<p>At a recent conversation with several parents who have children at various colleges and universities, we remarked at the difference in attitudes with regard to course loads. That conversation created some interest in the topic for me and thought I'd see what others think.</p>
<p>At most LACs, 4 courses are considered a full load and students are often discouraged from taking more classes. Whereas, at most universities, it's commonplace for students to take 5 or 6 classes. I'm curious about the experiences of others here. Is this a public vs private school thing? Do the LAC students have more time on their hands? Are they able to focus on few subjects, thereby learning more? I realize most LACs would have students/parents believe their 4 courses are comparable to 5 or 6 at a state uni, but I'm not sure that's a universally accepted opnion. There are a number of highly academic private universities that also recommend 5-6 classes, so I'm not sure it's a highly-selective versus a less-selective thing. I'm wondering what accounts for the difference? Thoughts??</p>
<p>I'm not sure it's necessarily a LAC/University difference. Instead, it may reflect different colleges' philosophies.</p>
<p>Both of my kids attend large universities (one state, one private).</p>
<p>At my son's state university, many lower-level courses are 4 credits, while most upper-level courses are 3 credits. Thus, freshmen and sophomores tend to take four courses a term, but juniors and seniors tend to take five.</p>
<p>At my daughter's private university, most lower-level courses are 3 credits (except for lab courses), and most upper-level courses are 4 credits. Thus, freshmen and sophomores tend to take five courses a term (although first-semester freshmen often deliberately go under and take only four), and juniors and seniors take four.</p>
<p>I agree with Marian; it may depend on the nature of the course, whether it involves a lab (labs only "count" for one hour, but account for much more in terms of time), and how intense the course is. </p>
<p>If you're taking, for example, two sciences with labs (8 hours total), plus a high level math class, it's probably a good idea to just take one more class. That may be the equivalent, in terms of time demand, as another student's five course schedule.</p>
<p>S went to a small school within a large university - he generally took four courses a quarter b/c (1) it was compacted into a smaller period of time than the semester and (2) courses required a lot of outside work. D goes to a LAC where she takes four hard-core academics and one or two more related to her minor (dance).</p>
<p>Well, I'm not aware first hand of all the variants out there, but both UCLA, where TheMom works, and the LAC where D attends, the 4-unit class is standard, except that I notice quite a few UCLA intro courses are 5 units, labs in science and engineering being 2 units.</p>
<p>From the OP's list of hypotheses, I can eliminate the notion that LAC students have a lot more time on their hands. </p>
<p>Except for junior year off campus, D has generally taken 20 units but is regarded as a glutton for punishment. (Now 4 units are "soft"...2 units each in ballet and instrumental music, but the time commitment is non-trivial for each.)</p>
<p>What "highly academic private universities" "recommend" 5-6 classes? The ones I've looked at average 4.5 per semester (36 to graduate), and start charging extra tuition if you go over 5 in any semester. Same thing at state u's, by the way, except that there the problem of getting into some classes required to complete a popular major may make taking 6 classes some semesters a necessity.</p>
<p>Some places have phys ed. requirements, or something like that, which could easily be a "sixth course" on a transcript, but which aren't, really.</p>
<p>If in fact a student is taking 5 or 6 classes at the university, does that suggest they are taking over 20 semester hours? 6 x 4 = 24 </p>
<p>How many semester hours does it take to graduate from such schools? </p>
<p>Most school programs I am aware of require 120-128 hours to graduate. Divide that by 8 semesters and you get 15 to 16 hours per semester. As has been mentioned many courses are 4 hours with some sciences being 5 with lab. </p>
<p>It's just how they count . I'll bet you each course on a 5-6 course schedule is not a full 4 hours. 6 x 3 = 18</p>
<p>I think it's mostly "private vs. public" difference, not "LAC vs. university". I was under impression that the public universities have higher graduation requirements (in terms of courseload measured in credits).</p>
<p>DD was in a large public; most courses were 3 credits, some were 2 (lab sciences and languages 4 credits). Graduation requirements were 120 credits or more - thus, on the average 15 credits per semester were required, usually more. Everybody was taking 5-6 courses, sometimes 7 or even 8 (no extra pay for overloading). About 40-42 courses were required on the average to get a BS diploma (more for engineers)</p>
<p>DS2 is at a LAC. The schedule is trimester, full-time courseload is 3 courses per term, 9 courses per year. Some students do overload, but usually they do not do it every term (no extra pay for that, either). One needs 36 courses to get the diploma.</p>
<p>DS3 is at Princeton; the requirement for A.B. degree is 31 semester courses (plus 3-4 semesters of independent work, including thesis). The requirement for B.S.E. is 36 plus one or two courses of independent work (afaik). The A.B. candidates are required to take 4 courses per semester (some time during first or second year they take five). Some of them overload, others do not (as far as I remember they must get a permission if they want more than 6 courses, but no extra pay here, either). They are not allowed to register for more than 4 courses in the first semester of the Freshman year.</p>
<p>Not all schools count a course as being worth so many 'hours' or 'credits'. Some just count courses and require 34-38 courses for a degree. Universities that I am familiar with asssign credit hours to classes, depending on how many hours the class meets.</p>
<p>Neighbor is at Wash U-St Louis and believe he takes 15 to 18 credits (5 or 6 classes), depending on whether he has a lab class which counts as 4 credits, others count as 3. Second semester freshman year he took 19 credits--6 classes, with one lab--and later acknowledged that he was overloaded! WUSL is a private university.</p>
<p>My S#2 is at a mid-sized private university on the quarter system. Students generally take four 4-credit courses per quarter; 5 is allowed with permission, and for more than five courses, there is an additional hefty charge.</p>
<p>My d is at a small private university on the semester system. First semester freshmen are not permitted to take more than 4 academic courses (4 credits each); they can add one 2 or 3 "soft" credit courses (dance, PE, etc.). Second semester, they can take 5. Courseload needed to graduate is 4 courses per semester (128 credits). Minimum courseload in a semester to be considered full-time is 3 (12 credits).</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon' School of Computer Science requires 360 units - apparently the equivalent of 120 units at other schools. It's about five courses a term, though this term it's more because he's got a couple of required courses that don't give much credit. (And don't require much work either.)</p>
<p>Harvard has the same requirements they did when I was there 16 year long courses - i.e. an average of four at a time. I usually took a fifth course pass/fail. (Some like independent studies or freshmen seminars were only given pass/fail.) I occassionally audited another course. No charge for auditing or taking extra courses. I got better grades when I took more courses.</p>
<p>I think a lot of the differences depend not on LAC vs U, but course unit system or credit system. The LAC I work at and my D's LAC are course unit--ours requires 33; hers was, I think, 32. Almost all classes in this system are 1 course unit.</p>
<p>My S's U is credit system--classes are generally 3 or 4 credits (they actually call them "points"), so If you are taking mainly 3 credit classes, you can't do just 4 consistently (they need 124 points to graduate). So sometimes he has four classes, sometimes 5 (6 counting PE when he takes that.)</p>
<p>My U was also credit system, and since English classes are generally 3 credit, I had a lot of 5 class semesters.</p>
<p>I'm at the University of Chicago, which is on the quarter system. We have three 10-week terms a year instead of two semesters. Since each course is supposed to cover the same amount of material that would be covered in a similar course at a semester school, we take fewer classes each quarter. Students may take 3 or 4 courses a term; either is a full course load, and both are very normal. The minimum number of courses to graduate is 42, so at minimum students must spent 1/2 their time taking 4 courses a quarter and 1/2 their time taking 3 courses a quarter, assuming no credit coming in. The measurement is just by courses--not credits or hours or anything like that. My sister is at Dartmouth, which has the same academic schedule, and students there almost always take 3 classes a quarter. Students are allowed to take four courses a certain number of terms (3?), but most students don't take advantage of that. </p>
<p>Remember that not everything on the transcript is a separate class. PE classes, required tutorials, or writing seminars for another class may show up separately even though they are not really courses.</p>
<p>I don't know any schools where students regularly take 6 full courses/semester.</p>
<p>Oh, I was just quoting the way it was worded in the student handbook. I probably should have translated into semesters. "16.0 courses of which 10.5 have to be for grades."</p>