Tips for Planning Your Schedule

1. Check with the catalog or your adviser to know what is the correct sequence of courses in your major.
2. Be sure to take prerequisites first.
3. Generally, first and second year students take courses labled at the 100 and 200 level.  Third and fourth year students take classes labled at the 300 and 400 level.
4. The minimum number of hours to be full-time is 12; the maximum is 18 unless you received permission to take more.
5. Balance your schedule between types of classes such as math, science, social science, and so forth so that you have a variety of study challenges.
6. Breaks or Block Scheduling?  Breaks between classes can be used to study effeciently or can be a waste of time.  Block scheduling can help you stay focused or cause you to be mentally exhausted by the end of the block. You need to know what is best for optimum learning.
7. Allow extra time when scheduling courses with labs or studios.  They often take up substantial amounts of time.
8. Learn how to use the degree audit on your personal academic Web page.  This audit will show you your progress towrds graduation, let you look at options in different majors, and help you with understanding what courses you still need to take.