College Work Loads

Hey everyone,

So today I want to talk about something that has been on my mind recently with all the projects and papers that I have been working on for school. I want to talk about the work load in college and how it differs from when you are in high school.

Fist off, the big difference that you need to remember is that in college it is recommended that for every hour you are in class you spend three hours outside of class working on things for that class. It is called being a full time student for a reason, as my communications teacher said the other day. You are expected to be doing some sort of school work for 40-45 hours a week. Now I will be the first to tell you that most of the time I do not reach that many hours on school work a week. Even with taking an honors English class I usually only spend maybe 15-20 hours outside of classes working on school work.

Not everyone is the same, and when you first get to college you will be having to figure out time management. I know that I still struggle with it sometimes because there are days where you really just don't feel like doing anything. Some of those days I just give in and don't do anything....and then I feel really bad the next day because I have to work my butt off get myself caught up with work.

Secondly, the work load is going to be different from person to person. Just because you and a friend have the same class does not mean you have the same amount of work. If there is one thing that I have learned already in college it is that NOT ALL TEACHERS GIVE THE SAME AMOUNT OF WORK. That is something that is hard to grasp I know. In high school, or at least at my high school, even if the assignments were a little different every teacher in every English or math class gave the same amount of homework as every other teacher. I have learned through doing homework with my roommate as well as just by talking to people on my floor that I have less work in my English class than they do. They are expected to always write papers and do assignments because that is what they are learning. My honors English class we are given 4 papers that determine our grade for the semester. We do not learn how to write papers, we learn how to make them flow better, and how to make them sound more like a college student. In the other English classes they walk through every step of writing a paper and make them practice each part as they learn it.

So don't feel like you are just being a freak if you are doing homework all the time and your friends are not. You probably just have more work than they do at that point, and the tables will turn at some point.

Another thing to remember about the work load in college is that it is college. Nothing in college, okay not nothing but almost nothing, is going to be given to you in a simple watered down way. You will seem overwhelmed and like you dont have time for anything. You have to make time. That is how this always comes back to time management.

Another tip that I have to help with work load has to do with majors and minors. If you dont know what you want to do in college DO NOT declare a major right when you go in. You are only setting yourself up to have to have more work to do if you decide you dont want to do that. I just watched a kid that lives down the hall from me spend 2 hours in his adviser's office two days ago trying to figure out just what he needed to do to go from a biology major to an athletic training major. He is now drown in work that he is going to have to do over the summer to get caught up.

You will not be behind if you wait until your spring semester of freshman year, or even your spring semester of your sophomore year to declare a major. I also recommend that if you do change your major at some point and your classes from your old major do not transfer a decent amount to your new major that you do not declare a minor unless you want to do summer classes, or stay in college longer.

Again all of this is just how I feel. I know that some people will not feel the same. If you have any thoughts on the work load in college feel free to leave them in the comments. I would love to read how everyone else feels.

~Kaylan