How many credits for first semester of grad school?

[Penguin]

My son is going to start grad school in August, and I am wondering what would be an average full-time load. Stuff I have read on the internet leads me to think 9 or 12 credits. Does this sound right?

 

He will be in an M.S. Clinical Mental Health Counseling program. 

[Lawyer&Mom]

It totally depends on the program. Some programs have very set course sequences where all the students basically take the same classes at the same time. Some programs give you more leeway to choose your course load.

[Penguin]

Obviously, he will work it out with his advisor. I am just having an overly excited/curious mom moment. :p

Edited April 27, 2017 by Penguin

[Crimson Wife]

FT is often 4 to 5 courses so that is generally 12-15 credits. But it's going to vary by program. The grad program I'm targeting is PT with only 2-3 courses (4-9 credits) per semester.

[retiredHSmom]

My daughter is a first year grad student. She is also a GTA (graduate teaching assistant, she is paid to teach classes and receives a full tuition offset).  They were told at the school-wide GTA orientation that full-time for a grad student was 6 hours and the speaker asked them to raise their hands to indicate how many hours they were taking. the math department requires their first year graduate TAs to take 10 hours and the speaker seemed to think that was rather crazy.

 

I will say that it has been  a very hard first year.  My daughter spends 12-13 hours a day on campus four days a week and six hours on the fifth day with at least one full day of work on the weekend. All the second year and beyond TAs are taking 7 hours (they drop one class). There are a few students who are self-pay, not funded GTAs, who are taking 12 hours but not many.

[Penguin]

My daughter is a first year grad student. She is also a GTA (graduate teaching assistant, she is paid to teach classes and receives a full tuition offset). They were told at the school-wide GTA orientation that full-time for a grad student was 6 hours and the speaker asked them to raise their hands to indicate how many hours they were taking. the math department requires their first year graduate TAs to take 10 hours and the speaker seemed to think that was rather crazy.

 

I will say that it has been a very hard first year. My daughter spends 12-13 hours a day on campus four days a week and six hours on the fifth day with at least one full day of work on the weekend. All the second year and beyond TAs are taking 7 hours (they drop one class). There are a few students who are self-pay, not funded GTAs, who are taking 12 hours but not many.

Thank you, this is super helpful. He is hoping for a TA position.

[winterbaby]

When I was in grad school (humanities) the standard seemed to be three courses (9 credits), two would be considered a light load for if you were having issues or were also doing some other kind of work like starting to prepare for exams, four if you were going hard or had catching up to do. But it was very common to audit a fourth course, and in an environment like that (small seminars) auditing was serious, you would definitely do the reading and participate - you just wouldn't have to write the paper.

 

Usually there's a certain number of credits to complete (the coursework portion of) the program, and a standard amount of time to do it in, and you can work out from that how much you should be doing in a semester, going light if possible in the first semester to get your bearings.

[DawnM]

My daughter is a first year grad student. She is also a GTA (graduate teaching assistant, she is paid to teach classes and receives a full tuition offset).  They were told at the school-wide GTA orientation that full-time for a grad student was 6 hours and the speaker asked them to raise their hands to indicate how many hours they were taking. the math department requires their first year graduate TAs to take 10 hours and the speaker seemed to think that was rather crazy.

 

I will say that it has been  a very hard first year.  My daughter spends 12-13 hours a day on campus four days a week and six hours on the fifth day with at least one full day of work on the weekend. All the second year and beyond TAs are taking 7 hours (they drop one class). There are a few students who are self-pay, not funded GTAs, who are taking 12 hours but not many.

 

6 hours?  Isn't that 2 classes?  It is for my grad school.

 

If the MA is 60-90 credits how would you ever finish at that pace?  It would take 6-8 years.

 

I took 6 hours per semester while working full time usually.  Occasionally I took more.  But that was considered part time.

[elegantlion]

The MA programs I'm considering are 30 to 36 hours, so 9 hrs a semester is pretty standard. This is for history.

[Bootsie]

Most programs that I have seen require 9 hours to be a full-time grad student, with 12 hours probably the normal load.  But, there are huge variations.  Also, the workload from one 3-hour graduate course to another 3-hour graduate course can vary widely.

[Penguin]

This is a 60 hour program, with both a practicum and an internship.

 

I think that 6 hours is considered full time in the sense that it makes you eligible for certain things. Not that it is enough to get you through in a reasonable time frame.

[Penguin]

Update (because I love it when people update their threads):

 

Incoming students are limited to nine credits for their first semester.