I'm not an expert by any means, but, I would say, screw what others do, you know what you're capable of. If you're concerned that 15cr might be a bit much, then do 12. Seems to me that achieving a 3.5 is more important than carrying 15 creds.

In short, take it a little bit easy your final semester, and don't worry about the kid that took 21 credits while working 50 hours a week and raising 3 adopted children while getting divorced and donating a kidney. Eww, who wants to be around that guy anyway?

Are you applying for admission for next fall? If so it is unlikely that some of the committees will even see your transcript from this semester, since some of the deadlines are earlier than you'd be expected to get those grades (though some schools will request them at a later point in the process.)

Why do you need at least a 3.5? As long as your GPA is above 3.0 it isn't going to make a whole lot of difference if it is 3.35 or 3.5....

I think it's fine to take (or not take) whatever number of credits/classes that you want at this point. The only thing to watch out for would be what your school considers to be the point at which you fall below "fulltime." For purposes of federal financial aid this is usually around 9 or 10 credits - but some schools use 12 or 13 credits for purposes of billing (i.e. if you fall below this number they start billing you per credit rather than by semester's tuition - and this can get expensive.)

if you are truly committed, then by all means do 12cr and allow yourself the time to spend on doing really great work. however, if you are one of those that needs a lot going on to feel challenged and push yourself, then do the 15. I really don't think it will matter to admissions committees, especially if they can see the light load as having a positive affect on your portfolio -- of course, as Ormolu points out, next semester won't even be looked at until after yuou're accepted (and even then only marginally). I tend to think grad schools understand what the last semester is all about -- gettin' outta there!

why would you take more credits than what is required in order to graduate? can't you just meet their requirements and just get it over with? you'd take the risk of adding a class to attempt to raise your GPA that much when you could also be at risk of lowering your GPA for such a busy schedule? i also agree with Ormolu that the institutions you'll be applying to probably wont see your transcript for that last semester. mine didn't - and i have to send it in still. oh, and for my last semester i only took 6 credit hours.

be a man. take fifteen. i took 15 last semester, i did work-study for 12 hours a week, and i got a 3.94 gpa

whoa sorry i sounded like kind of a bastard just then. i'm a little tired.

when i was in undergrad i took 15 credits my first two years and 12 my second two years. i didn't work. with the exception of my senior year, when my grades were much higher, i got a pretty standard 3.2. what happened was, about senior year i started getting bills from direct loans and realized i was actually paying for college. my point is that if i would've applied myself those first three years as well as i am right now, i probably would have had a different set of choices to make for grad school, although i am happy where i am. 15 credits + work study won't be easy, but you can do what ever you want if you apply yourself.

much better bossman