<p>My S will likely have to choose soon between schools where students take 5 courses a semester and schools where only 4 courses are required. Does anyone know if the workload at the 4 course schools is greater per course? Shouldn't it be easier to take 4 courses rather than 5? S is not sure of his major but it could be econ, philosophy or goverment. He is actually interested in experiencing as many disciplines as possible so in some ways, being limited to 32 courses instead of 40 could be perceived as a negative. For discussion purposes, assume we are comparing the programs at UVA, William and Mary and Georgetown to Amherst, Brown and Wesleyan and Grad school is not in the picture. There are so many great courses at all of these schools. Any experience or thoughts would be appreciated.</p>
<p>About a third of Brown students are taking five courses at any time (estimate). That being said, while I personally can’t compare our 4 courses directly to somewhere else’s 5 courses, transfer students I’ve spoken to have uniformly said that they felt our 4 course work load was equivalent to a full time semester at their old schools. We had more outside work expected for each course on average and covered more content or more depth by a bit that seemed in line with the notion that these classes are each expected to be 1/4 your workload.</p>
<p>It should also be noted that besides PChem and Operating Systems, there are no lab courses at Brown offered for credit, meaning that if your science course has a lab associated with it you do not get an extra half or full course credit or anything despite the extra time commitment. I’m not sure if that applies to your situation, but it’s something worth considering. I’ve had semesters that at other schools would be considered 20+ credits because of the amount of lab courses I took.</p>
<p>In my experience many students at schools where 4 courses per semester is the “normal” load take 5 courses at least some of the time. </p>
<p>I’ve actually not heard of a school where 5 courses per semester is expected. I’m accustomed to schools where all courses are considered “equal” in terms of “credits.” I wonder if the 5-course school has courses that are taken for less credit and are therefore supposed to be less work…</p>
<p>I have studied at a “four course school” where I carried the 4 courses worth the equivalent of 4 semester hours each term, and at a “five course school” where I carried 5 courses worth the equivalent of 3 semester hours each term, sometimes with an additional 1 semester hour laboratory course. The workload was roughly equivalent. Personally, I liked the 4 course system. I had fewer classes and fewer teachers to keep track of, and fewer individual mid-term exams and final exams to prepare for.</p>
<p>The four course school had a set of distribution requirements. While meeting them it was easy to explore many different fields, especially in the first two years before declaring a major.</p>
<p>At a 4-course school, each class is worth 4 credit hours and will have more classroom time and probably more associated work. Because faculty are likely to be teaching fewer classes, there will probably be more writing assignments. The advantage here is that the student can go into more depth for each class.</p>
<p>At a 5-course school, each class is worth 3 credit hours. The advantage here is that the student is able to take courses in more topic areas without a schedule overload.</p>
<p>Ultimately, neither is “better” or “worse.”</p>
<p>at Wesleyan, your academic advisor is required to give approval before allowing you to take 5 or more credits… although some do it (myself included, as the 5th course is not academically intensive)</p>
<p>Long ago I attended a state school that was on the quarter (term) system, and the average load was 15 credits per quarter with most classes 3 credits each = 5 classes per quarter. Several quarters I took 16 - 18 credits (21 credits once) because many sciences classes with labs were 5 credits. </p>
<p>You certailnly are exposed to more classes and topics (potentially) with this system – average of 60 classes in 4 years.</p>
<p>This is helpful. It seems that the workload is similar but if taking a variety of courses is a goal of the student, that a 5 course school has advantages. While taking 5 courses at a 4 course school might be feasable, it would seem to be a heavy workload.</p>
<p>How difficult is it to take 5 classes at a 4 course school? Is the 20 credits very difficult- would you recommend taking 5 classes when you are doing gen ed courses rather than upper level classes?
At my D school you take 4 classes for 16 credits if you want to take a 5th class you need at least a 3.25 GPA. I believe you also need your adviser’s okay.</p>
<p>I am not familiar with this 4 course vs 5 course phenomenon. I attended the university of wisconsin where everything was done by credits. 12 credits meant full time, 15 was standard and you could take up 18 credits. Some classes were 5 credits, some were 4 and some were 3. This allowed you to take several less intense courses or balance it however you liked. This is instrumental for those of us in the biomedical sciences where you need to balance differing loads of courses with certain research activities. Who knows, maybe your son will have to balance independent study credits, internships or more of the like and find that a traditional credit system works better for him.</p>
<p>I am a parent that had issues with 5 class/semester when I was an undergrad. Being a science major with labs made it very demanding to fit in 5 classes a semester. I struggled with it my four years and it’s something I looked at for my now college age kids to avoid. I found I could concentrate on 3 classes and skimmed thru the other two classes. I didn’t even like these additional classes but because of the heavy core curriculum I had to take them. So I am for a more open curriculum with just a few requirements so it forces you to take some classes you might not have thought of. Like I took economics and US history and loved it but hated “poetry and drama”, Roman history and philosophy. For me a waste of time. Would have rather taken additional science or math classes. I felt I graduated with a useless biology degree, knowing very little about biology being bogged down with so many useless classes. So I think a 32 class requirement is perfect, allowing you to take additional classes if you can handle it, internships or research and perhaps a job!</p>
<p>Many things purplegirl is describing is very Brown-like. One of the issues I see with friends taking five courses a semester is there is definitely a propensity to take one or even two “joke courses” to make the schedule manageable. Sure, this happens at 4 course schools as well, but I think that essentially for most students the number of challenging courses that one focuses on each semester probably does not fluctuate much from 3-4 for everyone, regardless of how many classes you’re registered for.</p>
<p>I’m not certain taking 60 classes is better than taking 32 or 40 classes or what not as some have mentioned in this thread-- greater exposure and breadth is one thing, but can you truly explore that material in the same depth? I doubt it. Finding a balance between breadth and depth is a huge challenge, especially for us Brown students, but it’s critical nonetheless.</p>
<p>I went to MIT. MIT is a four-course school. Trust me, we were not underworked. :p</p>
<p>Technically, though, it was a matter of units, not courses. A normal course was 12 units (you were expected to spend 12 hours/week on it between classroom time and homework/study/lab time), and a normal schedule was 48 units, or four normal classes. However, sometimes the number of units was dubious. I had a memorable 15-unit class on which I spent 30 hours/week, and I also had one or two 12-unit classes on which I spent maybe 6 hours/week.</p>
<p>After you got beyond freshman year, there was no upper limit (unless you got put on academic probation and the Committee on Academic Performance imposed a credit limit on you). You could take five, or six, or ten courses per semester if you could figure out the scheduling and convince your advisor to sign off on it. However, four was “the normal schedule”. Many people took five for at least some terms. After five, there was a significant drop-off in the number of people doing it.</p>