graduation. Here are two of the big culprits and how to avoid them.
The very first thing you should do when first choosing classes is figure out how many you need to take. At my school (and I’m pretty sure most others) I need 123 credit hours. Divide into 8 (4 years at 2 semesters each) and that brings us to 15 credits per semester. Don’t short change yourself and “take it easy” your first semester. Unless you are holding down a full time job, 15 credits shouldn’t be a problem. My roommate sophomore year was a new transfer and opted for only 12 credits (the minimal a full-time student at Temple can take). He had tons of free time and regretted it.
Go into freshmen year knowing EXACTLY what you need to take during your time at school. If you are undeclared this may be difficult. But don’t just take basket weaving and toenail clipping or you’ll have to take all of your requirements (read: harder classes) during the backend of your college career. Now this doesn’t mean kill yourself with all of the hard stuff, you will want the end to be easy to allow for jobs, internships, or doing your own thing.
See all “College 101” posts here.
[tags]Super Senior, college 101, graduation[/tags]