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Humanities and Social Sciences Course Overload

First Year Students who have earned 8 or more units at the college and Transfer Students who have earned 4 or more units at the college and maintain a 3.3 cumulative TCNJ GPA may request an overload for a maximum of 5 course units in any one semester. There is no maximum limit to the number of overload semesters.

Common reasons for applying for an overload are needing to fulfill major or minor requirements, wanting to take a course that is not offered regularly, to take an intensive-language, or to complete an independent course (study, research, thesis, or internship).

First-year students, with less than 8 TCNJ earned units, may apply for an overload to take an intensive language after they have a TCNJ GPA. We do not approve overloads for the Winter Term or Summer Session I because there are not enough hours in 3 weeks to meet the contact-hour requirement for more than 1 course. Classes taken at a community college or another college/university count toward these limits and so you need to be sure that you are staying within the course unit limit when you combine the courses that you are taking across institutions. For example, you could not take 4 units at TCNJ and 1.5 units at a Community College in the same semester.

You do not need any approval to take 4.5 units. If you are interested in taking 4.75 or 5 units, you should complete the Overload Interest Form:

Overload Interest Form

Completing the form will automatically generate an email that will be sent to your Department Chair, who will reach out to you for advising. They may ask you why you are requesting the overload, review your academic record, and talk to you about the advantages and disadvantages of overloading given your proposed coursework. The Department Chair will communicate directly with the Assistant Dean. The Department Chair or Assistant Dean will then correspond with you about your overload request.

NOTE: If you are applying for Independent Study/Research or Internship and need a course overload, you should submit your Overload interest form first, as you will need to upload the email from the Assistant Dean, stating that the overload has been entered into PAWS, into the independent course application systems.

Contact

School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Social Sciences Building, Room 302
The College of New Jersey
P.O. Box 7718
2000 Pennington Rd.
Ewing, NJ 08628

609.771.3434
hss@tcnj.edu

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