Too many electives: Need some more perspectives on why I should (gasp) do less.

[tetrandra]

Hi, I'll try to make this brief. I'm a week into my program and I love being here.

When I registered for 20 credit hours I knew it was only temporary. I wanted to safeguard against any last-minute cancellations or schedule conflicts. Now, I have it pared down to 17, which in my case is the required courseload plus two electives.

I've always tended to pile on too much work and I've been trying to be mindful of what balances I need to maintain to make it through this long haul. But, I really want to take both of these classes and I don't like thinking about moving forward in this program without having these experiences right now. Also, I feel like a flake not being able to make up my mind.

Everyone around me says I should drop a class, and in theory I agree. No one else is taking more than the required number of units and it's a lot of work. I just don't know how to feel good about dropping. I fear that there's not enough time to come up with a thesis topic, and I have a touch of the Impostor's Syndrome. I guess there are a few issues at play here that are complicating what is probably a simple action to take.

Anyway, please don't tear me apart on this! I already feel like an idiot! But, I would appreciate any wisdom on avoiding overcommitment and keeping your head together during the transition in....thank you.

[emmm]

Can you change an elective to P/F grading or audit? That way, it might be a little less overwhelming. But dropping a course right now and taking it later is nothing to feel bad about -- it actually sounds sensible. There is a lot to adjust to when you enter a new program, and you want to position yourself for success. Overloading is probably not a great idea right now when you don't have a sense of the demands/workload. Be patient!

[rising_star]

I took a course overload (by one course) three times. And, each time that it seemed manageable during the semester, it became a serious issue of crunch time at the end. Whether or not it's doable depends a lot on you. How much reading will you have? How much writing? Will taking all of these courses distract from your research? Because really, research is important and if the courses are going to distract from that, you might not want to take them.

[ladyling]

You can always sit in on a class that interests you without being registered for it, which gives you the option of not doing a final if you need the time to do other work, or not going for a week or two if your own research needs your attention. At the same time, you'll get exposed to the same ideas you would if you were registered. I'd ask the profs of those elective classes if they'd be okay with you sitting in. In my experience, the answer is rarely no.

[fuzzylogician]

There are always going to be too many interesting things, and you're going to have to learn to make smart choices. You could just sit in on a class (I, too, have never been turned down for that) but at some point you also have to decide not to do an activity you would be interested in, simply because there are too many of them and you need to concentrate on doing well in the ones that are required. It's your first semester, I think it's a bad idea to assume that you can take 2 courses more than anybody else; it's possible that you can, but you should develop your work habits slowly and not overdo it. What looks doable now may become completely unbearable later in the semester and may cause a complete breakdown come crunch time.

[Tall Chai Latte]

I also overestimated my ability to handle graduate school course loads. During my first semester here, I signed up for 10 credits total with 9 credits of actual CREDITs (not research or seminar -- heck, didn't even get to take seminar at that point!), and it turned out to be a big time crunch through out the semester. It impacted the amount of time I can devote to my rotation project and individual courses, and my overall performance suffered. I would suggest you talk to senior grad students in your program, because they've been gone through the process and presumably took similar set of courses as you will be. And then judge based on the responses you get... You'll be just fine.

[Eigen]

I don't know what discipline you're in, so I may be a bit off base, but those course loads sound immense.

6-9 hours is a common full load for us, with 12 hours being considered really high.

As others have said, you have to weight the extra time for the coursework with the extra time you could be spending on your research, and the research is very important.

I'll also second the suggestion to audit or sit in on interesting courses- I do that every other semester or so, even though I've been officially done with coursework for a couple of years. It lets you focus on the things in the course that interest you the most, without the stress and time commitments of actually taking the course for credit.

I even got asked to grade presentations by the professor of one of the courses I was sitting in on when they were out- I was interested, familiar with the subject area and the class, but not in it.

[tetrandra]

Thanks so much you guys. I feel better about dropping now that I've slept on it, heard your advice, and reconsidered the real vs. imagined priorities. Even if I put a lot of strategic multi-tasking into projects, classwork will indeed eat into my ability to connect with key people and work that will really help me shape the thesis topic. I'm sure I would also be miserable...it's just not something I could handle. Reducing the amount of unnecessary pressure I'm putting on myself will be an ongoing learning exercise, I'm sure (is there a thread for that?). I hope I don't look like a flake by dropping the class. My required units are 12 (social science), and I'm going to stick with it now.

Anyway, thanks again. This message board has helped me so much over the last few years with all these random anxieties that keep cropping up!

Edited August 31, 2012 by tetrandra