A few days ago
Happy

Quick question about how college courses work! THANK YOU!?

Hi! I’m about to apply to colleges, and excuse me for sounding so ridiculous, but I have hardly any idea about how college courses and lectures are set up. Here are my basic questions:

1. For a few of the colleges I’m interested in, they have the syllabi right online that includes the lecture dates, the homework, and when the homework is due. In most cases, there are only 30-40 lectures listed, spread out across 4 or 5 months. Is that really ALL the classes that there are? I’m used to the 7.5 hours a day, 5 days a week in high school — do college courses really only meet like once a week? Or are there other “meetings” that you’re required to go to that aren’t called lectures?

And… I thought I had another one but apparently I forget. Ha! I’ll add it later if I remember!

Anyway, thanks for any help and I’ll pick a best answer TODAY! THANK YOUUUUUUU!

Top 8 Answers
A few days ago
waterskater

Favorite Answer

Yes, most colleges classes only meet once or twice a week. Each class has a certain number of hours that it meets per week (depending on how many credits). I go to a small private college in California, so ours are a bit different, but all classes meet for a total of 2.5 hours per credit (and each class is one credit), so either they will meet once a week for 2.5 hours, twice a week for 1.25 hours, or three times a week for 50 minutes each. This is different at larger universities because then you have section and whatnot that’s required; I’m not exactly an expert on all that, since I’ve never dealt with it.

So to answer your question, no, you’re not in class for 7.5 hours a day ๐Ÿ™‚

If you have any more questions, feel free to message me ๐Ÿ™‚

2

5 years ago
?
For the best answers, search on this site https://shorturl.im/awvB8

I don’t think this is going to happen. And I think some of these answers are wildly optimistic and unrealistic. It just isnt that easy! For comparison, it takes about 125 hours to finish a BA or BS degree – in the USA about 2/3 of all students fail to complete 125 hours in 4 years. About 1/2 fail to finish even within 6 years. So, it’s no picnic trying to get all these hours completed. 90 hours is the equivalent of three years of full time study. Even if you go full time days, take evening courses and summer school, and if all the classes are scheduled at times when you can take them, and if all the courses you want to take are available, and you pass every one without failing a single course, it would be hard to do it in two years. Since you say you have no college experience, and apparently you havent really paid much attention to college before, it is hard to see how you would be able to handle this maximum heavy load successfully. In any case, if you did get the 90 hours, you would still have to compete against people who had gone through real college programs. Their records would look a lot better than someone who just took 90 hours of random courses. Why not do things right. Start at the community college, work methodically to get your AA or AS degree and then go on with a real career…. You can do this. Good luck.

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A few days ago
Anonymous
Most college course meet either 2 days a week for 1.5 hrs or 3 days a week for 1 hr. However, language classes often meet 4-5 days a week. Science classes tend to have an additional lab meeting, and literature classes tend to have an additional small-group discussion section.

Typically “full-time” students are only in class a max of 20 hours per week. This is because you need at least that much time per week for HW and studying, especially as you get into your upper-level classes which often have research papers.

Additional free advice- if you’re like me and coasted through HS on your intelligence, prepare for a rude shock. College actually requires real studying. Good luck!

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4 years ago
Anonymous
How Do College Courses Work
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A few days ago
xforcesxsmilesx
College is very unlike high school. You are expected to know when your homework is due, keep up with projects, and make it to class times without being told to do so by your professor. Most classes have meeting times that are 2-3 times a week. However there are cases where classes only meet once a week. If there aren’t any other meetings scheduled on the syllabi then chances are you won’t have to meet on any other days than the ones already scheduled. Some professors may add a couple of “special” meetings, but as long as you attend classes you should know about those, because those will only be mentioned in class. It is very rare that that happens. Just make sure you “buddy” up with another class mate, so that if they miss a class you can inform them and vice versa.
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A few days ago
Anonymous
Today, most universities have switched to the semester hour system. Generally, a full time student consists of 12 hours or more. Again, generally, to graduate, most degrees require 120 semester hours. To graduate in 4 years that would be 30 semester hours per year, or 15 hours per semester. Most courses are 3 hour courses. If they are MWF classes, you are in class 1 hour at a time. If it is a Tu-Th class, you are in class, you guessed it, 1.5 hours each day. There are some exceptions such as labs that are longer class times and less credit. Generally, you’ll want to sign up for 5 classes to average 15 hours per semester. I usually did 3 or 4 on MWF and 1-2 on Tu-Th. An hour and a half is a long time to listen to a prof talking in a monotone!!
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A few days ago
karen s
Many classes are done during the day that are maybe 1 to 2 hours depending on the course. they can be one day a week, 2 or 3 days, again depends on the course. There are many you may take online, depends on the school and major. if you take night courses, they are usually about 2-3 hours long, maybe 4!! they are done 1-2 times a week. a full time schedule is usually about 4 + classes. what is great about college is that you base them around your schedule. unlike high school! good luck!
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A few days ago
nikkylyn
it depends some classes meet once a week—for a longer time like a 3hr class

other classes meet 2-3 x week for shorter times 1.5 hrs or so.

most of college is spend studying–more independent than hs…so you wont have to go to school 40 hrs a week..which can be good..

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