<p>I'm a freshman at a liberal arts college which is ranked about top 15 in the nation. Although I'm satisfied with the quality of education offered here, I'm kinda worried about the fact that I only have 4 hours of classes each day. When my father had college education at some famous university in UK, he had 6 hours of classes each day and also had classes on Saturday. That difference makes me feel like I'm lazy. </p>
<p>Could you tell me how long the average hours of classes taken by students at comparably competitive universities and colleges in the U.S. are and how long the average hours of classes taken by students at very top universities like MIT are, so that I can compare my situation with others? </p>
<p>I don’t think I’ve ever really had much more than that in a day. If you have 3 classes in one day, and each class is an hour and 15 minutes…that’s almost 4 hours. </p>
<p>Labs are usually a few hours, so lab days can be longer. </p>
<p>It’s typically for students to take around 15 credit hours per semester. I’d say if you’re in that range you’re in the normal range. </p>
<p>If your courses are all non-lab courses, a typical schedule would have 15-16 hours of in-class time (lecture and discussion) per week, plus an expectation of 30-32 hours of out-of-class time spent on the courses. Labs will add additional class time.</p>
<p>Assuming that you are taking a normative 15 or 16 credit load, that would equate to about 15-16 hours of classes a week, so actually less than 4 hours if your classes were equally spread throughout the week. The expectation is that you do lots of independent work and study outside the classroom (the common statistic is 3 hours of work for every hour spent in class, but outside of a few really challenging courses, I’ve never known anyone who actually spent that long).</p>
<p>If you discover that you have blocks of unfilled time, perhaps you can get an internship or a job to get more experience in your field.</p>
<p>Monday is the only day I have four classes. Thursday I only have one. You spend less time in class then you did in high school, but there will be nights you will see an increased work load outside of class. </p>
<p>I’m really relieved to hear that my schedule is in norm! I see. So, I just assume that the focus of education which my father had is drastically different from the one which I’m having now, in terms of the amount of work load outside of class. As stradmom suggested, I will spend free time for doing something productive, unlike in high school since I couldn’t do anything due to my 6 AP classes. </p>
<p>I have 2 classes two times a week and 1 class on Fridays. I have go to class a total of 10hrs a week plus I work 14 hours a week. Your workload isn’t bad at all.</p>