What is the recommended courseload?
Taking the 16-credit courseload (four 4-credit courses) as the norm, we recommend that you never take more than two 3000-level courses at a time–or one 3000-level course and the Senior Seminar–and not more than three literature courses total. The amount of reading and writing involved in literature courses at all levels, but particularly at the junior- and senior- level, not to mention presentations and various projects involving technology can swamp even the best student. (See the question above for a more specific account of the work involved in typical courses at all levels.) We want to work you hard, but we don’t want to kill you.One of the reasons that we advise transfer students to meet with a program preceptor as soon as possible after being admitted to the college is to insure that they work out schedules that won’t be too much for them. Often transfer students come in with few courses to take beyond program requirements. This can mean a heavier workload than we may advise.
