Going Back to College: Reduce Your Course Load

December 3rd, 2008 in Education

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If you are going back to College or University after having previously gone, the biggest tip I can give you is to see if any of your previous credits are transferrable or will allow you to reduce your course load.

I have heard many people being exempt from certain classes because they had already received the requisite information in another class. This allowed them to reduce their course load for the semester, giving them more time to study for their other courses, and helping raise their grade beyond those with a full course load.

Even if the class isn’t exactly the same name or title, if the information provided is nearly identical you can sometimes just write a test to prove you have the needed knowledge to not have to attend the semester of classes and tests.

Make sure to ask the school, as this can help certain students greatly increase their average, as having more time to study for tests, exams, and projects can mean the difference between a 3.0 and 4.0 average.

Contact your registrar office and check to see if there are any courses that you can skip, you’ll be better for it.

1

Kevin States

December 3rd, 2008 at 3:46 pm

This is great advice and I don’t disagree with it one bit, however, there area a couple of things that needs to be noted as well and taken into consideration.

The time, money and effort to get out of a class can often be quite demanding. The time and money it can take to get old transcripts and course outlines plus the supplementary fees required by institutions to evaluate any transfer credits can be great and when added up can sometimes be a “kings ransom”. Personally I know that for me to get out of 2 credits at the university level I was looking at upwards of $400.00 just for the process with no guarantee.

Plus, you need to take into consideration that sometimes when you get out of a course you will still have to pay full student fees and therefore can be throwing away upwards of sometimes $2000/course. This should be kept in mind as some people might still want to take the courses if they are not going to get a break on any of their fees.

Just a couple of additional items to add that might be of interest.
2

David Peralty States

December 3rd, 2008 at 4:04 pm

Thanks for commenting, and I wholeheartedly agree. The process of getting “out” of a course is frustrating, and the cost is insane. Sometimes though, with a fair bit of can-do attitude, many of the fees related to transferring credits and whatnot can be reduced or even dropped. They don’t HAVE to charge the fees that they do, but most people take them as is.

As for tuition. Unfortunately, they don’t give you a break on that, which I think is absolutely stupid. I’d love for someone to come on here and tell me why 6 courses comes to $6000 and 5 courses come to $6000. The economics of that boggle my mind. There should be some reduction based on the fact that there will be one less seat taken in that class which they can usually sell to someone else.

Thank you again for your additions. The article was definitely more towards the savings of time for studying for courses you’ve already completed, as that can be distracting, tedious and stressful.
3

Ryan States

December 3rd, 2008 at 7:41 pm

The thing that boggles my mind more than anything about college tuition is that you are brought up thinking that how well you do in high school will have a big effect on your financial aid. In my experience, as Valedictorian of my school and scoring very high on the SATs, I was just another statistic that fit into a formula. And my financial aid and scholarship were almost completely determined by the financial status of my family. In fact, there was one semester where they discovered that they had given me one too many scholarships (not because I wasn’t worthy, but because I would end up paying tool little in tuition).

It’s quite depressing to learn that you are just a statistic to your college.
4

Gregory Despain States

January 26th, 2010 at 10:59 pm

Most articles you see these days are very poorly written and lack a sense of direction. This article on the other hand is very well written and on focus; I really appreciate the enjoyable read! Being an English teacher, this should mean just a bit more!

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