Hey everyone! I’ve been doing some class scheduling over the past few days, and I am currently debating between an 8 AM and a 3 PM class. I was wondering if anyone who has had experience with early morning classes (as well as anyone without any morning classes) could give me an overview of their experiences. That would be a great help!
As for background information, I’m not an early or night person; I just function regularly whenever I wake up. Taking the 3 PM class will certainly allow me to get more sleep every day (I’ve heard that the 3 PM teacher is slightly better as well), which is a plus since I don’t know how late I will stay up at night. However, the 8 AM class will give me an incentive to wake up early and go to class, and my daily productivity would increase a lot (I don’t want to wake up and realize that several hours of my day are already over). In addition, getting all my classes over in the morning so that I have an uninterrupted afternoon is quite nice.
Also, I will be a freshman next year, so I don’t know what college will be like as of yet.
Thanks in advance!
I got out of class at 4:25 or 3:45 this past semester, depending on the day, amd I hated it. Not much time before dinner, and I’d rather get my homework out of the way in one go instead of constantly taking breaks for club meetings, eating, etc. So for me, the 8 am would definitely be preferable. You can take a nap in your unscheduled afternoon if you want. 
Agreeing with @bodangles : my experience, and Collegekid’s experience, is that it is harder to get work done in the morning before an afternoon class than it is to go to class and then go study. You can get a lot of work done during the day, have time for activities in the later afternoon and have evenings either free or available to work on longer term projects. One the Collegekids was really pleased one term to end up with all afternoon classes (no scheduling options) and hated it: stayed up later b/c easy to sleep late and got less done in both academics & activities.
I also preferred morning classes whenever possible. It is too easy to become side tracked with other things, and without strong disciple be tempted to skip class, especially if your friends have their afternoon free. I also agree that many campus activities are scheduled later in the afternoons which may limit your ability to participate.
I’m not a morning person at all… For context, I’m a rising junior math/CS double major, and a music and dance double minor.
Because my school is small, I don’t usually have a choice in times of classes and I have to say, early morning classes have been hit or miss for me. I’ve never had a 8 am, but I’ve had 9 ams in the past and will have 2 in the fall. One of the 9 ams was a joke and so it being that early didn’t matter, but the other was a 300-level (junior/senior level) math course and that was really tough. I didn’t do well in exams in that class at all even though I understood the material really well. I’ll have another 9 am math class in the fall that I’m really dreading, but the second 9 am, a theater class, I actually chose over a noon dance class because if i would have done the noon class, I would have had three classes in a row with no break for lunch.
I really don’t mind classes later in the afternoon. I’ve had many 3 pm classes (dance history, anthropology of music, a math class and I’ll have one in the fall too, a gen ed, a dance technique class) as well as even some 4:30 pm classes (a music class that’s required every semester, and a different music elective). For me, 3 pm is a great time for class because it’s past the post lunch food coma (which sometimes hits me during 1:30 pm classes). In addition, since I have music rehearsals in the evenings anyways, I can still use the time after class and before rehearsal productively, while leaving early morning free to catch up on sleep, especially after days when I have rehearsal until 9:30 pm and then have to finish hw afterwards.
So yeah in summary, I don’t like 9 ams or noon classes, but will take them if I need to. I usually have 10:30 am classes and 3 pm classes every semester just because of when the classes I need to take are offered (usually only one section), and have learned to use the time in between classes to get work done.
Disclaimer: I’m a morning person in general.
Personally I always tried for morning classes whenever possible. If I could be done with classes before noon (even if it meant an 8am class), that was a perfect schedule for me. The next best thing was finishing by 2 at the latest. For one, I’m already a morning person and was better able to focus in the morning and early afternoon. And for another, whenever I had later classes I’d get lazy and wouldn’t end up doing any work or studying until after my class(es). On days where I was done early, I was usually very productive because class had already put me in the studying mindset.
I’m in my last quarter (only one more week of classes!) right now, and I have one late afternoon class on Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday and Thursday have been by far my least productive days, and then by the time I get home I’m feeling even lazier because it feels like there isn’t much more time in the day. It doesn’t matter that there are really about 5-6 hours where I can work; it still feels like there isn’t much time because I got home much later than usual. Compare that to Mondays and Wednesdays, where I’m done by 1:30, and Fridays, where I’m done at noon. I get a lot more done those days because I’m both in the right mindset and feel like there’s plenty of time to get stuff done.
Oh, another thing that’d happen if I had later classes: I may be productive for a few hours, but I was always in a nice rhythm when I suddenly had to leave for class. That would completely kill my productivity because I had to stop right in the middle of something, and it caused some frustration when I tried to get back to what I was doing. Compare that to morning classes, where I never attempted to get anything done before class because I knew I wouldn’t have time. I could get home, then get in a rhythm and continue relatively uninterrupted throughout the day until I came to a natural stopping point.
So yeah in summary, I definitely prefer morning classes to late afternoon and evening classes. But part of that is because I’m a morning person in general.
I think having the morning classes will give you more incentive to get up and be productive. And since you are a freshman it should be easier since presumably you are still used to getting up for school (i.e. high school).
As you can see, morning versus afternoon classes is a mixed bag. Do the two sections have different or the same instructor? That information might be helpful. Does one use a lecture format and the other is discussion and group work.Your preferences? Are the size of the rooms or location of building important? Distance, weather, climbing stairs, lecture hall versus classroom. It’s up to your preferences. Some information may be difficult to obtain now. Are there cohort classes where a group shares the same classes which gives you an early batch of study partners, friends, fellow travelers getting to class, sharing notes, commiserating…I found taking classes with a core of other students very helpful
Personally, I always chose morning classes, but I wake up cheerful and bright-eyed before 6am and amdrowsy in the afternoon. I liked classes that met only once weeklyat night. As faculty, I chose the same schedule. I liked having blocks of free time and not struggling to stay awake in a warm, sunny classroom.
So there are both personal and academic reasons to chose classes. I tried to arrange my schedules so I could take back to back classes in rooms that were close or had only an hour between them so I had built in study halls. I avoided a class every day as much as I could so I would have opportunities for studying, doing laundry, napping, socializing, etc. The worst schedule to me was mix of times over 5 days weekly. Despite fewer class hours than high school, college is often more demanding of your time so you will need and enjoy blocks of time.
Also, be careful of overall course selection with a mix of easy and difficult classes. First semester is critical for you to get the hang of going to college. In my experience, as well as others too, you will get your lowest grades in the first term. It’s up from there because you have so much more experience and comfort level in the second semester and later–the perks of feeling like you belong.
Have a great year. Wonder what you will truly major in; do not choose on the basis of personal earning potential. Coach Mike Shanahan recruits the best athletes because he can always train someone to fill a different position.
My kids used Rate My Professor (yes, you just have to ignore the “sour grapes” posters) for freshman year as part of determining which sections to sign up for. As a freshman in particular when you are low in the priority list for registering, taking an early am class can be the best way to get the best professors. Once they got to college they continued to use this, but then could also ask other students. Now… only do this if you think you can get up and get to an early class. My kids could, and it paid dividends for them.
Thank you for the advice! I’ll definitely keep them in mind when I schedule classes.
@intparent I’m using Rate my Professors as well. Using the advice from previous posters, I’m leaning toward an 8 AM class simply because it’ll make me more productive (the fact that it’s hard to do work before an afternoon lecture definitely adds to that). The only problem is that the 8 AM professor has a rating of 3.4 while the 3 PM professor has a rating of 4.6. Both professors only have 7-8 reviews, so I’m taking them with a grain of salt, but I’m still kind of uneasy about giving up a good professor for productivity. The class in question is Calc III, and I feel that a good professor is important since much of the class is about visualizing in 3D.
I guess the good thing about taking a morning class with a professor with a lower rating is that his lecture will have less people (and many of the ones in the class will skip days due to the early timing). I think that it’ll be easier for me to get to know my professor in that situation, and his office hours will be less busy, but I don’t know if that is completely worth it. Do you have any opinions on the situation?
I don’t know what a typical sample is on that site, but that seems like too small a sample size to really give it much value.
My physics professor has a 1.6 on RMP, entirely undeserved – people just fail and blame him for it. On the other hand, my thermo prof thoroughly deserved his 2.7. So take with a grain of salt.
This is a personal preference thing, but I would definitely take the 3 PM class. I am not a morning person. but I was able to get up on-time for pretty much all of high school. It is much more difficult to do so in college and is even more difficult if you stayed up late the last night studying/working on an extracurricular activity. Even with a later morning class, it gives you the opportunity to wake up a bit earlier and do some refreshers or review before if you have a major test. It’s much more difficult with an 8 AM. Plus if the professor is rated slightly better, it is only more reason to take the later class. Take the 3 PM class, you’ll thank me later.
In addition if you really want to get to know a professor, go to their office hours, chat with them, and tell them about your interests/ask them questions. You’ll get more out of an interaction this way than simply being in a smaller class.
I believe most young people are night owls and not a morning person. In high school I would usually go to sleep at 1AM and wake up at 6AM. It was not because I had a lot of work, but mainly because I just could not fall asleep before 1AM.
Time to become a morning person. Ideally, adaptably being an anytime person is best. Of course, it depends on goals.
The working world starts promptly in the morning so college is a good opportunity for acclimation. Getting your classes finished by lunchtime with the occasional afternoon lab or such is functional. You have all afternoon and evening free. If you know you have an 8 or 9 AM class every morning you are less likely to stay up too late or be too random with your sleep schedule.
Honestly even an 8 AM was sleeping in for me since my old high school started at 7:25 AM. I just became a morning person. During the semester I always went to bed between 10-11:00 PM unless I was finishing a problem set. By scheduling morning classes my transition to the workforce won’t be awful. Plus I had to work around my geology courses so that meant morning classes.
CS major at a large university. Had an 8am on another campus (30 minute bus ride). If you take light course loads and can go to bed reliably early, then they’re fine. I however was maxed on credits, had a job, and did research, so I rarely went to bed early. On the mornings that I had 8am classes, I’d get around 3 hours of sleep. It’s something you have to think about. I’d never do it again.
I definitely prefer morning classes- my productivity is much better after classes. It’s also a great feeling to finish your classes by early afternoon or sometimes even by noon. Keep in mind that a lot of extracurricular activities tend to take place in the evening, so taking too many afternoon classes could impact your ability to participate.
As for your ratemyprofessor concerns, I’ve realized that a lot of the lower ratings result from people finding the course difficult and blaming it upon the professor. Ratings of 3 and above usually mean the professor is fine as long as you pay attention, work diligently, and don’t skip class.
I’m a night person, but I love having somewhat earlier classes. Not 8AM’s, but the 9AM-10AM range start is great, because as others said, you get a much more productive day.
I personally really like earlier classes and worked out my first term schedule for next year so that I have a block from 8 to 11 four days a week, 8 to noon the other day. It only works if you plan on going to bed before midnight most of the time. I personally cannot stay fully alert between 2 and 4 without help from caffeine, so my 3:00 classes killed me, plus I had to eat dinner early sometimes so I could do other activities. It definitely depends on your personality and the rest of your schedule. But for me at least, 8 AMs were great.