An Alternate University Student Schedule
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Hi there. In this short education post, I present an alternate university student schedule. This alternate schedule is a lighter course load compared to the full university course load.
You Don't Have To Be A Full Time Student
It seems that there is an expectation that students should finish their degree as a full time student and in four years for their undergraduate degree (no co-op work terms). Many students (including me in the past) do their semesters on a full time basis. One semester typically has five courses instead of four from high school in Ontario, Canada. The university courses are pretty fast paced and it is expected that students do their readings and homework outside of class. Sometimes there are courses and even instructors that demand a bit too much from students.
With an overload of course demands for students, taking less courses in a semester is something of consideration. Yes it make take longer to finish a degree but each semester is not so overwhelming. Due to taking less courses there is less class time and you have more time to do homework along with a possible part time job to pay for expenses.
A Example Case
Suppose Charlie's full semester courseload consisted of five courses. He has 15 class hours per week from 5 courses. For hours spent outside of school, something like 3 hours per course per week is good to work on readings, homework and practice problems. This would be 15 hours per week on homework. In total this around 30 hours per week for class related work. If Charlie added something like a part-time job for 7 hours per week then this total is updated to 37 hours per week.
One thing to note is that all courses are not the same in difficulty and in terms of course demands. In general, science, math, computer science and technical courses are tougher than non-STEM courses. STEM courses are technical in nature, the concepts may be confusing and the demands can be pretty high and time consuming. There may be also additional in-class hours in the form of labs and tutorials. If Charlie has a full semester of technical courses then he may need to increase the number of hours outside of class for homework. This total could be easily 40 to 60 hours per week.
If someone like Charlie removed two courses out of five then he would have around 9 class hours from 3 courses. In addition there are less hours needed for homework and studying hours per week. Charlie with a lighter schedule would need around 9 hours per week for school work outside of class. The extra free time can be used for more homework if needed as well as fitting in a part-time job.
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