<p>JHU keeps stressing that they only are in class 15 hours per week.</p>
<p>Is this a low number? And if so, why?
You guys are paying for an education after all, and JHU is known to be hard, so shouldn't you get class time?</p>
<p>Most likely 15 hours/week is normal though. I just have no idea.</p>
<p>Let’s say you go to class 5 times a week, that’s 3 hours a day worth of classes. On average mind you. That sounds pretty good to me. They are trying to stress that you don’t need to be all brains when if accepted to JHU. I like the fact that we will have a lot of time for extracurricular activities.</p>
<p>I was under the impression that because of all the pre-med students it was super-competitive and nobody had any real “free time” though.</p>
<p>impression, mind you. It’s not like I’ve ever been anywhere outside of my town</p>
<p>That’s normal. In high school most of the day is spent on things like solving problems and reading books, which college students do when they’re not in class. Number of hours spent in class per week is very standardized, and only highly non-traditional schools will give you a lot more class time. </p>
<p>Hopkins is stressing the low class time because it is trying to improve student life and attract well rounded students. Huge improvements are being made (and have been made in the past ~10 years), but historically Hopkins has had a lot of problems with school spirit. It wants people to come to Hopkins for the community and not just to study and go to classes.</p>
<p>ah. makes sense. thank you</p>
<p>Yes - many of us have at least 15 hours of classes per week. I do. But you have to take into consideration the level of classes we take - sometimes they are very difficult/challenging classes. In the remaining free time, there is time for extra-cirriculars, clubs, sports, homework, or leisurely time.</p>
<p>Now that I think about it, 15 hours/week seems a little high for the average person. In my sophomore year, one semester I took 5 classes and went to class a total of 16 times a week (a very high number). It still came out to only 15 hours. Last semester, I took 6 classes (5 graduate) and sat in on another, went to class 13 times a week, and was in class for a total of 18 hours (in addition to holding a 50-minute recitation section, holding office hours for 90 minutes, tutoring for 120 minutes, working on a thesis, running two clubs, and applying for grad school). Last semester was an exceptional workload but it is not normal.</p>
<p>So 15 hours/week actually seems a bit on the high end. But that does not include the work you must do out of class. And believe me, when you see the work pile up, you will be glad you’re in class for “only” 15 hours a week.</p>
<p>not to digress too much here…
But I think this brings up an important point about the issues we’ve faced with high school.
This is pretty much the major difference between high school and college, in high school, you spend much of your time in class.</p>
<p>I think this becomes an issue for some of the students who obviously need to go to college/are ready for college but are stuck in high school for 4 years instead. Having less class time has proven itself necessary in college, but the students who are college-destined instead are just given harder classes with the same amount of class time. Is filling up a schedule full of AP classes really working?</p>
<p>Honestly, after being in class for 7 hours a day, then 2 hours of sports, then 1-2 hours of piano, the time I have left to actually think about the material I had been given is very minimal. I can get it done, yes, but it is so much harder to actually learn.</p>
<p>perhaps we need to send students like me off to college a bit early, instead of using the “magical AP class”</p>
<p>just my thoughts</p>
<p>I won’t elaborate, but since I was a freshman, I’ve come to realize that the AP system is terrible and should really be eliminated. Aside from the fact that it makes people crazy, trying to overload their schedules just to get into college, most of the time, they are insufficient preparation for college.</p>
<p>AP classes are more like college than regular high school classes because your score is determined by your performance on a difficult exam at the end of the semester that is graded on a curve. A lot of students can get straight As in high school just by doing their homework and paying attention in class, and then find that they perform poorly when given real college level work. Likewise, there are students who perform poorly in high school because most of their grade is determined by their tolerance for repetitive busy work, but then end up becoming excellent college students. </p>
<p>Perhaps YanksDolphins went to a school that implemented AP poorly or had bad teachers, but when I look back at High School I can confidently say that my AP Chemistry and Calculus classes were my best preparation for college level work.</p>
<p>Really depends on your major. I’m doing econ/business so in several semesters I spent the majority of my time on internships and job interviews. There was one week when I had to postpone all of my classes for interview/job training classes. </p>
<p>In freshman and sophomore years, things are pretty standard: wake up, go to class, go to Fresh Food Cafe/Levering Cafe, go to more class or afternoon section, eat dinner at FFC again, do homework in dorm/library/common room/empty classroom, and “try” to get back before midnight. </p>
<p>When junior and senior years came along, things have become pretty irregular and unpredictable, for me at least: random interviews (and tons of time spent preparing for them), job searches, career fairs/sessions, meeting alums in other cities in the middle of the week, midterms, visiting grad school/business schools, organizing school events/leadership obligations (and a million little tasks that come with those obligations), GMAT practices, finding summer internships, and more midterms. It’s pretty messy and requires a lot of focus and multi-tasking at the same time. </p>
<p>I’m a senior right now so let me know if you have any other questions or things you want to know.</p>