Workload in college= stress???? help plz

Parent Cafe
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<p>no, my roommates don't do much. I haven't figured out why. (well, i've seen them study and do work occasionally.. but maybe for 1-2 hours per day.. tops. also, only one of them works) They have been watching like 2 movies per day all week.. I literally do more work than all of them combined. i posted before that all my classes are group projects, so i need to spend time doing research on my own, as well as in group meeting with my groups... plus studying for the tests in the classes. i also got hit with a big assignment due this week (probably spent about 15 hours on it alone).. this week was just completely awful.</p>

<p>I'm a business major, my roommates are Graphic Design, mass comm, and Public relations. but my business program has a lot of work. most of my courses are like group focused, and project oriented. i love it though. i don't mean to complain, i'm just saying that i do a lot of work while at school, and it bothers me when people try to tell me that high school requires more work than college,because I know first hand, that that isn't the case. I also know engineering majors do a ton of work too.</p>

<p>I'd say average number of credits would be about 15. Give or take a few. I did 15 my first 4 semesters, and then i had 3 semesters of 18, and now 12 this semester. I was hoping it would be easier, because of the less credits, but they are all capstone courses that require a lot of work, which is why i only chose to take 12.</p>

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<p>Some figures from me: </p>

<p>Research(Lab Work): 25 hrs / week
Classes (4 classeS): 10 hrs / week
Volunteering: 3 days, 2.5hr blocks = 7.5 hrs a week
Clubs/Meetings: 5 hrs / week, probably more, depends on the week.
Varsity Sport: 15 hrs / week, plus I'm gone most weekends
Homework/Studying: I average probably about 10 hrs/week, if that. Depends on whether there are exams or not.</p>

<p>That's 72.5 hrs a week of commited time, not including the time that I devote to watching TV and playing pool with my roommates (probably about 2 hrs a day). Of which only about 20 hrs is for classwork and study. I'm definitely spending less time on school and class now than in high school, but is my work load heavier? Positively. I think its a very skewed perception to consider merely the amount of time spent in the classroom in determining how much 'free time' a person has. That's the mistake I made freshman year.</p>

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<p>to yemaya13</p>

<p>I'm definitely not the most busy person that I know on campus. I've found that most people here prefer to keep very active and very busy lifestyles. I don't know how to convert my class credits to semester credits, since I only get one credit per class (0.5 credit for lab classes), but I take anywhere from 4 to 6.5 credits a semester, averaging around 5.5.</p>

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<p>Thanks, fendergirl and chyln! So each of you spends about 70 hours a week on school/jobs/ECs/volunteering. Have either of you had problems with time management when taking multiple classes in the same general area (multiple lab sciences or heavy reading classes)?</p>

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<p>It's completely dependent on time management and self control. As someone posted earlier, if you handle the assignments in a timely manner, they're all very doable. I'm taking 4 intensive science classes, of which 2 are actually graduate school level classes, i.e. I'm one of 3 undergrads with 30-40 grad students. The workload, while pretty heavy, is doable and enjoyable (because I like science!)</p>

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<p>Fendergirl:</p>

<p>You have my admiration on this issue as well as many others you have posted about. You somehow manage to carry a heavy courseload and hold a job, and still have time for club activities. Good for you.
It isn't that high school produces more work than college. It is the sheer number of hours one has to spend at school, often engaged in makework or review. There's no escaping it. And that time cannot be used to do something else.
I was posting the standard college courseload, though of course, I know that some students take more classes than are required, and that some classes meet more often and have heavier requirements than others. My S had to drop the idea of taking one college class because it would have required 3 hours of class, two hours of section plus three hours of lab (not to mention study groups and homework). He could not have fitted all these hours into his high school schedule. So he is taking another college class that meets twice a week in the evening so it does not interfere with high school. It does not appear to produce more homework than his high school classes.
The biggest problem I think that college students confront is the lack of structure. It is easy to fritter one's time. I know I did in my first semester in college. The first midterm is often a wake-up call (literally in some cases: many have been known to oversleep!) Having good study habits and studying efficiently are really crucial qualities. They make it possible to hold down a job, have a social life and still excel at academics.</p>

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<p>I was so worried on tuesday that i would oversleep for my 8 am class (i had a test)! I've only ever overslept an 8 am class once, and it was the day i was supposed to give a presentation with my roommate (she overslept too.. only time for her as well).. We don't know what happened, our alarms never went off. But whenever i have something major at 8 am i get worried that i'll over sleep :)</p>

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<p>chyln:
I know no high schooler who does not have ECs. Some work 20 hours per week; some rehearse everyday until 7pm; some play sports; others are engaged in academic ECs.
I did not include the time my S spends in his ECs because that is at his discretion, unlike school time.</p>

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<p>my little sister works four days a week after school, and is applying for another job on the weekends. </p>

<p>my little cousin that lives with us worked 4-5 days a week for 20 hours a week..</p>

<p>so yeah m ost people where i live work or have something (i worked as well)</p>

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<p>marite:</p>

<p>I never said that highschoolers don't have ECs. Don't know where you got that from.</p>

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<p>You did not. I just want to point out that it is not just college students who do things other than study and who therefore have a heavy schedule, though whether one wants to call club activities workload is debatable. Let me commend you for having the good sense to refrain from including TV watching and playing pool in your schedule of committed time to demonstrate the "heavy work load" of a college student.</p>

<p>Let's compare like with like. By including sports, clubs, etc... , you increased your committed time and" heavy workload" from 45 hours (total study time, including lab research) to 72.5 hours. A typical high schooler has 30 hours of school time alone. My S's current class hours come to 36. Homework is on top of that, and considerably more than the 10 hours you devote to yours. And ECs--to which he is as committed as you are to yours-- are on top of that. He has spent the last few Saturdays at away competitions, at least 10 hours each time. Every day he has an EC after school for a couple of hours. Every Sunday morning is similarly devoted to an EC. But unlike you, he does not consider his ECs "workload." If he held a job, as Fendergirl does and many high schoolers do, I would include it in his schedule of committed time. </p>

<p>I've said all I have to say. If you wish to think that college is so much more time consuming (as opposed to harder) than high school, be my guest. My S has enough experience with the workload at the college of his choice not to be afraid of what's coming.</p>

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<p>Again, you make the (I would say) mistake of thinking the only important time that contributes to 'workload' is class time. </p>

<p>The reason why I consider club activities workload is because of the different nature between college and highschool. In highschool, you are usually part of many student organizations and you go to a meeting say once a week or once a month, and volunteer for a couple hours a semester and that's all the commitment you need for it. </p>

<p>However, in college, most organizations are much more active in nature, requiring an actual commitment in time, where you are responsible for something on which others depend on you. That's why where most people at my school participated in a wide variety of ECs in high school, now only participate in the two or three that they have the time and energy to devote to it to do it properly. Sports take up 3 hours a day every day with most of the weekend spent traveling. Dramat suddenly takes up untold hours as you put together actual productions throughout the semester without the assistance of other adults. Campus publications take up enormous amounts of time as you have to meet with layout people, articles writers, publishers, within a set deadline. </p>

<p>Everything in high school is so structured and in such a way that you are sure to be able to finish the majority of your commitment to a club within the once a week/ once a month meetings. Thus, the dynamic that is observed in college differs from highschool in that, at least in my personal experience, academics often take a back seat to extra currics, because to most people, that's what really makes the college experience worthwhile, not what you learned while sleeping through your econ class, but in the many activities that you are part of on campus. That's why I consider club activities as actual workload in college. </p>

<p>Has your S actually lived on the college campus and been immersed in the environment there? Has he had the chance to participate in the activities offered by the college? Taking classes at a college do not constitute experiencing the 'workload' at the particular college. The nature of work at college is extremely different from high school. I am trying to belabor this point because I feel it is important to not underestimate college and avoid the midterm 'wake-up call' that you refer to. While your S need not be 'afraid' of college, if he thinks the same way you do, he may be in for surprise. </p>

<p>Finally, I would just like to say that college is much more time consuming and much harder than high school. Not on the academic level, but on the whole, where you work to divide your time and energy between class, friends, and activities (and lets not forget sleep!). </p>

<p>If you wish to think otherwise, be my guest, I have already been through my first three years in college and am just sharing some of my experiences, thoughts, and opinions.</p>

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<p>Posts: 34</p>

<p>Again, you make the (I would say) mistake of thinking the only important time that contributes to 'workload' is class time.</p>

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<p>Maybe it's your experience of hs ECs, but it's not my S. It's more than one or two hours per week for each of his ECs; and he's been pursuing them since 9th grade, some since 6th grade. </p>

<p>College harder than high school? Definitely. That's precisely why my S has been taking college classes since 9th grade. More time-consuming? I don't think so.
We live 15 minutes walk from Harvard. That's where my S takes his classes. We know all about college life.</p>

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<p>Maybe chlyn is studying too much and therefore it is more time consuming.</p>

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<p>Ok... do you not understand that taking classes at college is the same as experiencing college and certainly doesn't let you "know all about college life"? Especially if your taking classes at hah-vahd, which is notorious for its grade inflation. (Although I must admit that I'm likely to be biased.... heheh) Additionally, freshman and sophomore year classes at university are inherently easy and require little time to be devoted to them, so I wouldn't consider them to be a good gauge of the time that you will spend on class in the future. But that's beside my point. </p>

<p>Academics are such a small part of the college experience that the time I spend on class and studying and homework is less than almost any other activity that I am part of ( bluealien01: i don't study too much, if anything, I don't study enough... but who has the time to anyways? :-D). </p>

<p>College takes more out of you in time, energy, and soul. You live at college for a reason, because only spending ALL of your time there will allow you enough time to experience college fully. The college experience is not limited to academics and it would be a sad thing if it were. </p>

<p>I urge you to be aware that spending less time in class doesn't make college less time-consuming. And to hopefully finally realize that taking classes at a college in no way prepares you for college life.</p>

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<p>Chyln:</p>

<p>You make such assumptions about high school ECs and about the classes my S is taking at Harvard! Let me just say that at least three of them are listed under ""for undergraduates and graduate students." And please do not make assumptions about what I know and what I do not know.</p>

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<p>Fight. Fight. Fight.</p>

<p>Maybe everything is time consuming but in varying intensity per person, location, etc, etc.</p>

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<p>I speak from experience about comparing high school to college EC's. College EC's take up infinitely more time, hands down. Regardless of what you may think, an actively involved person in college will spend much more time on his EC's than an actively involved person in high school. </p>

<p>The bottom line is, academics in college constitute a very small part of the experience and time commitment that you have. I hope you agree with me on that. The 10 hrs a week that I spend studying is more than enough for me to do well in all my classes and I'm getting my masters at the end of these four years so it's not like i'm taking gut classes. </p>

<p>I make assumptions about your S's classes at Hah-vahd because I have likely taken many of those same classes at an equivalent (if not better! hehe) institution. They do not reflect on what I think of you or your S as I know neither of you, but what I think of most college level courses.</p>

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<p>That's precisely the point of this exchange. We are not discussing course difficulty but workload. Some of my S's advanced college classes consume less class time than the less advanced ones. Even if high school classes are unchallenging, they still take up large amounts of time. There is no getting away from that. I calculated that his college biology class met for only half the time as the AP-Bio class on a weekly basis. One can look at the extra 4 hours of class in AP-Bio as extra support or time taken away from non-academic activities or even homework. So if anyone wants to work--as many of my S's schoolmates do--, or be heavily involved in athletics, as some others are, or in music or arts (there are really talented students at this public high school, some of whom have gained national recognition), it is on top of a 30 hours schoolweek that has no flexibility in its schedule.
Many people confuse difficulty with time spent on a task. As you have pointed out, one can take more difficult classes without having to spend huge amounts of time on homework. But whatever time is spent must be spent efficiently.</p>

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<p>both of you</p>

<p>it depends on the class, and the club. for example in high school i was a member of leo club. we had meetings every friday after school, and did things around the community on weekends. it wasn't just a during school thing. in college, i'm a member of habitat. we have meetings every monday night, and we build homes around the community on weekends, as well as fundraise and do events on campus during the week. I'm going away for 9 days on a habitat trip starting tomorrow. from what i remember about EC's in high school, when you had fundraisers you sold stuff and whatnot to friends and family. our fundraisers in college involve staying out all night collecting change from people driving by, sitting at tables all day on campus, concerts, going dorm to dorm, games with professors, a lot of really time consuming activities. i have definately spent more time on EC's in college than I did in high school. it is definately more focused and requires a lot of time and effort. but then again, there are smaller clubs, such as math club, that meets once a week if they are lucky, and they discuss math/watch a math movie/get some pizza.. it's still fun, but definately not nearly as involved. (my roommate is president)</p>

<p>then the same thing goes for classes. my senior level class definately requires more work than most other senior level courses. (as evident when comparing what i do to my four roommates.).. some upper level courses don't require nearly as much work as others, but then it's the same thing for the lower level courses. some of them are cake, and you barely have to spend any time studying/work for them, and others have a lot of work assigned to them. i took a design course and was literally working on art projects every night for hours, just for this one course out of my six. by the end of the semester i was about crazy from all the work she assigned.. some of which was really stupid. (i let her know what i thought of all the work too. that's probably why i got a b instead of an a. haha!)</p>

<p>chyln, just because some 100/200 level courses in school require little to no work, doesn't mean that all of them do. same thing for the 300/400 level courses. they don't all require you to do tons of work. and, some courses in high school require a lot of work too. think of it this way, if you go to high school, youre in class for a lot more hours, which takes away from the rest of your h ours to do other things. it's all relative. i remember high school biology met every day plus once a week for an extra lab period. college biology met for 3 class hours plus an extra lab period. the high school class definately had more time assigned to it.</p>

<p>(just my two cents on the matter)</p>