<p>Except for my senior thesis I don't think I ever took a class that required more than a 10-15 page paper and I never wrote more than 12.</p>
<p>(My thesis was more than 200 pages, but at least 2/3 of that was probably photos and plans.)</p>
<p>Many problems with this survey, some already noted. The article quoted percentages of responders, but what percent of any student body responded? Recently only 900 or so of 28000 or 41000 (? included grad students) at UW Madison voted, online, resulting in a fee increase for many years to come to update the 2 unions (I'm glad it passed). Unless it was a required part of some course I can't imagine most college students bothering with any survey. Useless results unless a better done study including high survey returns.</p>
<p>I'm looking at the student response rates for LACs, which are mostly in the 40-60% range. Any higher, in fact, and you'd start to worry about the opposite problem: that responses were being coerced.</p>
<p>Since the hours spent, papers written and so on are all self-reported, I'd say the results need to be taken with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>I do find it distressing that a quick scan of the liberal arts list shows that for all schools reporting (with the exception of Marlboro), 50 percent or more of students spend 15 hours or less preparing for class.</p>
<p>How much serious writing can be done in this amount of time? The averages for writing show 63% wrote 10 or fewer 5-page papers, 48% wrote 4 or fewer 5 to 10-page papers, and 40% wrote no papers of 20 or more pages.</p>
<p>For all the valid methodological reservations that have been expressed (student-reported figures, sample size, asking the wrong questions), I think the NSSE is one of the best instruments out there to get a glimpse of the academic climate at an institution. This is a respected national instrument that's been used by hundreds of colleges for several years now. I'd put more stock in the NSSE than in USNews rankings any day, and colleges certainly take them seriously, using the results to formulate policy.</p>
<p>Among the LACs whose stats are public, for instance, Marlboro seems to rank near the top on most important measures of student engagement. On the other hand, a few of the more highly ranked schools according to USNews are distinctly middle-of-the-pack in the NSSE pretty much across the board.</p>
<p>I agree that the NSSE is asking the right kinds of questions, and it is too bad we don't have the results for more schools.</p>
<p>It's interesting that some schools who provide data for the US News list do not participate in this survey, and also that most NSSE participants do not publish the results. Perhaps some institutions wish that the survey reflected a different academic climate in their case.</p>
<p>The results for Marlboro reflect the general reputation of the school.</p>
<p>mkm56, because the 3 hr of out of class prep time per credit hour seemed so excessive, I needed to search your prior post to find out what college your son attends and determined it to be WFU, a really great college with a reputation of holding the line on grade inflation.</p>
<p>Doing a little searching about, I found a recent study conducted by the WFU Office of Institutional Research. They surveyed both faculty and students about a broad range of academic issues including study requirements. The median faculty estimate for out of class preparation was 1.29 hours per session or about 15.5 hrs/week assuming 4 courses meeting 3 times per week. Interestingly, for the student survey the median amount of out of class prep was about 15 hrs/wk. The students also estimated that they spent 6 hrs studying for each midterm and final exam with 5.5hrs of that occurring in the day leading up to the exam.</p>
<p>Of course a particularly hard semester schedule could blow the 15 hrs/week out of the water and perhaps that is what your son is encountering toting up a whopping 48 hrs/wk +/-. If this is the case, I hope he eases off the accelerator next semester.</p>
<p>I think perhaps my son and some of his classmates have the higher study hours due to being in the pre-med "track". It's true if you would average son's study hours with his roommate they would be much diluted. His roommate spent very little study time, mainly did his papers and projects and was very contented with a 2.0.</p>
<p>I have to also admit that son is ADD and even with medication probably is not as efficient with time as other students may be.</p>