<p>At some colleges, undergrads typically take 4 classes per semester. At others it's usually 5 classes per semester. At the former, a typical class is usually 4 credits; at the latter, a typical class is usually 3 credits. I've been to both types of colleges, and didn't see much difference between the difficulty of a 4-credit course and the difficulty of a 3-credit course. </p>
<p>Also, at some colleges, there seems to be a lot of 3-credit courses AND 4-credit courses (e.g., U of Michigan). </p>
<p>Has anybody found that the 4-credit courses are roughly 33% harder, to justify the granting of the extra credit?</p>
<p>usually class credits are based on how many hours a week a student is in the classroom with the prof/TA for lectures. Labs are sometimes counted differently. So, the credit is not based on “hardness” so much as it is based on how much formal contact time there is per week.</p>
<p>In theory, each credit unit is supposed to mean workload of 3 hours per week, including both class time and out of class time. So the 3 credit course should theoretically take 9 hours per week total, while the 4 credit course should take 12 hours per week total. In theory, a full time student course load of 15 credits should require 45 hours per week total.</p>
<p>Of course, reality may be significantly different. Courses with lab, art studio, big term projects, etc. can take a lot more time than other courses. But non-lab/studio courses are usually given credit units based on the number of hours of class time per week (e.g. 4 credit courses usually have 4 hours of class time per week).</p>
<p>2 responses, and already a disagreement about what a “3-credit course” involves.</p>
<p>Even if a 4-credit course involves an hour more of classroom time per week, I doubt if the professor is going to require more papers or more exams than if he was teaching the same class as a 3-credit course…in other words I think perhaps the ONLY difference is the amount of classroom time.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t really call it a disagreement. I wouild call it that ucbalummnus is more thorough in his/her response than I am. Both of our responses indicate more time involved, rather than how hard the class is.</p>
<p>There is quite a difference between saying the # of credits reflects the # of hours spent in class (bjamm) and the # of hours per week required (in and out of class), divided by 3 (Ucb).</p>
<p>By the way, when I said how “hard” a class is, I meant how much effort (or number of hours of effort) it would usually take to pass a course. Obviously, a pre-calculus course is not as “difficult” as a calculus course, even if it requires the same # of hours of work to pass it.</p>
<p>Here is my D’s experience with one of her classes. Her school uses the 4 4 hour class model.</p>
<p>She was taking Arabic 101 at her private LAC. She had friends who were also taking Arabic 101 at our state public university. They were even using the same textbook.</p>
<p>The public university awarded this class 5 credits, although most classes are 3 credit hours. The public university began school 2 weeks before D’s school.</p>
<p>At mid term, D was done with the textbook and started the next textbook in the series. The public university spent the whole term covering the textbook.</p>
<p>It may just be her school, but her educational experience has been much more rigorous and the courses have covered more material.</p>
<p>Since the OP mentioned U of Michigan, a class could potentially add up to 5. Physics for my son, a UM freshman, was a 4 credit class plus a 1 credit lab. I believe Calc was a 3 credit lecture plus a 1 credit discussion. Three or four easily become 4 and 5.</p>
<p>Well, to make things even more fun, my employer offers courses from 1-4 credits. For 2 credits and up, as previous posters have said, it’s all about time. Four credit classes meet 4 times a week, although the combination of lecture/lab may vary. </p>
<p>One hour classes seem to be their own breed. Workshops may meet several times a week but require little homework. Intensitve research units might meet just a couple to times a semester, but require loads of work. Private lessons have homework (practice), plus accompanist time, and so on . . .</p>
<p>Do you suppose that the 4 class for 4 credits per semester colleges are more likely to have graduation requirements based on number of classes completed while the other schools look at an accumulation of total hours?</p>
<p>Not harder just more time consuming. 3 credit classes generally meet for 3 hrs a week and 4 credit course for 4 hrs a week (may be 3 hrs of lecture and 1 hr recitation or lab). </p>
<p>4 hr classes are likely harder in general, not because they are 4 credits, but those 4 credit classes are usually science bases (chem/physics or even math as my son had recitation for that as well) compared with more gen ed and liberal arts classes.</p>
<p>That may be more due to whether all of the courses have the same credit (in which case, a school may require 30 to 32 semester long courses to graduate, if each course is equivalent to a 4 credit course elsewhere) versus courses with different amounts of credit (some 3 credits, some 4 credits, some other values like 1, 2, 5, or 6 credits).</p>
<p>It’s nice to think that professors would teach a 4-credit course differently than the same course as a 3-credit course, but would they? For example, if a professor who teaches Intro to Psych transferred from Boston College (3-credit courses are the norm, 5 per semester) to Colgate (4 courses per semester), would he/she really increase the course requirements when teaching the same course? That just doesn’t seem to be the way people usually operate (stick to what is familiar and reliable, path of least resistance, etc.)</p>
<p>My son took a 3 credit chemistry class with a 2 credit lab per semester. He said the lab was as much work as another whole class, so even though he had 4 courses, he really had 5.</p>
<p>The difference was between classes, not so much between credit hours. One credit hour lab might take huge chunk of time in weed out class. Very easy Honors English where D. did not learn anything new, was very time consuming because of number of novels that it required to read. Paper making class was extremely time consuming as any art class is. Music Theory was very easy and fun, no matter amount of credit hours, just because it is very easy for my D. Again, Statistics and Chemistry were very easy and one of them resulted in the awesome SI job for 3 years at college.
Hours are not always indicator of the load. D. has always tried to have 2 and absolutely no more than 3 very challenging science classes. The rest had to be easy. It also depends on amount of EC’s during school year. D’s total load averaged 18 hrs/semester in freshman/sophomore and 17/15 in junior/senior because of her specific situation (prep. for MCAT in junior year, Med. School interviews in senior year).<br>
There is no general answer to this question. Each person needs to decide based on his own circumstances.</p>
<p>* Hours are not always indicator of the load.*
I couldn’t agree more.</p>
<p>My first qtr at a very reputable community college horticulture program blew me away, because while I had registered for 15 credits- a full time course load, the time required both in & out of class* was easily double what I expected.</p>
<p>This is one of those YMMV depending on the Prof and/or the policies of a given school. </p>
<p>Some courses I’ve had in which you have the option of selecting 3 or 4 credits was mainly on the basis of doing a bit more work. Such as writing an extra 15-25 page paper in an intro-level course. That optional extra one credit is for those who either want an alternative means to partially fulfilling the writing credit than an English writing course or those hoping to lower the number of required credits in their junior/senior years of college. </p>
<p>Others like language meet more times each week, have required labs, and have heavier workloads…those counted for 5 credits as a result. </p>
<p>On the other hand, my intro to CS for majors courses with lab had workloads which easily exceeded their official assigned number of credits.</p>
<p>Professor here. Most of the courses at my college are 3 credits, but I’m also involved in a program in which one course I teach is 4 credits, and it is different. There’s more class time, of course, but there’s also more out-of-class work, writing, projects, attendance at campus events like guest speakers, etc, involved. I spend significantly more time preparing for and grading for that one class. It’s a breadth vs depth thing.</p>