I’m interested in hearing from parents whose students attend colleges with 4 credit courses. The school where our son is most likely to attend does, and it looks like an interesting concept. With his AP credits he’d be looking at 4 semesters with 4 classes and 4 with 3. They also have a January term that students must attend twice (two credits per course).
4 credits or equivalent is probably one of the most common “sizes”, with typical course loads of 4 courses per semester to graduate in 8 semesters (120 to 128 credits to graduate). At some colleges, there may be courses of other sizes from 1 to 6 credits even if the usual size is 4 credits.
Colleges that count courses and require 30 to 32 courses to graduate in 8 semesters implicitly consider a course equivalent to what other colleges call a 4 credit course.
I think there’s something to be said for fewer classes at a time, even if the total amount of work is the same. Some students would probably do better without so many classes to juggle.
Would you be comparing to colleges where the norm is 3 courses per semester (each 5 credits or equivalent) or colleges where the norm is 5 courses per semester (each 3 credits or equivalent)? Or high school, where a typical schedule has 6-7 courses per semester?
Or block plans of one course at a time like Colorado or Cornell colleges…
Some of the classes listed as 4 credit at my DS’s college are actually class + a lab and/or recitations.
Most of the classes at D’s schools are four credits. With additional one- or two-credit associated labs with some. Her typical 16-18 hour semester of four classes (plus labs) seems like it works well. Even in the summer session, which I expected to be harder. The semester she took five courses and 21 hours, though, did seem to push her out of her comfort zone more.