Registering for your child’s first semester of college can be an overwhelming experience. Your child doesn’t fully grasp yet how busy a college schedule will be, but you still want to help her prepare. How can you help her pick the best credit load for her?

When considering credit load, your child needs to consider much more than her capability. College includes more than classes. She needs to be able to juggle all of the different responsibilities. Consider these 3 areas when helping your child choose her college courses.

Consider your child’s academic ability.

While academic ability isn’t everything, it is an important factor to consider. Your child may have learning struggles or limitations. Keeping these in mind is critical when choosing classes, especially for this first semester.

If your student struggles with a learning disability, be sure your child contacts her academic advisor for guidance. Her advisor will be able to identify classes that she can put off until a later semester or the summer. In addition, your child’s college probably provides resources to help her succeed even in the tricky classes. Make sure she knows where these resources are and how to access them.

On the other hand, your child may be an exceptional student. Earning mostly As in high school, you expect great things of her. In addition, your child is incredibly driven. You have no worries about her grades.

This type of student tends to be an overachiever, who chooses on a heavier credit load than necessary. Encourage her to avoid taking on too much. She is not aware yet of how busy her schedule will be, regardless of how busy she used to be in her high school years.

Specifically, consider your child’s major when registering for classes. Many majors have extra requirements that students may not be aware of quite yet. For example, health science majors usually need to take introductory science classes with hours of labs each week. These labs can be incredibly time-consuming. Taking a heavy load of required core classes along with required major classes is usually a bad idea for brand new college students.

Also consider your child’s academic scholarships. Many scholarships have stipulations about maintaining a credit load or a GPA-level. If finances are a major concern, your child needs to plan her schedule around keeping her scholarships.

Consider your child’s other responsibilities.

You know that college will be a stretching experience, because your child will have to learn all sorts of “adult” skills. You are excited for the opportunities college will provide. These new exciting experiences should be taken into account when registering for college classes.

In your mind, your child isn’t at college to party, make friends, or get away from home. She is at college to get a degree and develop skills and independence. But you certainly hope she does make new friends, have exciting experiences, and discover what she enjoys doing.

During her college years, your child will have other responsibilities outside of studying and going to class. She may need to work part-time while in school. This responsibility will then need to be one of her top priorities, so her number of work hours will impact her college credit load.

If she will work around 8 hours each week, she can probably manage 14-15 credits during her first semester (assuming she doesn’t have unique learning challenges). If, however, she will work 12-15 hours a week, she probably will not be able to manage more than 13 credits her first semester (assuming she is an average or slightly above average student). While she may not know the particulars of her work schedule yet, help her choose a manageable course load now.

Your child will have other responsibilities as well. She may choose to get involved in campus clubs, groups, sororities, or societies. These groups can take up a good amount of time for new students. While these groups shouldn’t be her main priority in college, she should consider how these groups impact her credit load.

For example, your child joins a music group on campus. While this group requires an audition, it is not required or related to her major. Rehearsals and performances should be considered as one of her college responsibilities as they will impact how many credits she can handle.

Consider your child’s ability to manage a college schedule.

Before I began this blog, I chatted with several parents of college students. I asked them what were their children’s greatest challenges when starting college. Almost every single parent mentioned time management. 

Even if a student is incredibly responsible in high school and involved in every possible extracurricular, managing a college schedule is difficult. Balancing school, work, and other responsibilities is challenging for every new college student. This new skill takes some time and experience to develop.

Before college, your child had you to rely on when she got overwhelmed or behind. You could help her get caught up or on track. But in college, you won’t always be there to step in, fix the problem, or provide an answer.

At college, your child will need to learn how to manage her own time in order to survive and succeed. Help her choose a credit load that will give her some room to make mistakes and fix them. Choosing a lighter load will help her start out with a more manageable schedule.

One mistake that many new college students make is failing to prioritize health. While being busy may seem like a badge of honor to your young college student, busyness leaves little time for taking care of yourself. All-nighters or late-night runs to Taco Bell may make for good stories, but they have horrible impacts on your child’s health.

Help your child choose a credit load that will not overwhelm her to the point where she rarely sleeps, eats poorly, and has no time for exercise. Prioritizing her mental and physical health is a habit that you want her to carry into adulthood. Help her plan to make her health important now.

Consider your child’s ability to adjust to living away from home.

Living away from home will probably be a bigger adjustment than your child thinks. If your child will be a dorm student, a very real factor to consider is this new living situation. If your child has never shared a bedroom with a sibling or roommate for an extended period of time, living away from home will be a different experience.

Doing laundry, planning meals, and confronting a frustrating roommate will be probably be a new experience for your child. At home, she could always rely on you to help her out if she ran out of time to eat or do her laundry. At college, she will be entirely responsible for herself.

Adjusting to a new social environment with new rules and expectations will take time. Some students do extremely well with these changes, while others take weeks or months to adjust to college life. Your child will likely struggle with loneliness and possibly homesickness. Being busy with school can be a good distraction from these struggles, but being too busy may overwhelm your already overwhelmed student. Help her choose a credit load that keeps her focus but also allows her to transition. 

So, how many credits should your college freshman take? In my personal opinion, taking 13-15 credits is usually best during the first semester of college. Your child can always add a class or drop a class, but beginning her college years with less credits usually yields better results. Help your child plan for a successful first year of college by choosing a reasonable credit load.