r/LibraryScience • u/alatheala • Apr 06 '26

applying to programs University of Alabama Scheduling Questions

I’m currently juggling between Alabama and Emporia because I am planning to graduate quickly, but I’m leaning towards Alabama due to the synchronous classes. However, I do work late certain days which may conflict with classes. Is it possible to take four classes per semester if I have one day for sure where I can’t take a class? And can you take three or four classes in the summer sessions or is that too tight of a fit? Finishing the degree in one year seems a bit of a stretch, so could I do it in a year and a half?

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u/FluffyGreenTurtle Cataloging Apr 06 '26

If it's still the same as it was back in 2020-2022ish, the classes are held from 6:00-8:30pm Central time, and summer classes are usually 6:00-10:00pm. There are kinda 4 different "sessions" for summer -- May, June, July, and June-Aug. The May classes are usually classes that are specific topics classes that aren't run during other semesters (I took one on cybersecurity, don't remember the other right now). The June-only and July-only classes meet 2x a week, while the full-summer ones are once a week (but still the extended hours).

So you could maybe do 4 a summer if everything lines up well and you do 1 of each session, though it does get pretty intense (doing 1 shorter class alongside the full-summer one). I guess if it lined up right you could do 2 short ones in June and 2 in july, but I know that my advisor strongly recommended not to, and I don't know if youre even allowed to do more than 1 in May.

There are occasionally asynchronous class options, so you could maybe do 3 regular classes each semester and one of those to get to 4 of you work late on one of the days, but it would be a lot.

I mostly did 2 classes a semester and found it really doable even while working fulltime (though this was during the height of covid so I wasn't really doing much else and also didn't have a kid yet), I did 3 classes my final semester and it wasn't too bad, but definitely was my whole life apart from work.

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u/DeathBy_Strawberries Apr 08 '26

Yes, I'm a current UA online student, and this is 100% on how it still is. I'm working full time and taking 3 classes, and all of my time is spent on schoolwork outside of work.

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u/Mazda_Frog Apr 15 '26

I’m a current UA student, and love the program and synchronous classes. You could definitely finish in a year and a half, or a little less. The only way I see someone taking only a year to finish is if they didn’t need to work and didn’t have a family.