How does a day of a college students look like? How often do you have exams, do you have enough free time?
(I’m from Europe so I don’t know much about the US system. )
It really all depends on your schedule and major. Freshman year is probably when students’ classes are easiest and most similar to each other. During my freshman year, I registered for 15 hours of credit and my schedule was pretty much like this
Monday through Friday
10 am - 1 pm: Classtime (It’s much easier as a freshman to create a schedule that you want, because more lecture times are available. Rather than basing my schedule off of the professors teaching, I created one where my classes all started and ended at the same time every day)
1 pm - 4 pm: Lunch, reviewing what I learned, homework
4 pm - 1 am: All the free time in the world. Usually spent socializing, random errands, grocery shopping, washing clothes, dinner, shower, surfing internet, club meetings, exercising, more studying, more homework, etc.
1 am - 9 am: Sleep
It was not uncommon for me to be at a party or out with friends on a Thursday(not recommended), Friday, or Saturday night.
Sundays were usually spent studying and doing homework.
On average, I had exams every 1 or 2 weeks.
Sometimes 2 or 3 exams in a single week (all my free time and weekends were spent studying in these cases)
As this was the year where I was least prepared for college exams, there were times where I was deprived of sleep trying to study for an exam, despite all the free time I had to do it.
Usually you have less free time each passing year, but you will learn to be more efficient at studying, so the change isn’t too drastic.
My freshman year differed greatly from my senior year, where my major sometimes required me to be in class for 12 hours for 3 days in a row.
The above is pretty accurate. A few add ons:
-Depending on the school you will take 4-6 classes per semester.
-A few schools work on a quarter system instead, taking 3 classes per quarter.
-Schedules can usually be manipulated well to the point that you can choose your free time a bit. You could go with all classes that end by 1 or all classes that start after 1, depending on what you prefer. You can also put them all on different days: few to no classes meet every day, and it’s possible to have classes only 3-4 days a week. The easiness of that will vary school to school.
I had 15 almost every semester in engineering. Freshman year I had lots of free time, though not as much as the previous poster did. Senior year not so much.
Classes were usually between 9 and 3, I usually had about 20 hours of class a week (counting labs) each semester. I didn’t have class for 6 hours straight though, there were gaps in between.
Labs were usually 1-4 or 1-5 except for the one I had 6-9pm. I tried to get good professors instead of good class times.
Most of my time at night was doing homework, but I had lots of free time on the weekends my first year, and some during the week. I got along with many people in my dorm so it was a great year, and my closest college friends are mostly from that year.
Some classes just have a midterm and a final, some have 6 exams but most have 3 or 4. I had weekly homework in almost all of my classes, which depends on the major. I never took a class that had lots of big papers so I can’t say much about those.
Sophomore year was busier, junior year even more, senior was slightly easier than junior year. Just depends on the classes you take. I had a busy major, some of my friends had lots of free time all four years, some worked 20 hours a week and had very little time, some went out and partied 3-4 nights every week.
I got better at managing my time each year so the bigger class load didn’t make me lose tons of sleep, especially since I started taking a nap every day. But I had to start doing homework on the weekends, sometimes the whole weekend.
My schedule is a bit unusual since I’m aiming for a triple major (which I probably won’t complete), but am going to declare as a math/cs double major with a music minor.
I just finished my freshman year, where I took 6.5 units and 6.75 units in the fall and spring semester, respectively, with several ensembles not for credit. At my university, 1 unit = 3.5 credits, so this totals to 22.75 and 23.625 credits. Most students at my university take between 5-5.5 units (17.5-19.25 credits), with many first semester freshman only taking 4.5 (15.75 credits). I am in 4-6 ensembles per semester (counting both for credit and non credit) and private lessons on two instruments.
I generally have class starting 9 or 10:30 in the morning, followed by a short lunch, then more classes blocked back to back (or with short breaks, usually no more than an hour) from noon until around 4:30 pm, with a lighter course load on fridays.
Depending on the day (tuesdays I have other music requirements right then), I’ll eat dinner then or go work on some homework before my rehearsals. I usually have rehearsals Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings, and Friday afternoons. Most days, I get back to the dorm at around 10-10:30 pm and then do my hw for the next day.
I usually go to bed around 1-2 am and wake up around 8-9:30 am, depending on when class starts.
I also work for the CS department as a grader, so I put in my hours on that from my dorm room on the weekends. Last semester, I graded two sections of the same course, and it took me 8 hours to grade all the students’ assignments each time.
I have found I have plenty of free time, especially on the weekend, since there are no classes then. I go to a lot of concerts on campus, since I get free tickets with my scholarship. I also watch a ton of tv and have watched several series from season 1 to current season the last two semesters, along with keeping up with my other shows.
As for tests, I have yet to have a class that has more than 3 tests, excluding the final. They’re usually pretty spread apart and divide the semester evenly. All my classes are different, however. Some professors grade hw (they can be either completion grade or graded harshly). I’ve also had a class that was based on weekly quizzes, along with labs, two midterms, and a final. Other classes are entirely essay-based, with 2-3 major essays over the course of the semester and many smaller 1-4 page writing assignments.
Everyone’s schedule is different based on the course load you’re taking and what other activities you are involved with.
A majority of people take classes between 8 AM and 4 PM, but there are classes and/or labs that can take place much earlier or later in the day. An average full-time student may take around 2-4 classes per day, some back-to-back and some with large breaks in between. The timing of classes is based on what is available for registration for that particular individual.
I worked a part-time job, did a bit of research, and was president of a student club, so a lot of my free time was occupied when I went to school. However, if you aren’t doing anything else, usually you have a lot of free time. Ideally, however, a good chunk of that free time will be spent doing assignments and studying. Overall, it’s pretty flexible.
Exams for a single course may occur at least once a month, and usually there are only four per semester per class. Depending on how the curricula of your classes is scheduled, exams can be back-to-back within a single day or week, or they can be spread out by several weeks.
My school uses the quarter system, however most people don’t attend summer quarter, since it is not required. Each quarter is 10 weeks, with most midterms held between weeks 4 and 6. Then we have an 11th week that is only for finals.
In terms of classes, everyone makes their own schedules. However, I’ve noticed that most upper division classes only meet twice a week, and sometimes only once.
My schedule has varied a ton in my 2 years.
My first semester I had class at all different times and my only work was babysitting.
My second semester I was in class from 9-2 and worked from 3-630
My third semester I worked almost daily from 3-6
And this was my schedule this last semester:
M:
Work- 7-4
Class: 4:30-6
Free after
T:
Work: 7-9:30
Class: 10-12
Counseling: 1-1:45
Class: 1:50-3:15
Class: 6-9
W:
Work 8-12
Class: 1:20-4:20
Class: 4:35-6:00
Th:
Class: 10-12
Class:1:50-3:15
Work: 3:15-6:30
F:
Work: 9-6:30
Thank you all 
Something like this:
Weekday:
9-12 classes
12-1 lunch
1-3 classes
3-6 workout/down time/video games
6-7 dinner
7-10 study time
10-11 pre-bed time
11:30 lights out
Weekend:
Depends on how my upcoming week looks with exams/hw/etc. Probably go to be and sleep later, hang out with friends, watch movies, play video games.