Why’s five classes considered full course load?

nicole81

Tue, Oct 31 2023, 12:45 am

Actually only 4 classes are considered full time if they're all 3 credits. But the general standard is that you're supposed to have as many hours of work per week as credits you're taking. So if you're doing 15 credits, that's 15 hours of class plus 15 hours of school work, almost a full time job. Of course, not all professors live up to that standard, and at the same time, many people work while in college.

amother

Green

Tue, Oct 31 2023, 8:02 am

amother Snapdragon wrote:

College was MUCH easier than high school. I took 18 -21 credits per semester and got my BA in a year and a half. I also worked part time. Grad school was also easier than high school.

Was it one of the frum programs?

Regular college should be more rigorous than HS, but many people here mean a frum program when they say college.

amother

Snapdragon

Tue, Oct 31 2023, 8:04 am

amother Green wrote:

Was it one of the frum programs?

Regular college should be more rigorous than HS, but many people here mean a frum program when they say college.

2 Real Colleges

nicole81

Tue, Oct 31 2023, 8:08 am

nylon wrote:

Of course, "full load" is really for tuition and financial aid purposes. If it's a 120 credit BA, you can't do 4 classes every semester and graduate in 4 years.

You know there are plenty of 4-credit courses, right? At least at real colleges.

amother

Snapdragon

Tue, Oct 31 2023, 8:09 am

amother Green wrote:

Name them please. Generally only frum programs will give you a BA in 18 months.

The first is Touro in Manhattan which I believe is a real college. The second is not a Jewish college at all and is known to be rigorous.

amother

Goldenrod

Tue, Oct 31 2023, 8:10 am

I attended a regular, non-jewish college and got a Bachelors and Masters degree.

For my Bachelors degree, I took about 20-21 credits per semester, the most they allowed. I wanted to finish my degree asap. I also worked part time. The most difficult part of the whole thing was getting into the classes I needed, at the time I needed, with the professor I wanted. Scheduling was a nightmare. But I usually managed to get what I wanted.

For my Masters, I had to follow the schedule they gave me, with almost no flexibility. They told us we must make ourselves available from 8 am-5pm for the next 3 years. Mind you, we had some classes until 7pm. But we also had days we were done at 10 or 11 am. I could not work part time when I was doing this because there was no consistency with scheduling. If not for that, I would have worked too.

College was not nearly as difficult academically as I expected. The logistics were a pain in the neck, with a LOT of time wasted throughout my whole experience.

amother

Crystal

Tue, Oct 31 2023, 8:46 am

nylon wrote:

Eveyrhting depends on the classes.

I could have an English class where I went the three hours, then had to do some reading and write an essay.

Or I could have my freshman chemistry class: 3 hours of lecture, 1hr of recitation, then an hour of lab lecture and a 3hr lab. Plus all the time studying, doing the problem sets, and writing up the lab. (It got 4 credits instead of 3, but that didn't reflect the increased workload.)

Generally, students in science and engineering majors have a heavier workload, although the reading and writing heavy courses all depend on how fast you are at it.

I majored in English. I typically took three lit classes per semester + three classes of core classes/classes for my minor. My English classes definitely took the most time; I had to read a book a week + write a short paper (3-5 pages) and one long paper (10 pages) per semester. And that was all per class, so multiply all that by 3.

Phoebe31

Tue, Oct 31 2023, 9:31 am

theoneandonly wrote:

For a girl used to a dual BY curriculum it will be easy.
For someone used to a public school education it might not be so easy.
Eta it depends what your major is and if you are taking difficult courses. Intense science courses will be harder, have more work involved, etc.

This is really school dependent, there are many public high schools that prepare kids for college better than BY schools.

Phoebe31

Tue, Oct 31 2023, 9:34 am

Most people in the real world (frum and secular) need to work as well so yes, 12-15 credits is a full time thing. Have you ever been to a real college? Not SS or any of the ones that allow clepping; If not, you really can't say how much work it is.

amother

Junglegreen

Tue, Oct 31 2023, 9:36 am

amother Goldenrod wrote:

I'm assuming that either you are extremely intelligent, took easy classes or went to an extremely academic high school. College is generally not easy when you need to work as well.

amother

Wine

Tue, Oct 31 2023, 11:05 am

I’m currently doing my pre reqs
It’s different for me because I’m married and have a full time job. I do classes at night
No I don’t have a life for anyone that wants to know:)
But for me, with work and just life, 5 classes (2 of them are intense science classes), is a lot

amother

Wine

Tue, Oct 31 2023, 11:06 am

amother Goldenrod wrote:

I’ve found it to about the same. The actual work is not too bad, just wastes a lot time

amother

Junglegreen

Tue, Oct 31 2023, 11:10 am

amother Wine wrote:

I give you a lot of credit and dont know how you are managing. Are you in a quick program? I am currently doing the same, working, married with kids and in school I am only taking 3 classes (all 4 credit not easy ones) and it isnt easy! I'm in touro though, not an easy program. I am not sure how I am going to handle graduate school.

amother

Wine

Tue, Oct 31 2023, 11:13 am

amother Junglegreen wrote:

Big big difference for me is that I don’t have kids, which I give you a TON of credit for.
Also in touro:)
It’s a fast track one year undergrad and then onto grad school

nylon

Tue, Oct 31 2023, 2:15 pm

nicole81 wrote:

You know there are plenty of 4-credit courses, right? At least at real colleges.

Sure, but at mine, 4 credits meant a lab. (And I went to a SUNY and from what I understand they work pretty similarly.) Most classes aren't 4 credits. I had some 4 credit ones, but far more of mine were 3. Even if you were a science major, all your humanities and social sciences would be 3.

Of course different universities calculate credits differently. But the point holds -- they calculate "full time" for tuition purposes, not necessarily in terms of graduating in 4 years.

amother

Azalea

Tue, Oct 31 2023, 2:34 pm

amother Phlox wrote:

Sounds like what I did and I had plenty of free time. But I wasn’t huge on the extra curricular.

I guess the question is where did you go? How much work did you do? And how smart you are.

My DD is in a competitive secular university (unfortunately at this time but was wonderful last year). She works really hard and goes to office hours/tutoring. She goes to shuiring on campus, helps cook for Shabbos at Chabad, and is involved in professional groups. She definitely has plenty of free time to socialize and do what she needs to do. I don’t need her to run ragged and burn out. This is her time, before she has a house to run and children to care for.

amother

Goldenrod

Tue, Oct 31 2023, 2:59 pm

amother Junglegreen wrote:

I'm assuming that either you are extremely intelligent, took easy classes or went to an extremely academic high school. College is generally not easy when you need to work as well.

Some classes were easy but not the majority by any means. I am not extremely intelligent and my high school was not extremely academic. But I am "good at school" so maybe that was it. This was when I was single also. I was able to really only focus on school. I would not be able to do it now with my husband and kids.