<p>How many class hours and/or credits are the norm for graduation with a Bachelors Degree? I know that the hours required for science classes, labs, performance classes, conversational language courses, etc can vary, so to make it simpler, assume the student's major will be something like English or Sociology or Economics. At my daughter's college, the norm is 32 courses that appear to meet for three hours (50 minutes) per week. Is this the standard now? It seems like fewer hours/credits than were required when I was in school 30+ years ago when 15 or 16 hours per semester was the norm.</p>
<p>My school, on a quarter system, requires 42 courses for graduation. They do not use a system of credits or course hours.</p>
<p>EDIT: The quarter system means that we have three terms a year, fall, winter, and spring. Each term is 10 weeks with exams the following week.</p>
<p>At some of the LACs (including one my S attended) 4 courses per term is the norm. They count each as one "unit" rather than giving credit-hours based on the number of hours the course meets each week.</p>
<p>At that particular school, they consider one unit to = 4 credit-hours by other Universities' standards. They post it as such on their website. For transfer purposes when my S transferred to another school, I believe they accepted these units as 4 credits each.</p>
<p>As an Engineering major at an "elite," my S is required to have 126 credits to graduate: averages to 15.75 per term. Not a few of his terms have been 17.5 or more credits, which has been a very heavy load.</p>
<p>D's university-to-be has the same requirements as my NonameU back in the dark ages....120-125 credits. It would average about 15 hours per semester....most courses are 3 credit hours each, with lots of exceptions.</p>
<p>S's major requires 128 hours for grad. but he will have way more than that.</p>
<p>I think ds school requires 3o courses- doesn't go by hours because some are lab- some lecture- some studio etc.
also PE credit is required for graduation
and a junior qualifying exam which then prepares you to write and defend your thesis[/url</a>]
which is possibly why students are so excited about...
[url=<a href="http://rennfayre.com/">http://rennfayre.com/</a>] three days to go</p>
<p>129 for mine (Aero Eng.) but I've taken a lot more to add on 2 minors. They say it's a 4 year degree, but that averages to more than 16 credits a semester. Most students here take 15+ hours a semester, so at least 5 classes.</p>
<p>My D is doing a double degree. She will need about 230 semester hours to complete both. She is two years into the program and well ahead of pace. After this year she is looking forward to dropping down to only about 20 hours/semester.</p>
<p>edad, my S takes 19 hours per semester. He was planning to take 2 summer school classes but told me yesterday he has decided against it. Said he would just fit them in next year. Said he hd been taking so many hours for so long that he was used to it now,lol.</p>
<p>Like corranged, my daughters school is on the quarter system and I believe she needs 45 courses for each major. She will graduate with a double major in Sociology/Anthropology and Education.</p>
<p>Egad edad.</p>
<p>
[quote]
It seems like fewer hours/credits than were required when I was in school 30+ years ago when 15 or 16 hours per semester was the norm.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>15 credits x 8 semesters = 120 credits, which is what is required at my school, and many others.</p>
<p>Of course, with some of the AP students coming in now with upwards of 30 credits, they have a lot more room to play around with scheduling.</p>
<p>At my school you have to petition to take more than 18 credits, and even then they won't let you take more than 20.</p>
<p>When I was in Community college- financial aid required you to take 18 credits- which worked out to be 18 or so, in class hours.
Which is a lot, particulary if you have LDs and have to work as well.
Each full time class was 5 hours, but that meant you then had to find a 3 credit class just to fill the requirement, which was usually a PE class- which you didn't necessarily need , or an art class, which has a lot of out of class time required. ( qtr system, which I don't really like for myself, as it moves really fast)</p>
<p>I keep telling my youngest, that college will be easier than high school- just in how many classes to study for, generally you have 3 or so classes- ( not inc labs)</p>
<p>Her sisters school, had few people double majoring if any ( that would have meant two quals- two theses, two thesis orals), but it does have a few with a combined program.
She had 3 or four classes ( full year) at a time, not including the connected labs.( semester system)
However, one reason why she chose this school, was because she liked having distribution requirements, and not only did she have classes toward her degree, but classes in other fields, like music and art.</p>
<p>She had had, 5 years of language by the time she graduated high school, but didn't take it in college, although her aunt who is a native speaker, assures me she is fluent ;)</p>
<p>Thanks for the thread, not only are we looking at schools for D#2 , but what credits are required and how the year is constructed is something to think about</p>
<p>In some schools you must take 12 credits to be considered a full-time student. Also, if you exceed 18 credits, you could possibly be billed for additional credits.</p>
<p>Packmom, mine took 4 courses last summer. I advise against it. Having a summer break is worth it. Jobs and other experiences are worthwhile and when Fall comes the kids are eager to start again.</p>
<p>S's plans include PoliSci/Econ double major( minimum 45+ 55 hrs respectively) . He also has Honors requirements( 50 hrs, instead of 75 hrs regular GenEd reqs) and is interested in Russian minor( 25 hrs) . It is possible to do it in all 4 years while taking 15-18 credits a quarter, but a summer session will probably be needed. :)</p>
<p>Who or what sets the requirements besides the college or university itself? Do the national accreditation organization set minimum requirements?</p>
<p>At Duke the requirement is 34 credits, but you can take 32 credits if you have 2 AP credits from high school. 32 credits equals 4 one-credit courses per semester (no summer or overloading needed). I would not recommend overloading as there's more than enough work without it.</p>
<p>My school's on a quarter system...my major has 185 credits required for graduation, which works out to about 60 classes. I have 60 classes, though I have more credits than necessary. This works out to 5 classes per term (though for 2 terms I had 4 classes and for 2 terms I had 6). I always figured that we would have a greater number of classes due to the quarter system, but I'm still surprised that some people consider taking 3 or 4 classes per term, every term, to be normal. I probably had that many classes within the first two years. x_X</p>
<p>BlahdeBlah, Does your major require 185 credits or are you talking about graduation requirements for your college? I think the op question is about major requirements. I know that for my daughters upcoming graduation her college required a year of a foreign language, 2 maths, a science or two, etc, etc. plus the requirements for education and sociology majors.</p>