<p>In 2003, 18.5 hours per week (presumably meaning out-of-class studying), according to [Why</a> College Students Leave the Engineering Track - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/why-students-leave-the-engineering-track/]Why”>Why College Students Leave the Engineering Track - The New York Times) . In contrast, social studies majors has 14.6 hours per week of study time. But all majors studied considerably less time in 2003 compared to 1961, possibly because of technological improvements that improved studying efficiency (try writing a paper or lab report by hand or a typewriter versus editing or word processing software on a computer, or searching card catalogs versus web search engines for reference books and articles).</p>
<p>More information at [THE</a> TEACHING ECONOMIST](<a href=“http://www.cengage.com/economics/mceachern/theteachingeconomist/issue_39/index.html]THE”>THE TEACHING ECONOMIST) and <a href=“http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/~babcock/college_time_use_6_08.pdf[/url]”>http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/~babcock/college_time_use_6_08.pdf</a> .</p>
<p>If we assume 15 hours per week of in-class time, that makes a total of 33.5 hours per week for engineering majors, which is less than the nominal time of 45 to 48 hours per week for a 15 to 16 credit unit nominal full time course load.</p>