I’m a prospective student. Although the time of day (morning, afternoon, night) of college classes might not seem of much importance when choosing colleges, I think once I settle in to daily college life, when classes start (so how much sleep I get based on my sleep schedule) will matter a lot. Of course, I still consider many other aspects, but might as well try to figure this out now.
I’m comparing between:
University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Michigan
University of Washington Seattle
University of Pittsburgh
As the title states, I’m a night owl. This means that if a college offers night classes or labs such as from 10pm to 2am, that’s perfect. Or, what matters is how late can classes start and how much flexibility there is. I think especially for freshmen, there isn’t usually much say when picking classes. UW Madison, for example, has classes starting as early as 7:55am, which makes it a bad choice for me.
I don’t think any college will schedule a class to run after midnight. Regardless, you can try to choose your courses or sections to avoid the morning but there is no guarantee anywhere that you will be able to do so or that you might otherwise awaken due to construction, noisy roommates, or whatever.
You survived K12 with morning starts; you will be ok in college too. Learning to manage your schedule is an important skill.
All colleges have classes that start early in the morning…and very few if any have classes starting after 10 p.m. Actually…in person classes usually end by 10 pm at most colleges (I’d put all…but I’m not familiar with 3000 colleges).
My opinion…you probably start high school before 8 a.m. right? I’d figure out a way to adjust my sleep cycle.
Remember also, that you probably will have a roommate who will likely be less than thrilled that you are up until the wee hours.
Terrific question; I wish I had a good answer. As you know, the problem is that evening classes are extremely rare, and schools that do have them often reserve them exclusively for their continuing education students (i.e. working adults who are earning a degree at night.) For example, my son’s university offers them, but if you are not enrolled in the School of Professional and Continuing Studies, you cannot take them without special permission. Even just afternoon classes are hard to get, especially for freshmen because they register last.
I do think it’s worth trying to find a way. Chronobiology is real, and our society should value genetic outliers. I really value my colleagues who are awake and alert to staff ERs, do emergency surgeries, and deliver babies in the middle of the night, because I am a total wreck by midnight (and in exchange I’m thrilled to take the early morning shift!)
So some ideas:
Could you get a formal diagnosis of circadian rhythm sleep disorder, delayed sleep phase type G47.21 (ideally from a sleep specialist, but perhaps from a neurologist, psychiatrist or primary care doctor?) And then maybe get accommodations such as being allowed to register early to get the afternoon classes, or having access to the evening classes normally reserved for working adults?
Trying to do most of the intro classes (which are more likely to be early) in an asynchronous online fashion. Maybe while still in high school as dual enrollment, during the summer after senior year, or maybe during the year after graduation and then transfer into the university of your choice.
Obviously do your best to adapt your circadian rhythm as much as you reasonably can. E.g. force yourself to wake up at the same time each day (say 10am) even though that is not what your body wants to do. Try to avoid situations that have you waking up at 8am some days and sleeping until 2pm on others.
Obviously choose a major that will lead you to a profession where your genetic difference will be an asset rather than a liability.
No university (that I’ve ever encountered) is going to have classes that run late at night – too many safety and liability issues, and professors don’t want to teach then! Many will have evening classes if there’s enough demand for it, but these would wrap up by 8 or 9 p.m. at the latest. Just about all of them have classes that start before 9 a.m. But just because a school offers 8 a.m. classes, this doesn’t mean you have to take them. There will be enough course offerings (including sections of required courses) that you would rarely if ever have to pick a class that starts early in the day – it’s common for students to schedule classes around their sleep preferences, work schedule, or other considerations. I would steer clear of smaller schools, where there might not be quite as much latitude in picking class schedules and times. Every once in awhile, you might be stuck with a morning class, but you should be able to get the schedule you want most semesters at any of the schools you listed.
Plan to study, not be in class, between the hours of 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.
Definitely! Though some colleges are actually successful at matching night owls (or early birds) with each other as roommates. But don’t count on that.
You’re better off at a college with a large commuter population and more part time students I.e, people who work or still live at home. When I attended college, I worked various jobs and took a number of evening classes, but the latest any classes ever ended was 9 pm. There was quite a variety of evening classes at my university, which did indeed have many commuters.
Both of my kids attended primarily residential colleges, where most, or all, were full time students. But both kids did have a few night courses, even the kid at the small LAC.
The big question here is why go to a four year residential college if you’re going to miss out on all the fun stuff that happens at night? Evenings are often for meeting people and having fun. I think you can manage a schedule in which most of your classes are after lunch time, but you can also suffer through the occasional early class. College is also about time management and having fun.
Online classes with 24 hour accessibility may help your situation. (University of Florida is a school which offers many online classes to full=time resident students.)
In my experience, the latest start time for a class was 8 PM.
Check out the library hours as well as the lab hours. Some schools may stay open around-the-clock (24 hours).
Because the four schools that you listed are all in cold weather areas, you may not find late night classes as roads & sidewalks often freeze over during the colder hours.
Most of my kids attended/attend large universities with plenty of 7 -10 classes, that’s the latest I’ve seen. Two of my kids’ universities did have some finals starting at 9 pm, sometimes on weekends (Rutgers and UDel). Look at big publics.
It’s pretty easy to avoid morning classes at almost any school. What time do you wake up?
Afternoon classes and then studying in the library (many are 24 hrs) might be a better plan. And I think any of the universities you listed will have some afternoon classes. Dig into their websites and see if you can access the class schedules and compare.
And, of course, if you want to have a social life at college a lot of that happens in the evenings.
Most adults in the US work the day shift. If this is really so important to you and you feel unable to adjust your personal schedule, then you should plan on a career that accomodates shift work and choose a major accodingly. Many types of health care, law enforcement and IT work have overnight shifts.
I would note that University of Wisconsin has a library that stays open 24 hours. The latest a library at University of Washington stays open is midnight.
U Washington at Seattle library may close at midnight due to the great number of homeless folks in the area. Seattle is ranked #1 for homelessness in the country (may be based on percentage of population IIRC).
Here’s is Wisconsin’s course catalog. I just looked at Gen Ed English Comp: Course Search & Enroll
The earliest section offered is 8:50am and the latest is 4pm.
The College Library (there are many libraries) is open 24 hrs Locations | UW-Madison Libraries
You can do the same thing for other colleges. You may run into classes that you will have to compromise on and take in the morning rather than the afternoon, but at most colleges you should be able to weight most of your classes to the afternoon.
However your roommate may get up at 7am and rattle around and make a bunch of noise so that is something to keep in mind when looking for a roommate and making housing selections.
I was a night owl and my roommate rowed crew (and was pre-med). She didn’t rattle- but she left many mornings for pre-dawn workouts, and needed to be in bed, lights out, by 10 pm. We made it work… respecting other people’s needs and boundaries is good practice for real life (I am still a night owl and my spouse of 40+ years is an early riser).
OP-- you’ll have trade-offs to make in picking classes. Too early for you but with the fantastic professor? Late in the day but in a lecture hall which is a long hike from your dorm?
Many, many college students are night owls and they manage to figure it out. You will, too. I don’t know of any college which is offering labs at midnight, but students are often IN the lab at midnight (and the library, and the arts studio, and the music practice rooms, and the workout rooms, or whatever your interests are).
Maybe there is an astronomy observation lab that late, but an astronomy major would also have to take math and physics courses held at whatever the normal time of day range the college has.