<p>I was surprised when we went on a tour of a well-regarded LAC to find that the typical student is in class 2 hours a day on average (and the school still wants $50,000+/year). I always ask this question now.</p>
<p>I’m not sure this is so unusual. A usual course load is 4 courses a semester. That might be 2 classes meeting for 50 minutes per day 3 days a week and 2 classes meeting for 75 minutes 2 days a week. So the average might be 600 minutes of class time over 5 days, which averages 2 hours a day. A question that will differentiate college experiences more would be how much time studying students spend outside of class hours.</p>
<p>2 hours/day seems kind of low. Maybe on some days, but there should be other days when there are classes PLUS a review session or 2 hour lab. </p>
<p>Back in the day…I recall having few classes Tuesday/Thursday, but more on M/W/F. </p>
<p>And as a music major, we had more than 4 classes a quarter! More like 7 or 8, but many were only one credit hour. Still…it was a class and you had to prepare for it…or at least attend.</p>
<p>I agree, time studying/practicing/doing problem sets is a more accurate measure than time spent in class. A research paper will make you spend way more hours in the library than in class. And a one-hour lesson causes as much as 6 hours a day practice time! Ah, performance majors…</p>
<p>You should also include smaller discussion seminars that go along with most large lecture classes or labs that go with science classes. My son took 4 classes this past semester, but 3 of those classes had separate discussion groups with TAs or labs. He was generally in class 3+ hours a day.</p>
<p>The school my daughter attends is on the quarter system, and the typical full-time load is three classes per quarter over four days per week (there are no classes at all schedules on Fridays, which are set aside for studio time and meetings with professors if needed).</p>
<p>Two of the four days this quarter she only has one class, and is in class 2.5 hours those days. </p>
<p>That being said, she averages 10-15 hours of outside work per class per week. She may not be IN class much, but overall she’s putting in 45-60 hours of work/study time.</p>
<p>My D’s classes seem to equate to 50 minutes per credit. Her 3 credit classes are 3 days for 50 minutes, or 2 days for 75. Her 4 credit classes have another session per week. So at 16 credits, that’s 2 hours 40 minutes a day, on average. She does lots of outside reading, research for papers, homework, etc, so the time feels about right for her. </p>
<p>I was an engineering student and had more classes and credits per semester, but the homework was different and I never wrote a paper my whole college career (other than lab reports!)</p>
<p>Yes, that would be average excluding labs and small group discussion sections. My son seems to be in class, or the lab or a discussion group about 15-20 hours a week. (Five 3credit hour classes + a lab/discussion group etc. so 15 hours a week +) But almost every semester he either has a day where he has nothing or two days where he might have an hour or so while the remaining days are fuller. That said I went to a private LAC that still operates similarly and like MsMayor’s example. All the classes were compressed and accelerated into a 10 week quarter. We covered in 10 weeks in organic chem what the state school covered in 16-20 weeks. We were in class maybe a couple hours a day, but in the library (or lab) many more hours than that. So the hours in class don’t equate to the volume of work or the hours that need to be put in outside of class.</p>
<p>It is a good idea to ask how many hours kids are in class because it will give you an idea if the kids are taking a full load to graduate on time or if for some reason they are taking a lower number of credits. We discovered with my oldest son’s college that many, many kids take 12 hours a semester. 12-19 is considered “full time” but if you take 12 each semester you graduate in 6 years or have to commit to summers to graduate in 4. If you take 15 a semester (no summers) you graduate in 4 (as long as you take the classes for your major requirement, core requirement etc.). The question is legitimate if framed in that context…how many credit hours or classes are needed to graduate in 4 years. At my LAC we didn’t have credit hours but needed I think 32 “classes” to graduate plus a capstone project so the question can be framed in the context of the particular school.</p>