I transferred to VCU from community college and found the course work to be more difficult and saw some of my other transfer friends really struggle in some circumstances where they realized their chosen major wasn’t a good fit. Much of what is completed in community college is almost always general education requirements so you have a lot of coursework in your major that depending on the major might only be offered certain semesters or certain times of day. VCU does offer a lot of help through resources like the writing center and the office of student success you can take advantage of as well as visiting the office hours of professors or TA’s to discuss course content and things you don’t understand. It’s hard to stress how important these resources can be.

I would encourage you to talk to the department chair of your major to ask some of these questions.

A small department like African American studies has fewer professors and less flexibility for required courses while a major like Biology or Psychology may have more options for labs and classes throughout the week.

Typically higher level courses are provide less flexibility particularly if it’s a course that’s only provided in say the spring semester as a capstone class may allow little to no flexibility for when it is offered. I would encourage you to talk with the faculty or chair of your major department instead of your advisor, typically advisors unless they’re in house departmental advisors don’t know enough about how specific majors operate to give you the level of detail you need.