How Swatties spend their time

<p>Over in the Parents Forum, we've been kicking around various surveys, such as the ones the 31 COFHE schools (<a href="http://web.mit.edu/cofhe/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://web.mit.edu/cofhe/&lt;/a&gt;) administer and share data.</p>

<p>I stumbled across a report from one of the COFHE surveys that Swarthmore administers...the annual Senior Survey given each spring. This report looks at some interesting data from last spring's senior class.</p>

<p><a href="http://sumac.its.swarthmore.edu/Admin/institutional_research/survdetail/senior2006sum.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://sumac.its.swarthmore.edu/Admin/institutional_research/survdetail/senior2006sum.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Specifically, the seniors were asked to list how many hours they spent on a range of activities each week. There is a pie chart showing the average number of hours. Some highlights:</p>

<p>*Scheduled Classes or labs: 14.3 hours
Work on Scheduled Courses outside of class: 15.8 hours
Other Academic work: 6.6 hours</p>

<p>Talking with faculty outside of class: 3.4 hours</p>

<p>Working for pay: 8.1 hours</p>

<p>Partying: 5.6 hours
Other socializing: 10.6 hours</p>

<p>Watching TV: 2.1 hours*</p>

<p>The other interesting graph tied together faculty expectations of workload and actual workload. The had asked the faculty how many hours per week they expected students to do for a typical course on a previous survey. So they asked the seniors to pick a typical upper level course and give their estimate of the hours per week they spent preparing for that course and the hours they thought the professors expected:</p>

<p>Professor's expectation: 7.3 hours
Actual seniors' hours: 7.5 hours
Seniors' estimate of professor's expectation: 7.9 hours
</p>

<p>The close spread in all of these numbers shows something that has been noted by outsider panels in accreditation reviews at Swarthmore: the uncanny degree to which professors and students are on the same page.</p>

<p>I think that's really interesting and shows a nice balance among different activities. I wonder in which categories students might tend to underestimate their time and which ones they might overestimate. Also interesting there's no estimate of how much the students sleep . . . . (I didn't add up all of the hours to see what was left.)</p>

<p>Because it was a senior survey, I suspect that the hours talking to professors and spent on "other" academic work are probably overstated relative to the entire student body. Between writing a senior thesis/project and preparing for the honors oral/written exams and getting recommendations for job/grad school, seniors surely spend the most time talking with faculty. 3+ hours a week is a staggering number. Offsetting this would probably be a some understatement of prep for scheduled classes as the senior thesis replaces one course in the fall and spring of senior year.</p>

<p>Varsity sports and clubs would be underestimated. It's pretty well recognized that these are carried by freshmen, sophmores, and juniors and that seniors frequently back away as they get wrapped up in the college end-game.</p>

<p>I found some comparative data, from Oberlin's 2006 Senior Survey. The following shows hours per week for each activity from Swat's and Oberlin's 2006 Senior Surveys, respectively. The three comparison groups (co-ed schools, women's schools, and universities) are Oberlin's peer comparison groups. They don't specify which schools are included, but usually comparison groups are somewhat above and below in selectivity, including schools from the same region. I would assume these include most of the Seven Sisters and comparable LACs. I don't know which universities these would include. It is also possible that these are numbers from the survey company rather than a specific set of peer schools.</p>

<p>I have no idea how valid the comparisons are or whether Swatties just put down higher estimates. Looks like Swat is a party school!</p>

<p>Enjoy. </p>

<p>


Swat  Ober    Co-ed   Womens  Univ    </p>

<p>14.3    12.5    10.7    11.85   11.82   Scheduled classes or labs 
15.8    12.71   12.87   13.34   11.99   Work on scheduled courses outside of class or labs 
6.6 5.45    5.71    5.22    4.85    Other academic work (e.g., thesis, research) 
3.4 1.53    1.56    1.59    1.22    Talking with faculty outside of class 
3.3 2.87    4.49    2.25    2.89    Intercollegiate & club sports 
0.8 0.35    0.48    0.17    0.51    Intramural sports 
4.9 3.13    3.52    3.18    3.41    Other exercise/fitness 
5.6 3.47    5.12    3.11    4.69    Partying 
10.9    7.52    8.17    6.83    7.58    Other socializing with friends 
4.1 2.84    2.8 3.19    4.13    Clubs/organized groups 
2.1 1.77    2.55    2.67    3.22    Watching TV 
6.6 4.96    4.87    4.89    5.48    Computer games, surfing the net, etc. 
7.3 5.24    4.93    5.94    6.16    Electronic communications (e-mail, instant messaging) 
8.1 7.74    5.74    7.68    5.67    Working for pay 
2.3 1.11    1.05    1.16    1.45    Volunteer work </p>

<p>96  73  75  73  75  Total
14  10  11  10  11  Hours per day


</p>

<p>I don't have any stats but my son says that people spend so much time on school and other activities (music/social action/etc) that they have to choose between sleep and socializing. He chooses to socialize as do most, he says. My impression is that he is tired but happy.</p>

<p>atlantamom,
Today I was wearing a Swat T-shirt which says: Swarthmore College
Friends
Sleep
Academics
Pick Two.
Sounds about right. ;)</p>