I start college on Monday. I take 13 hours of credit hours a week, and I work 20 hours a week.
I’m so scared I won’t have time to do anything else but go to class, study, and go to work.
Is 13 hours of class also 13 credits? If so, that’s a fairly light load and shouldn’t be a problem.
I felt like I had a lot of homework when I was taking AP Stats and AP Art History last year, so I’m scared what it will be like with four classes.
13 credit hours is a really light schedule. That’s only one credit more than the minimum to be considered full time. You’ll have plenty of free time.
So…here’s some simple arithmetic: 24 hours a day * 7 days a week is 168 hours.
13 hours of classes + 20 hours of work is 33 hours of absolutely required time.
168 - 33 = 135 hours.
Say you study 3 hours a day. 3 * 5 = 15
135 - 15 = 120
I’ll assume you get some sleep. Let’s say 7 hours a night. 7 * 7 = 49
120 - 49 = 71
So you have a lot of time to hang out, in fact more time than you will spend working! All is not lost!
You used to be in school 8 hours a day. You’re now going to be in school for like 2.5 hours a day. You will have a ton of free time.
I don’t know exactly how credits translate between semesters and quarters, but regardless, I, for a short period, was in 5 clubs, with a few leadership positions in those, had 2 jobs, and took a normal load of classes. I still had a tiny bit of free time. I dropped (for the most part) 2 clubs and took less hours at my less well paying job. But if I can find time with that crazy schedule I had for a period, then you can find time! I know working 20 hours sucks. I’ve only done 15 at my highest (most allowed by work study, or at least my work study) and that was annoying enough. But you’ll get the hand of finding time for what you want to do, but still relaxing after work.
It’s important to remember the difference between high school and college: more quality / difficulty, less busy work. AP classes are nothing like college classes structurally. You will have time because of that, and as others have said, 13 credits is relatively light. I do think it’s a good move with the 20 hours a week working, but you will still have free time.
@GoatGirl19 you made my life MUCH more productive with this calculation!
@BeCambridge a little math never hurt, and can introduce some real perspective.