I was just thinking about times and all the class hours I definetly want to double major in something business related (been contemplating Entrepenuership and Marketing)
How many hours a week does the average student double majoring go to classes?
I’ve heard the average student goes 12-16 hours a week but how many more hours a week does double majoring take?
Whether you double major or not, you generally will take around the same number of credit hours. Sometimes double majors have to take more (18+ credits) in a semester, but that still won’t be a ton of class time, maybe one more class. The average student takes maybe 4-5 classes a semester. I’m double-majoring and because of AP credits I came in with, I only have to take 14-15 credit hours/semester throughout college. It’s going to vary depending on your school and what your situation is.
@CE527M Thanks how many hours a week do you have classes, like what does your schedule look like?
For the most part, none. Double majoring is not the issue. Most colleges will have a ceiling on how many classes/credits you can take per semester. I took 16 credits last semester. Since my college applies 4 credits to almost all courses, regardless of actual class hours, my hours in class were actually about 15 hours. Having said that, my hours outside of class to prepare for those 15 hours was over 30 hours.
@skieurope Oh wow nice! What did your schedule look like as being a double major? I’m interested on what some double major students schedules looked like
I’m a double major, double minor. My school uses units (1 unit =3.5 credits), but converted, I usually take around 18 credits of academic classes and then an additional 4-8 credits equivalent of music ensembles and lessons (I don’t get charged extra for the music ensembles, but I do have to get a dean override to sign up for the amount of units I take). However, I only spend around 15-16 hours in class and then an additional 8-12 hours a week in rehearsals/lessons.
Most students at my university take 4-5 units a semester, which is typically 4-5 classes. You need a dean override to sign up for more than 5.5 units and get charged extra for above 6, excluding some courses (music ensembles, theater practicum, etc). The way I make my majors (math and CS) and minors (music and dance) fit is the following:
-one math course
-one CS course
-one dance course
-one music course or gen ed/elective
-one gen ed/elective or extra of either math or CS
-music ensembles and lessons above the normal course load
So in terms of academic courses, I take the same amount as everyone else.
I still have time for extracurriculars (outside of music). I have a part time job, do research, am involved in theater, and am part of an SAT outreach initiative. These take up another 6-14 hours a week (varies from week to week).
@prettygreat, it varies too much by both college and subjects for any one to give you anything more than individual experiences- and that won’t really be useful to you.
From another thread, you are a freshman, meaning you are at least 4 years- possibly 5- years away from declaring a major- which you will do at a college that you haven’t even chosen yet! So, at this point you are daydreaming, just like practicing your acceptance speech for an award, or thinking what you would play if you got a big-deal audition, or picking what city you will live in when you get out of college.
In 2 1/2 years you will apply to colleges, and 3 years from now you will choose your college. When you get to college you will take some introductory courses area that are interesting to you, and from there you will decide which major(s) work best for you. Some of the decision will be practical- how it works for scheduling, for example. And some of it will be human- how you get on with the professors in that department, for example. But most of it will be how much you enjoy those courses, what you find interesting, what you do well in.
@collegemom3717 Thanks for the info. Haha but no that’s my younger brother I let him use my account. I don’t think he’d be thinking about all this stuff for a while!
Really? so where are you in the college process?
I’m only in class like about 10 hours a week, I think. I don’t know how long I spend on schoolwork outside of class but at least half of my free time is spent doing homework and studying. I have plenty of time for free time, work, and extracurriculars. I have two classes a day so it’s not that bad at all. I have friends who are taking lab sciences, however, and that’s a significant bigger chunk of time because labs are long. So it really just depends on the classes you take.
Right, the course schedule for a double major can vary wildly with what majors are being taken, if they’re in the same “college” (humanities, math and science, etc.), and how many credits you come in with from AP/IB, duel-enrollement, and placement testing, not to mention your university’s curriculums and general core requirements, which can vary, as well. My schedule tends to be the following:
- Major A [3 credits]
- Major A [3 credits]
- Major B [3 credits]
- Minor [3-4 credits]
- core gen ed [3 credits]
- and either a second core gen ed [3 credits] or a seminar, lecture, participation course [1 credit] depending on how many credits the Minor course I'm taking is.
So that come out to 17-18 credit hours, and maybe 10-14 in class hours? I’m not sure I would be able to double-major and minor had I not come in with so much credit and placed highly in one of my majors. I also don’t have classes with labs, which take up a lot of time, so that helps. Outside of class, I’m pretty active in clubs, I work part-time, and I keep a social life alive. A lot of this is YMMV, esp with the differences between in-class hours and credit hours (I’m not sure, from your OP, if you understood the difference).
Also, you and your brother shouldn’t share an account, if you still are doing so.
Another example: my double majoring D2 was allowed to use up to 4 APs towards graduation requirements, so most semesters she takes 4 classes. one semester she will have 4.5 classes (the half is an independent research), and one semester she took 5.
The key in this case was that the requirements/options for her first major overlap so much with her second major that she only needs 3 extra classes to get the second major- and 2 of them were ones she was interested in anyway!
Typically you’ll have 10-12 classes for gen ed, 10-12 classes for your major, and 10-12 classes that are free. These “free” classes can be taken up by your double major or by electives. Your schedule would have a similar number of hours but instead of taking anything that interests you, you’d be taking the double major’s classes.
Note that it’s not necessary to major or minor in something in order to take classes in it. You could create your own “cluster” of 3 classes on a subject you find interesting, without minoring in it, for instance.