How many hours a week do you spend in class?

[detroitriver]

I dont mean credit hours or w/e, but between lectures and labs, how many hours are you in class? I have about 20.5 hours this semester and all my friends look at me like im crazy, but it really doesnt seem that overwhelming.

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[AuFox]

I have 19.5 hours/week of class this upcoming fall. I'm a little overwhelmed because I'm taking Physics (with Calculus), Calculus, and 2nd Semester OChem. OChem and Physics have their separate lab sections as well.

How do you manage your time, or suggest I manage my time in order to keep up with material in all classes? I hope this doesn't hijack your thread! It is really not my intention!

 

[detroitriver]

I have 19.5 hours/week of class this upcoming fall. I'm a little overwhelmed because I'm taking Physics (with Calculus), Calculus, and 2nd Semester OChem. OChem and Physics have their separate lab sections as well.

How do you manage your time, or suggest I manage my time in order to keep up with material in all classes? I hope this doesn't hijack your thread! It is really not my intention!

hmmm your schedule seems to be tougher than mine but i do have some science classes as well (chem, bio, neurophysiology). This will be a step up for me from last year as I only had about 17 hours, but often found I had a lot of spare time. I think with proper time management and making sure you don't waste your day watching fresh prince (my biggest downfall last year) you should be fine. Also make sure you get into a good sleep routine, I find that helps immensely.

 

[Vicviper]

My senior year I was in class a total of maybe 9 hours a week, plus 1-2 hours a week for research. I was taking about 12-14 units a quarter. The amount of units doesn't directly correlate the the number of hours in class especially with lab classes, and then research units can be all over the place as far as how often you go in - my lab was one where you came in, did the work you needed to do, and then could leave.

When I was taking Ochem and Physics, both with labs, it could easily get up to 14-15 hours for just those 10 units.

 

[detroitriver]

My senior year I was in class a total of maybe 9 hours a week, plus 1-2 hours a week for research. I was taking about 12-14 units a quarter. The amount of units doesn't directly correlate the the number of hours in class especially with lab classes, and then research units can be all over the place as far as how often you go in - my lab was one where you came in, did the work you needed to do, and then could leave.
When I was taking Ochem and Physics, both with labs, it could easily get up to 14-15 hours for just those 10 units.

at your most how many hours would you say you took, and do you have any advice for someone like me who may possibly not know what hes getting himself into? thanks.

 

[Vicviper]

I think one semester I was taking a bio class with lab, chem with lab, and physics with lab, and that totaled maybe 18 hours a week, and you just have to focus on each class one at a time, and set your time management to give yourself plenty of time for lab classes, which can be TOTAL time sucks because of lab reports. There's really no need to ever take over 16-17 units, remember that 12 units is the definition of a full load at just about every school.

 

[Ramy]

what!? Only three classes? I'm taking bio, chem, calculus and geography with practicals and tuturials + religion. Canada uni

 

[Vicviper]

Three classes that are 5 units each, which totals 15 units, thus more than full load. Just because you're taking more classes doesn't mean it's a good idea to take more classes for the sake of taking classes - pace yourself to do your best.

 

[AuFox]

Truth is I would take more, but I compete on my schools cross country and track teams, so I only have the time to take 13-15 units per semester. It really makes it a lot more difficult to schedule study time because practice literally eats up 4 hours of my day, plus to compete well I need 8-10 hours of sleep a night. In order to graduate in four years I've been taking winter and summer classes. I hope dental schools don't look down on that too much!

 

[Vicviper]

Naw, nothing wrong with that at all, from the stats I've seen, most students take summer classes. And again, you're taking more than a full load, and having sports EC's always goes a long way to showing that you're well rounded.

 

[Flipper405]

Truth is I would take more, but I compete on my schools cross country and track teams, so I only have the time to take 13-15 units per semester. It really makes it a lot more difficult to schedule study time because practice literally eats up 4 hours of my day, plus to compete well I need 8-10 hours of sleep a night. In order to graduate in four years I've been taking winter and summer classes. I hope dental schools don't look down on that too much!

I only took 12-13 credit hours for almost every semester in college except my last one (and I also took summer classes every summer). I did pretty well in admissions, so I don't think this will impact you whatsoever. The bottom line is: get the grades and you'll be OK...

 

[AuFox]

Thanks for the kind words guys! I feel much more at ease with my schedule now!

 

[BruinDentist]

The number of hours per week you spend in class isn't really an accurate gauge of how difficult of a semester/quarter you'll be having. It's the time needed outside of class studying/doing homework that really counts. I've had two killer classes at UCLA in particular (Immunology and Molecular Biology Lab) that required an insane number of hours studying and writing 20 page lab reports, but the actual time spent in class was not very long. I took that lab with 1 science and 1 elective class (15 units total) and it was by far the worst quarter of my life. A good courseload usually has any combination of 2-3 science courses (1 lab) and 1-2 electives. 3 classes should be the absolute minimum while 5 classes the maximum that most people can handle.

 

[enfuego]

Last semester, I spent 22 hours every week in class - counted as 16 credits.

At my school, the vast majority of courses count for the same 4 credits. Basic 100 level freshman courses count for the same credits as 400+ level advanced courses and graduate-level courses. Things like lab are considered to be included in the course, so lab grades are averaged with lecture grades for one final grade, and technically labs count as zero credits. Credit hours don't correspond to the level of work, the courseload, or the amount of time spent in class - at least not at my school.