For those of you who have (or had) students in college...

[distancia]

What is a typical courseload nowadays?

 

When I went to school we were told we had to take 15-17 credit hours, and when it hit 18 we had to get approval.

 

However, my niece is taking 4 classes (12 credit hours) and we just returned from visiting my D's best friend in college who is taking 3 classes (9 credit hours) plus a "Freshman Skills and Success" mandatory course (for an additional 2 credits). My D's other friend, in another school, posted his current freshman schedule on his social networking site, and he, too, is taking 4 courses (12 credit hours) with an additional 1-credit mandatory course of "Freshman Orientation" which includes learning the school song, participating in health/nutrition counseling lectures, etc.

 

Thanks for your input.

[Leanna Tomlinson]

My eldest, a junior history major, usually carries 16 credits per semester. My 2nd dd, a freshman nursing major, is taking 18 credit hours her first semester. She came in with 12 credits, but is trying to take a music minor. Most of her nursing friends are taking 16 credits. There are a few semesters where all of the nursing majors will be taking 18.

[regentrude]

At our school they need 12 hours to qualify for full time student status. Very important with respect to scholarships and stuff like that.

Most students take around 16. 18 is considered a big load.

 

OTOH, freshmen are explicitly encouraged to take a light load their first semester in order to get adjusted to college.

[FaithManor]

DD is in paramedic school at a university hospital so the credits run differently but it is the equivalent of 18 college credits per semester. The program runs for 16 months, four college semesters, and accounts for 72 credits of pre-med plus during the internship/clinicals portion they continue the course load but add clinicals in both he hospital peds/ob/er/med-surg floors as well as ambulance runs. It amounts to about a 55 - 60 hour per week job sometimes more given how much time she spends studying for pharmacology. I don't think this is typical of most college kids except those in the medical or performance fields (as a piano performance major I took 18 credits per semester, fours per day of piano practice besides the homework in the other classes, and at least one hour per day in performance classes).

 

Her friends are all taking around 12 credits. I've added it up, with 124 credits needed to graduate in most majors, they will need to take six credits every single summer in order to graduate in four years and that's assuming that they can get into each class as needed...some classes fill up rapidly. So, I am not sure what the fascination is with the lower class load unless a lot of kids are just afraid they can't handle five classes and will blow their GPA. Maybe a lot of freshman are undeclared majors and don't want to take too many classes until they define a career path.

 

Faith

[Chris in VA]

Ds in community college has 4 classes--Western Civ, Freshman English, Philosophy, and Bio. That's light, imo, but he is also working at least 20 hours a week.

 

Ds at VCU has more hours but no job.

[Miss Marple]

DS#1 has to take 14 hours to preserve his scholarships. He has taken between 14 and 18 each semester.

[Susan C.]

Ds has to take 30 hours per year to keep his scholarship. So, he takes 15 each semester, five classes. He says most of his friends take only 12 per semester, since 12 is considered full time. But, it takes 120 hours to graduate, so that does work out to 30/year.

[Gwen in VA]

I think it would depend on whether the college uses a semester or a trimester system. More colleges are switching to a trimester system, so it's no longer as unusual as it once was.

 

The college my older two attend has a modified trimester system -- two 12-week semesters (expected course load 12 - 14 credits) and then one 6-week semester (expected course load 6 credits).

 

Since the expected course load is "lighter" than at some schools, people raise their eyebrows at my kids' "light" load, but the courses cover the material covered in the more traditional 14-week semester in 12, so it's a bit more intense than it sounds. (And the coursework truly is covered -- the organic chem class still needs to prepare the students for the MCAT, regardless of how many weeks it meets!)

[In The Great White North]

Dartmouth charges extra if you take more than 3 a trimester. You are allowed one extra, for 4 trimesters, but after the first 4 trimesters, they charge you 1/3 of tuition for a 4th class! (And their courses are still the year long courses, just divided into 3 trimesters. You don't finish Introductory German in 2 trimesters - it now takes 3.)

 

Back in the dark ages, I had 18 - 24 credit hours, which worked out to 6 -7 classes per semester (some met more often than others.)

[Kareni]

The normal load at my daughter's college is four academic courses (each is worth one unit); a student needs to get permission to take three or five courses. In addition, one must take eight units of PE over the four years. So, my daughter who is now a sophomore is taking four courses plus Archery.

 

Freshman are required to take a one semester long writing intensive seminar which is for freshman only as well as a health and wellness class. The seminar counts as one of the four academic courses. If a student struggles in the seminar, she is directed to take an additional writing course.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Photo Ninja]

At my dc's schools, 12 credits is the minimum to be considered a full time student. Most need 15 credits each semester in order to graduate in 4 years. More than 18 credits requires permission.

 

One reason many students have fewer credits is that because of budget cuts many universities have decreased the number of courses, making it difficult for students to register for classes. Many have no choice but to take fewer classes. Our state universities are telling students to plan on 5 - 6 years to get their degree. It also seems that some students choose to take 12 credits because it allows them time to work or pursue sports, etc., but still keep their GPA up.

[creekland]

My son is taking 17 hours. One of his classes is PE though. I think the load is normal for his college.

[Jane in NC]

My son's college does not have credit hours but uses a "unit" system similar to the one Kareni mentioned.

 

The basic course load is 4 units. My son is currently taking 4.75 units. His chemistry lab adds .25 units and his music lessons another .5. If he were to take PE, it would add a fractional unit to the basic course load.

 

At the schools where I have taught, students were required to take 12 credit hours per semester to be considered full time. Most students would register for 15 to 18 credit hours. I don't think it would be possible to take 12 hours per semester and fulfill graduation requirements in four years.

[JFSinIL]

My son's school has three 10-week "quarters" (plus summer classes if you want to pay extra) and each class counts as three credits. Freshman are told to only take 9 credits the first quarter (and 12 the next) - if you go over 35 credits a year you are charged extra. So a kid could take 4 three credit classes two quarters, and 3 another quarter, stick in one or two single credit PE courses, and hit 35 credits.

 

Now, for Chemistry, for example, a year of science is a year of science, whether you divvy the work up into semesters or quarters. Unless, since they cram more classes hours per week into the quarter system, you might only need 4 quarters of Chem to count as two years. DS is just starting in college, so we are not sure yet. I figure, though, that if med school wants to see two full years of Chem, that is what a kid should do.

 

A course in History or Econ or Lit, though, could be done in a quarter, so in theory you can get more varied coursework done in a year on the quarter system than the semester. They do have more hours per class each week n the quarter system than the semester.

[Osmosis Mom]

Dd has three courses and two research programs going this term. Apparently then she has really found her groove and is LOVING her selection which she did change a few times over the summer. She is now majoring in Psychology with a minor in education and is taking a psych course, education course and an econ course along with two pysch researches, so in effect counting for five courses which is the absolute max. per semester.

[QueenCat]

15-16 is the norm at ds school. You need permission to go over 17. If you take less than 15, you will not graduate in 4 years. Most scholarships are for 4 years. That said, my younger ds is a high school senior. He is dual enrolling, and will only take 12-13 in each of his first two semesters. Part of the purpose in him dual enrolling is to lighten the load the first year. He must take at least 12 to be considered a full time student and eligible for scholarships.

[Blue Hen]

I think it would depend on whether the college uses a semester or a trimester system. More colleges are switching to a trimester system, so it's no longer as unusual as it once was.

 

:iagree:

My son has a 16 credit hour load, 6 classes, and is in class/lab 28 hrs/week. At his school 15 - 17 credits is considered a full load and to reach that load level you need to take 5 to 6 classes. If you want to go over 17 credits the school charges more and you must get a waiver from your advisor. When I was in school, at a school that worked on the quarter-system, I typically took 20 - 22 credits or 5 to 6 classes. It depends on the school.

 

Carole

[AngieW in Texas]

I took 18-19 hours each semester (that one extra was for my classes that had labs) and graduated in 4 years.

 

My dd is taking 13 hours this semester at the cc for her senior year, but she's still doing government at home. The cc wouldn't approve her to take more than 4 classes. I'm hoping I can talk them in to letting her do 5 courses next semester for she can do everything at the cc in the spring.

 

From what I understand, 12 hours is what's needed to be considered a full-time student and at least 15 hours/semester are needed to graduate in 4 years (although that my require some summer work as well).

[distancia]

OP here: What I am getting for mall this is that an average load is the equivalent of 5 "3 hour" classes per semester, or maybe 4 "4 hour" [science math] classes per semester....no matter how you look at it, whatever it takes to graduate i n4 years.

 

That being said, this trend I am seeing toward taking 12 hours per semester means that a student won't graduate in 4 years. Maybe that explains why there are so many students on the 5- and 6- year plan!

[Moni]

It kind of depends on what you are aiming for here.

 

12 units is considered full-time

 

However, if you took 24 units a year for two years you wouldn't reach the 60 units for Junior standing.

 

60 units over four semesters is about 15 units per semester.

 

Some courses seem to have "take more time" per unit than others, so there is an option of taking fewer or more units in any given semester to average the 15 units overall.

 

:seeya:

[mcconnellboys]

At my son's school, and most of the others like it that he applied to, the typical courseload is 4 classes each semester and a month long course either in January or May. That's 9 courses a year. No summer school. My husband and I were just talking last week about how many more hours we took a semester when we were in school....

[distancia]

Thank you for resurrecting this thread.

 

Earlier tonight my D told me that her homeschool workload is heavier than that of her friends in college.

 

D is putting in between 6 and 8 hours of steady, continued effort every weekday and a few hours on weekends (3 homeschool classes: math, chemistry, marine bio; 2 comm coll classes). She says her friends at 4 year-uni are saying they go to class, do some reading, sometimes writing, sometimes no writing...4 classes worth of work totals about 4 or 5 hours of work every day, including classtime!

 

For a 3 credit class that works out to about 1 hour of out-of-class work per week!

 

D says this harder than she has ever worked before. She said in public school she had a lot more "down time" in her classes and now she is working, working, working. Right now she is proud of her workload, but I don't know how long she'll continue feeling like this...

 

I've told her that the worst case scenario is she will be prepared for a tough workload in college and the best case scenario is that all this preparation will make college life a real treat!

[Anna]

This is my oldest dd's fourth year in college. She's a senior and will be graduating in May. In order to graduate in four years, each semester she and all her friends have had to take 15-16 credit hours. I don't see how a college student could only do 12 hrs per semester and finish in four years. Now if a student had the financial means and the desire to drag out college for 5-6 years or longer, I suppose they could carry the lighter work load but to graduate in four years... nope.

 

Edited to add: My dd usually works 16 hours per week on campus.

Edited September 17, 2010 by Anna

[Guest lenco12]

DD is in paramedic school at a university hospital so the credits run differently but it is the equivalent of 18 college credits per semester. The program runs for 16 months, four college semesters, and accounts for 72 credits of pre-med plus during the internship/clinicals portion they continue the course load but add clinicals in both he hospital peds/ob/er/med-surg floors as well as ambulance runs. It amounts to about a 55 - 60 hour per week job sometimes more given how much time she spends studying for pharmacology. I don't think this is typical of most college kids except those in the medical or performance fields (as a piano performance major I took 18 credits per semester, fours per day of piano practice besides the homework in the other classes, and at least one hour per day in performance classes).

 

Her friends are all taking around 12 credits. I've added it up, with 124 credits needed to graduate in most majors, they will need to take six credits every single summer in order to graduate in four years and that's assuming that they can get into each class as needed...some classes fill up rapidly. So, I am not sure what the fascination is with the lower class load unless a lot of kids are just afraid they can't handle five classes and will blow their GPA. Maybe a lot of freshman are undeclared majors and don't want to take too many classes until they define a career path.

 

Faith

Ds in community college has 4 classes--Western Civ, Freshman English, Philosophy, and Bio. That's light, imo, but he is also working at least 20 hours a week.

 

Ds at VCU has more hours but no job.

[ereks mom]

Most academic courses are 3 or 4 hour courses, and he usually has 3 or 4 of those, plus a few 1 or 2 hour music courses (choir, band, voice, piano, etc.) that are required for music majors.

 

This semester he has 17 hours:

Biology plus a separate lab - 4 hrs

History - 3 hrs

Music History - 3 hrs

Spanish - 3 hrs

Marching Band - 1 hr

Choir - 1 hr

Voice Diction - 1 hr

Applied Voice - 1 hr

Voice Seminar - required for voice majors; meets weekly for one hour, but no credit is given

Recitals - music majors are required to attend 25-30 recitals per semester, but no credit is given

Edited September 18, 2010 by ereks mom

[Julie in CA]

My ds is taking 18, and no one blinked an eye.

World civilizations

Statistics

Biblical Backgrounds

Philosophy and Critical Thought

Survey of Mass Media

Intro to Business

[Anna]

Forgot to say that my dd usually works 16 hours per week on campus.

[StaceyinLA]

I wanted her to be able to adjust to it without being inundated. She works about 25-30 hours/wk also.

 

She will probably take 15 next semester, and stick with that throughout. That will mean she will have to do some summer courses as well, but I think it'll make her overall load more bearable. This dd is ADD and I think has some dyslexic tendencies as well. She is doing quite well in college though!!

[LoriM]

My daughter always managed well in the 14-17 range of credit hours. I think she took 18 one summer, but not all of them concurrently. She finished her BA in four years, but that was probably 11 semesters (including summers).

 

My younger dd completed 40 hours in high school, but will easily take another five years (LOL) to finish her BA. She's working on an AA in graphic design, and will follow it up at a university in an entirely different field. So it will be a separate, second degree. Anyway, she manages about 14-16 hours each semester well.

[DarlaS]

My son is taking 13 cr hours this semester. He is 16 though, and depending on how he does, he may take more classes next semester or next year.

[BeckyFL]

12 (for full-time status) up to 18.

[mcconnellboys]

There was an article passed around a few weeks ago which indicated that college students are only studying on average about 6 hours a week outside class.....