I would like to know what is the max number of papers and pages you had to write for a 1 credit class (where a regular class has 1 credit).
Also what is the maximum number of hours in lab per week that you know of for a 1 credit class?
This thread was merged with another from the Parents Forum that was essentially the same topic and authored by the same OP.
The longest lab I’ve had is 4 hrs a week. Most of the labs I’ll be taking in the future are 3 though.
I’ve only had to write papers for a couple of classes (engineering major). One of them had 3 papers around 4 pages each and the other has 4 papers around 6 pages each. In my chem lab we had 6 lab reports that ranged from 4-8 pages.
Can you please indicate what year your in?
Can anyone top this for work for a single lab class?
1 credit class that has 2 labs a week and two lectures a week and the lab is listed as 4.5 hours twice a week = 9 hours a week but in reality students stay from 2 to 9 or 10 pm with a brief dinner break so 14 to 16 hours of lab a week.
When I was in college, I noticed that any course with a lab, large term project, or computer programming was significantly more work than other courses (I would imagine that art studio and music performance courses also count as more work), but did not have the proportionately higher credit value.
A student may want to strategically arrange schedules to take higher (by credit value) course loads when no high workload courses are included, but take lower (by credit value) course loads when taking the high workload courses. Three courses with labs may be as much work as five or six non-lab courses.
It’s a one-credit course? How many credit hours are other classes worth? That does sound bothersome especially since it means that they can’t take too many other courses because it takes over most of an entire day. I don’t think there’s too much recourse except for better planning.
My music major kid had many one credit ensemble classes…often more than one in a term. Each rehearsed daily, plus there were the hours of practice. One credit.
But you are talking about a science course. What course is this that has a one credit for both the lab and the course? My daughter was a STEm college major and never had a one credit course that was both a lab and lecture.
You say this is worth one college course…that could very well be more than one college credit.
Yes I agree that lab classes often have more than non lab but I’m thinking that this class does not fall in the normal distribution of work. [I’m not positive but I think the papers are not double spaced so even more writing than it sounds.]
Is the student a science major with this course being a required course for their major? Or is this just a general education requirement type course? If it is not a REQUIRED course for a major, I would highly recommend seeing if they could withdraw. Usually with a general education requirement, there are a number of possible courses you can choose from to fulfill the requirement.
Some professors believe every student should fall in love with their course, and don’t care that the workload is way too much. I avoided a statistics class I was required to take for my major (taught by only one professor who overloaded his students with too much work) by taking it over the summer at a local public college.
It’s one CLASS, not one credit. Is it 3 or 4 credits? I had a few 4-credit classes that sound like the one you describe. Then a 3-credit architectural design class that took MANY more hours. That’s how I knew I wasn’t cut out to be an architect! Yikes.
My engineering grad took several of those courses. I think it is pretty common. The flow chart for the major took this into account, but students who attempted electives with heavy workload on top of this, or who attempted to work or participate in EC’s, were more often than not in for a nasty surprise.
Schools label courses differently. At one of my children’s schools, they are all 1 credit and you need 30 or 32 to graduate. At another of my children’s school, the courses are 4 credits and you need 128 to graduate.
This class is equal to any other course except 1/2 semester courses which count as half a course.
Some schools assign credits to labs and others don’t. Neither school does.
I am assuming that OP is describing a situation where 1 class equals 1 credit (e.g. Penn) and is not describing a class with only 1 semester hour of credit. If that’s the case, yup, those lab courses are pretty much like that in many colleges.
This is required for the major and said student is in the midst of it. Things are not going well [not because it’s too hard but because it’s too much]. I do think that the student is completely capable and I do not see this class as being at all representative of a real work environment.
Ok…so if the school describes all courses as “one course” this is likely the equivalent of a 4 credit college course at schools that describe in credit hours rather than per course.
I asked my science major daughter. She says…this sounds about right for a lab course. Very often the students took a lot of extra time to complete a lab. That was just the way it was.
and yes…all of their labs had to be written up in a publication quality manner. She said often a good chunk of those pages were graphs and other visual data. She says her lab reports were usually well in excess of ten pages.
She says…some students are able to complete labs more quickly than others. Others need to take more time to do the tasks. If it’s her first lab course, this could slow her down. Plus certain lab procedures just take longer than others. She says…this is the way it is.
What science course is this?
@skieurope Really, that much writing? 80 to 120 pages of writing? I was a science major a long time ago at an IVY league and we never had that much time in lab or writing.
Writing has increased exponentially in all college courses since even one generation ago. There has to be a summary, procedures, hypotheses, results, conclusions, and sometimes additional lab questions. The professors want to know this all. And it takes a number of well written pages to do this.
My daughter says…she was an engineering and biology double major…and this level of work does not sound “off” to her.
ETA…my DD did have a course that was too much when added to her other courses. She actually ended up withdrawing with a W from that course, and took it a different term when the rest of her course load seemed lighter.
Well even if it’s par for the course, it seems off to me to be counted as a single class. It’s possible that my student is taking this publication quality thing to the max. Anyone who has written a journal article knows that it takes a long time to make a paper publication quality and no one writes 6 publication papers by themselves in a semester.
So some students can manage but others who are slower writers, need sleep or have a disability won’t be able to.
If your student has a disability, he or she can get assistance through the disability office. Sometimes this comes in the form of accommodations as well.
Most colleges have learning centers where writing efficiently can be addressed.
And everyone needs sleep.
Your student should meet with the professor to make sure that she isn’t misinterpreting the expectations for the lab report writing (although my kid did say…there is a standard for these which really needs to be followed…or at least there was at her college). Did the professor give out a sample? Maybe your daughter could ask for one.
Is this the first lab course of this type on the college level for this student? My daughter pulled out her chemistry notebook from high school. The lab reports for that were five pages long, at least. There were at least ten per semester. That was high school.
Also, if your student is sufficiently concerned, she could discuss this issue with her academic advisor who might be able to shed some light on the subject.
Not a first lab course. Student is a very good slow writer.
My impression is this is a macho thing and I’m guessing students have been reluctant to complain.
Disability accommodations can not change the actual work or work load.