<p>But students at those colleges with the hardest working students today still work less than the average college student in 1961.</p>
<p>Those five colleges list weekly study time of 18-20 hours per week. The average college student in 1961 studied 24 hours per week. Add 15 or so hours in class to get total workload.</p>
<p>[Is</a> college too easy? As study time falls, debate rises - The Washington Post](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/is-college-too-easy-as-study-time-falls-debate-rises/2012/05/21/gIQAp7uUgU_story.html]Is”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/is-college-too-easy-as-study-time-falls-debate-rises/2012/05/21/gIQAp7uUgU_story.html)</p>
<p>Note that in the most common system of counting course credits, one credit unit is supposed to indicate a total of three hours of work per week (in and out of class). So a normal 15 credit unit semester is supposed to mean 45 hours of work per week. Students in 1961 likely came pretty close to this, but students today appear to work much less.</p>
<p>There is this chart by major also:</p>
<p>[Number</a> of hours students study - The Washington Post](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/number-of-hours-students-study/2012/05/21/gIQA3viTgU_graphic.html]Number”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/number-of-hours-students-study/2012/05/21/gIQA3viTgU_graphic.html)</p>
<p>What seems odd is that math is one of the higher workload majors, despite its lack of time consuming labs (which increase out of class time doing lab preparation and write up as well as in class time in lab). Computer science is listed as a lower workload major, even though computer science courses with programming assignments and projects could be much bigger time sinks than math assignments (although math assignments can often be more intellectually difficult).</p>
<p>Physical education being much lower than biology seems odd, since physical education is just a subarea of biology. Or do a lot of colleges offer a watered down version as an easy “jock” major instead of a rigorous academic major?</p>