Course Difficulty & Load Balancer
Enter your candidate courses with their credits, difficulty, and importance level to get a recommended schedule that balances your workload within your target credit range.
Build Your Balanced Schedule
Add your possible courses, set a target credit range, and we'll suggest a balanced combination for next term.
Use your best guess for difficulty and interest, then adjust after talking with an advisor.
Building a Balanced Course Schedule
Credit Hours
Credit hours indicate the expected weekly time commitment for a course, typically including class time and outside study. A 3-credit course might expect 9 hours per week total. Full-time status usually requires 12-18 credits, but the right number depends on your other commitments.
Course Difficulty
Not all credits are equal. A 3-credit advanced course might require twice the effort of a 3-credit introductory course. Consider factors like prerequisite knowledge, professor teaching style, assignment load, and your own comfort with the subject when estimating difficulty.
Prioritizing Your Courses
When building your schedule, consider these priority levels:
- •Must-Take: Required courses for your major or graduation, prerequisite chains, or courses only offered this term. These should be your first priority.
- •Should-Take: Important for your track or concentration, recommended by advisors, or better taken sooner than later. Include these after must-takes.
- •Electives: Courses that interest you or fulfill general requirements. Use these to round out your schedule and explore new areas.
Common Scheduling Mistakes
- •Too many hard courses: Avoid scheduling all your difficult courses in one term. Balance challenging courses with lighter ones.
- •Ignoring labs and projects: Courses with lab or project components often require significantly more time than their credit hours suggest.
- •Overloading: Taking the maximum credits might save time in the long run, but it can hurt your GPA and wellbeing if you can't handle the workload.
- •Ignoring your life: Remember to account for work, extracurriculars, commuting, and personal time when planning your academic load.
Pro tip: Talk to students who've taken the courses you're considering. They can give you realistic estimates of difficulty and time commitment that you won't find in the course catalog. Also check professor ratings and reviews for different sections of the same course.
Frequently Asked Questions
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This tool is for educational planning purposes only and does not replace consultation with your academic advisor. Course recommendations are based solely on the information you provide and do not account for prerequisites, scheduling conflicts, or degree requirements. Always verify your course selections with your institution's official advising resources.