Hi aska, I’m a transfer student from UTSC and I only took 4 credits thinking it was full time but apparently 5 credits is full time — im gonna take some courses for english and PoliSci in the summer (I took POL101 and 106 to make the FCE) so I can get into the Polisci post and get access to 200 level English courses. I’m planning to take summer courses for my whole 4 years — would it be possible for me to graduate in 4 years even with the transfer (and credits that are now just extra/breadth) and the only 80% courseload in year 1? Thanks!
hi bestie,
trying to graduate in 4 years after taking an 80% courseload in first year? sorry bro, but. you’re not special.
i think you have a chance here, assuming i understand your situation right and haven’t lost my marbles yet. overall, you need to check off completion requirements in two areas to graduate: degree requirements, and program requirements. using degree explorer is a great way to check your current status on the requirements in both of these areas.
technically, 4 credits per year is a full time course load, since 3 is the minimum to be a full time student according to the academic calendar. but, it’s true that it is recommended to take 5 credits per year to complete the minimum of 20.0 credits within 4 years. with that said, i know several people who take 4 credits during the school year and then take 1 credit during the summer to make up for it, adding up to 5 credits per year. depending on how many courses you take, it could be possible to complete 20 credits by your fourth year—during the summer, there is a max of 1 credit (2 courses) per term, so you could complete 2 credits through the 2 summer terms. if you do that each summer as you’re planning to, that would help a lot.
meanwhile, you should also keep track of what courses you need to complete for your polisci program. here, i can’t give you specific advice since i don’t know what courses you’ve taken towards your degree.
overall, it’s hard for me to say anything definite on your situation since your timeline here is a bit unclear and i’m not sure how many transfer credits you have. i would highly recommend that you visit your registrar to get a more specific answer, and spend some time mapping things out with them.
over and out,
aska