Hello,

Is 31 hours a week too much? Is it possible? Thanks.

How is that measured? Are we talking 31 hours a week of just being in class?

i have 16 credit hours and im usually pretty busy

I have no idea how I'm gonna fit mathematics, physics, chemistry, and programming into two years for transfer......

Does anybody here go to Caltech? I want to know how many hours a week they have.

I got 16 hours in class, but I ended up calculating that I do just as much homework outside of class.

Yeah, college can be a pain.

This one quarter would be insane:

Vector Calculus: 5 hours lecture
E+M Physics: 5 hours lecture, 3 hours lab
Electrochemistry: 3 hours lecture, 6 hours lab
Assembly Language: 3 hours lecture, 6 hours lab

I just don't see how people can transfer from community college in two years... this is insane!

Well, I don't need friends... or sleep... or weekends... just my sanity; and, of course, it needs to be physicaly possible.

I never go above 16 hours.

Do you have free time? 16 hours a week averages 3 hours and 12 minutes a day... whereas 31 hours averages 6 hours a day. Am I totally off here? i.e., do people exist that actually do this kind of thing?

People do not take 31 hours. My cousin took 24 in one semester, but that was for a music major and was very stressful on him. Based on your major it will differ but there is usually work outside of class and such to plan for. 16 hours is enough to keep most people busy.

You won't survive more than 3 hours/day average.

im with 7 on that, buuuut Im sure it can be done just extreme time management and dedication to just school and not much of a social life outside ofthat. Just make sure not to burn yourself out. like go and catch a flick if u get to stressed or something for like a 2 hour break and then get back to things ya know

Well, considering that my major (computer science and engineering) is more a matter of knowing than doing (i.e., instead of writing research papers you prepare for exams), it seems plausable to attack this load with preveous knowledge: i.e., go to class to ace the exam rather than learn it for the first time. The only thing that bothers me is that labs might bog me down.

Well, if you plan on going into the games industry having 4 years without any free time will be good practise at least.

heh.

I this is of no use to use, but I live 2 minutes away from Caltech, walking.. and uhh they are ridiculous (though I do not know enough about the specifics to be able to help you sorry)

Well, I'm not going there, but listening to it's students could be a good indication of what it's like to put yourself through hell... I read one post by a Caltech student who claimed that "slitting your wrists" is less painful than Caltech.

I'm not sure I understand this, still being in high school and all, but your whining about three hours a day? I go from about 8:00AM to 3:05PM, five days a week.

If my simple math is correct, that totals at 40hrs a week.

I must seriously not be getting something here.

Well, this may be adequate as a generalization. This is basically how my life experience has been so far.

Right now I’m pulling 17 Credit hours + 7 hours a week part time (sys-admin job) + 8 hours a week part time (Startup Company).

My major pretty much requires me to take 17 or 18 credit hours a semester in order to graduate in 4 years, and I’m considered too valuable to be able to simply quit either of my current two jobs… Now I just wish I could find time to sleep.

I transfered from a community college after 2 years, and I'm finishing up my BA after 4. For some reason, I haven't found it all that stressful or time consuming. It's all about time management, and learning how to cut appropriate corners.

Heh, I waited too long to sign up for the good classes this semester so I'm only taking a hour class that's only once of week. Only worth 1 credit too

That's hardly the case. You'll spend all your time doing projects, writing code. It's tedious work at best. You'll spend many a night working on projects instead of sleeping.

You do 30 units a year in college. In a semester system, that's about 15 units a semester. In a quarter system, that's 10 units a quarter. This 31 hours you are talking about is total insane and not doable in any sense. In fact, I doubt there is a college that will allow you to enroll in that many units, period. The limit at Cal is 22.5 a semester. I know people who have done 20 units and they get burned out. They do nothing but study.

But hey, at least your doing all that at a community college. You'll probably find it a complete waste of time.

I have a friend that goes to CalTech. He took 23 hours a semester and I haven't heard from him since. Seriously. He just kind of never came back to New Mexico.

My other friend that went there...he's a slacker. I don't know how he graduated (with a decent GPA.)

Most I've ever done was 16 (though that's including multiple 1-hour lab courses which really should count as more than 1, heh). No reason to do more because I'll easily finish both of my majors in 4 years at my current pace of 15/16 a semester. (Vandy's limit is 18 I'm pretty sure, anything higher costs more a year I think.)

The problem with community college is that in order to transfer as an engineering major you end up taking more courses than freshmen, as equivilant courses often do not exist, resulting in multiple courses to satisfy one requirement. For example, at UCLA it's Computer Science I, Computer Science II, Computer Science III, where at community college it might be, intro to assembly, advanced assembly, c as a second language, advanced c, object oriented design with c++.....

Oh well, might as well do physics instead... usually no descrepencies there.

Define a unit. With the quarter system at RIT, full-time students do between 12 and 20 credit hours a quarter, but most people do 16 units a quarter, which is not necessarily the same as 16 class hours per week because lab/lecture classes, such as Physics, can run 6 hrs/week for only 4 credits. Thus, at RIT a year consists not of 30 credit hours but on average 48 credit hours. I hear schools such as CMU are even higher. Of course, it depends on the definition of a unit.

At De Anza community college, on the quarter system, 1 lecture hour is unit, and 1 lab hour is half a unit.

Unit = time in class and doesn't include lab time. If you're doing a major that's lab-intensive, you're going to spend more than 15 hours a week in class, counting the labs.

I've stopped trying to figure out how my school does hours.

5 hour Physics course = 3 hours lecture + 2 hours lab + 1.5 hours recitation
3 hour CS course = 3 lecture hours + 1 lab hour
3 hour IT course = 4 class hours



But, yes, in CS, you will be a code monkey for four years. You'll write programs, programs, programs, and then write some more programs. Following that, you'll write a program. And then you'll have an exam. Maybe. Otherwise, you'll have a final program that takes everything you've learned in the semester and applies it. Or maybe you'll have both a final project and a final exam.

I'm not sure who told you that CS is knowing instead of doing - I could have sworn you gotta know and do.

I have NINE credits this fall.

Then four for a J-Term class.

Then 12 for Spring.

That's 25 for the WHOLE YEAR.

This current semester I took 15 credits... all I can say to you is, don't try to fit any work or extracirricular activities...

17 was my max I took in one semester, and yeah - you just have to learn time management like Darth J said. Such a basic thing that so many people fail to grasp.

Northwestern University

Organic Chem: 5 hrs lecture, 5 hrs lab
Biology: 3 hrs lecture, 3 hrs lab
Chem Eng Thermo: 4 hrs lecture
Speech: 4 hrs lecture

Basically: AGAAGHG!HHG!G!!!1!11!!!!!!!!
Others warned me about this schedule. My GPA got kinda ****ed this year. Better to play it safe, seriously.

I failed my second semester in a row.

31 hours a week doesn't sound bad.

Considering average full time job is like, 40 hours a week.

31 hours/week in class...plus about 2-3 hours per hour of studying.

Minimum 93 hours per week? Sure. Easy.

You suck at math.

okay...

considering you have to spend about 2 hrs per hr of lecture (if you include, you know, normal study time as well as the time spent cramming for quizzes/midterms/finals), it's actually much worse than the average full time job. like wolfy said, it's 90+ hrs a week.

so let's break it down:
time spent sleeping per day = total hrs in a day - time spent eating every day - time spent in the bathroom every morning - time spent in class/studying/7 = 24 - 2 -.5 - 90/7 = 8.6 hrs/day (this is if you're perfectly efficient, which no one is, and if you have absolutely no social life, which everyone needs at least a little of).

i study about 70+ hrs a week (class time included) with my 24 hrs/week class schedule, and i end up sleeping about 4 hrs a night on average. i guess it kinda depends on what classes you're taking. a class might take up the same number of hrs but needs a ****-ton of study time outside of class.

[QUOTE=Vincent Valentine]I failed my second semester in a row.[/QUOTE]

Usually you'll be put on academic probation if your GPA dips below a certain point, then they give you one semester to fix it. So if you fail twice in a row, they usually kick you out. Trust me. I have plenty of experience with academic probation (been put on it twice )