Choosing your classes can be a stressful task—from trying to see which courses are available to consulting your Academic Plan, it is often a challenge. If you’re just starting out you may not know which classes to choose. What follows are a few guidelines that you might be able to use to be successful in your schedule!
1- Be sure to consult our degree completion guides; if you can take the classes in the recommended order, you’ll often find it to be easier.
2- Hermeneutics should be taken prior to taking any theology courses (and must be taken prior to Theology 1). Interpreting the Bible is vital to doing good theology, so enjoy it!
3- Try not to “stack” too many writing-intensive courses together in one semester. Ex: New Testament 1 and Theology 1 both have research papers, thus, doing three courses like this will be much more difficult than three elective courses.
4- Hebrew 1 and Greek 1 must be taken prior to (not concurrently with) Hebrew 2 and Greek 2, respectively.
5- Theology courses can be taken in any order, but it is recommended that Theology 1 is taken prior to Theology 2.
6- Be sure to check the prerequisites for a class (you can do this by clicking on the class in Self-Service’s Section Search) before registering.
7- Select the correct type of course for you. If you are an undergraduate, select course codes that have a 1-4 as the first number of the course code, e.g., THE3110. If you are a seminary student, select course codes that have a 5-7 as the first number of the course code, e.g., THE6110.
For each class, students are expected to spend 2 hours doing outside work (reading, papers, assignments, etc.) for every 1 hour spent in class. So you should plan on spending an average of 9 hours per week on each class. Consider this when you are deciding how many courses to take each semester.
For hybrid, conference, and intensive courses, be sure to check the meeting dates, as you will be required to attend all sessions.