It seems like the conventional wisdom of 50 hours a week is the most common answer (not sure if this includes actual class time), but I also came across a study stating that the average college student will study for only 17 hours a week. What is your personal take on this question?
When my kids were in high school, the rule of thumb was for each teacher to assign 1/2 hour of homework per-night-per-class. With five core classes (Math, Science, English, History and Foreign Language), that amounted to 2.5 hours of homework per night. However, some teachers assigned more, so it really came out to about 3 hours of homework a night or 15 hours a week for just those core classes – that’s actual time spent studying . . . WITHOUT distractions like responding to text messages, checking facebook, snapchat, instagram, etc. That also did not include extra studying for tests, mid-terms, or finals, writing a paper, or homework for an additional class such as Computer Science. If I had to average it all out, they probably spent about 20-25 hours per week studying, including time spent on the weekends, but not actual class time. FWIW: When my kids got to college, they spent far LESS time studying at HY than they did in high school.
Just a quick clarifier: how much time do you spend studying per week at Harvard University as an undergrad (freshmaan) specifically? Thanks!
Got it. Please note LAST SENTENCE of post #1. My daughter spent less time studying at Harvard than she did in high school, specifically that quantifies to less than 20 hours a week, not including time spent in class. Ditto with my son at Yale. In fact, I would guess both spent MORE time working at their term-time job and/or extracurricular activities than studying – and both graduated with honors.
I guess it depends on the classes taken. My freshman son has a ton of homework and a ton of studying all year long pretty much. He never had to do so much work in high school.
Is he complaining? Maybe a little. But we suffer the most as he rarely has time to call and talk to us. Text every now and then is all that we get.
Like so many other questions, the answer is “It depends.” If the course load contains Math 55 and Physics 16, then the amount of time spent outside of class will be significantly higher than a schedule containing a Freshman Seminar (which can be a high or low workload depending on the instructor) and an easy gen ed class.
I’m rather surprised that @gibby’s kids had relatively little HW at their high-powered HS. My HS was probably closer to 4 hours/night. My college workload is about the same, maybe a little higher, but by choice I’ve almost always taken more than 4 classes/semester, although some had lighter requirements than others.
You do what’s required to meet and exceed expectations, not focus on an hours count. It strikes me as an unusual concern.
I would say that, in general, the more selective schools have more work than the schools that are not as selective 
I’m a student at H and probably spend single digits every week, unless it is a reading week. I have a pretty good GPA somewhere around 3.8/3.9 after this semester. Non-STEM student though
Two hours a week on each class? Really?
It really depends on the student, their course load, and their studying style, if you will. My S did not study much in HS – he did the homework and wrote papers, but that was it. Before AP exams, he reviewed old exams. At Harvard, he did more or less the same, but the difference was that his math and engineering classes required problem sets that were not difficult, but very time consuming just to write the code and complete the assignments. For other classes, it depends how quickly you read and if you have to reread several times.
You should know that this is the same for most selective colleges and Harvard is not more difficult than any other top school.