<p>My DD called tonight and granted she tends to procrastinate and wait too long to get started on some of her assignments BUT…that being said…
She has been at school 8 weeks and has already completed reading 6 books , 6 sizeable papers
( 3 essays, 3 were research with extensive bibliographies), an oral presentation, and a daily journal for her English 101 class alone. There were other smaller assignments in this class as well. I am not encouraging her to feel victimized by this. After all, college is an awful lot of hard, sleepless work. But between you and me, it’s almost like she can’t catch her breath this semester. She has 4 other classes, as do most freshmen. I just wanted to vent that this seems like an excessive amount of work in a GE English class. My D is handling it but I could see some kids giving up and going home…lol. I think she could still learn to critically think and hone her writing skills with a bit more space between major assignments.</p>
<p>Donna, is your daughter telling you that she is overstressed? or is this your maternal concern for her coming from her telling you how hard she is working, but not necessarily complaining about it?</p>
<p>I don’t know where your daughter is attending college, but obviously the work load is intense at many schools. My daughter is working like she never has before. She was one of those kids who never had to put much effort in to get straight A’s through high school… and now that she is in college she is working all the time. I mean, I called her around 9 pm on a Friday night and found her in her room, reading. She’s always been an outgoing, party-type – it was strange to find her working then, telling me that she had turned down an invitation from friends to go out to a show with them. (I mean, in high school, the only time I ever saw her home on a Friday night was if she was sick). </p>
<p>But even though she is working so hard, she seems to be comfortable – she tells me that she is keeping up with the reading and actually finds the work load to be manageable. I think she is finding the work to be a much greater challenge, but also more interesting. She also has a freshman English class that requires a lot of writing. She is also a little envious of college friends who seem to have a lot more free time than she does – but I told her to wait until the end of the semester until grades are in before she compares herself with the students who seem to always have time to play. </p>
<p>In my case, my daughter is at a reach college so it doesn’t suprise me that she needs to put in extra effort – in fact, this is something I cautioned her to think about when making her choice, because of course she could have opted for one of her safeties and probably be having a lot easier time right now. But I get the sense that even though it is a new experience for her to work so hard, she is also feeling good about what she is learning. She has been sending me some of her essays to proofread and I can see that even in a few weeks her writing has matured.</p>
<p>Anyway, in my case I think I’m getting what I’m paying for – a helluva education for my daughter. It IS hard work, but then that’s the point of college. </p>
<p>If your daughter is managing, then I think you should just be proud of her for working so hard; the good study habits she develops now will support her through college.</p>
<p>I did send my daughter a care package – the brownies seemed to go over really well. Just because she’s studying doesn’t mean she has to be miserable.</p>
<p>FWIW, if you are saying that in <em>one</em> class, she has already had 3 essays and 3 extensive research papers, as well as other assignments including reading 6 books, that does seem like quite a lot. My S has been to three colleges thus far, and taken writing intensive courses at each, and none has had quite that load.</p>
<p>So I’m just validating your impression. Not saying there’s anything wrong with it; just that it’s a heavy load. Of course, she may be overdoing the research papers, which perhaps don’t need to be as extensive as she’s making them - just a thought.</p>
<p>The good news is she’s handling it. I guess you can chalk it up to What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.</p>
<p>I think most of us have kids that work hard, but also have some fun. We just don’t hear about that. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that coursework is the full time job for most of these kids. If you factor in the number of hours in the week, I don’t think most of them are suffering too badly, athough they may resent the fact that coursework actually DOES cut into playtime. (but isn’t the working world for us parents a lot like that?)</p>
<p>Yes, I’ve seen my D put in long hours. I’ve also seen her go out of town many a weekend for sports trips. And she’s maintained a 3.9 average with a difficult schedule at a difficult university. She also calls at various times with a sense of panic, because she has two papers, two midterms and a lab writeup all due the same week. Of course, she’s stressed because she was out of town all weekend.</p>
<p>Finally, you will always find courses that have workloads that seem disproportionate for the course. Interestingly, these frequently DO seem to be humanities classes. But I think much of that stress stems from the required papers for those classes. Do keep in mind that at many colleges, the papers, and learning critical reading/writing skills are the entire reason for the course. And those skills build the foundation for all the work that follows in later years.</p>
<p>Yes, it is a lot of work for some kids, especially those that have never had much training in critical reading and analysis.</p>
<p>I know my son has worked very hard since beginning college last year. He does envy those friends at other schools who seem to have more time for fun. Mostly his schedule seems to be studying every night during the week, including Fri night, Sat. day and Sun day. He tries to take Sat. night off to relax some. He said he would estimate 45-55 hours per week in homework.</p>
<p>mkm56, </p>
<p>50 hours a week homework, plus maybe 15 classroom hours = 65 hours a week, or 8-9 hours a day. A lot? Yes, but no more than some professionals put in 48 weeks a year (time off for vacations!) year after year. Our kids only have this workload 30-35 weeks a year. The rest of the time they’re on breaks. </p>
<p>I think, as others have said, demanding colleges expect a LOT more work than most kids did during HS. But this will continue for some of them.</p>
<p>I suspect the same kids that put in 50 hours a week in homework are the same ones that will give a lot of effort to a job when they get to the working world and do well, especially compared to their “slacker” friends who party their way through?</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s a crazy class!</p>
<p>FWIW, my freshman comp course was the most useless class I took throughout my undergrad career. All I learned how to do is BS better than I had in high school on liberal artsy papers (mine was focused on racial strife) and did nothing to help me with my scientific writing which was more important to me in the long run.</p>
<p>Where you really learn how to write is during your major classes where you have writing intensive courses…and the process never ends!</p>
<p>Is this class taught by a TA, by a regular professor, or by an adjunct/lecturer? That can give some insight as to why the work load is so crazy.</p>
<p>Agree newmassdad. I point out to him that he will be much better prepared for grad school, work force, etc.</p>
<p>As opposed to my D. who went to a much less challenging school and is now looking at a 2nd major/grad school. She is going to have a rude awakening (but she says she doesn’t regret her past few years–great memories!)</p>
<p>mkm,</p>
<p>The good news is that the working world has room for both those folks who want a 9-5 job with fewer demands (although the days of long lunches are gone, IMHO) and those jobs that are more consuming. The differences are in income, job nature, long term career prospects etc. But I don’t think all our kids want to have the expensive car, luxury vacations and other success trappings if it means giving up too much of their social life. Both can be happy, just in different ways.</p>
<p>I was thinking * is this at Reed?* 
But no- they don’t have most students taking 5 classes- that would be crazy & they also don’t even offer Freshman english </p>
<p>If she is spending a lot more time on homework than other students ( or even if she isn’t) she should check in with the student center- for study tips</p>
<p>Even though lots of readings are assigned for example- it might be common knowledge which are more emphasized- it helps to talk to students who have had those courses</p>
<p>In many schools, these required 101 classes are designed to be tough & competitive - and often used to weed out people from the major. A friend of mine often recalls that the hardest class she ever had was chemistry 101 - and she ended majoring in the sciences and went on to med school. In other words - chin up - it may get easier.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great feedback everyone. FWIW as I originally posted. it would not serve my D for me to act surprised at her work load in this particular class. There are those students who can become chronic victims because they absorb that attitude from parents. I just tell her I am proud of all she is doing and that in time, she will better learn “what she can get away with and what she can’t”. I know that sounds weird, but like anything else. part of success as an undergrad depends on assessing the professor and his/her demands. I remember that as an upperclass undergrad ( MAAANNNYY years ago lol), I was able to zero in on which readings I could skim and which ones I absolutely needed to read in their entirety. I am not that worried about her…she is handling it with grace except for occasional moments of frustration and overwhelm. It seems as if it is not PC /acceptable to hold the opinion that the workload in a class may be maniacal. although there are clearly some profs who make it so. Ran into a couple of those myself although it wasn’t until graduate school.</p>
<p>My S had a maniacal workload in a full year freshman Core class. Since it is required, he knew about it coming in, and actually chose the school partly based on that. Unfortunately, he had two other classes with pretty over the top reading lists, too, plus two others that were just kind of grind through the exercises ones. I think he perfected the art of when to skim, when to read, pretty fast, since his GPA hasn’t tanked yet. :)</p>
<p>I got very adept by the end of my freshman year at doing minimal reading in a yearlong course I was stuck in. I wrote a paper about Nietzsche and Hitler for which I read all of three pages of N. Got a B. Same grades I’d gotten first term when I read every page of every book.</p>
<p>My daughter keeps two planners: one for coursework and one for activities she wants/needs to attend (as a music major, she’s required to attend most of the on-campus performances and faculty recitals). She really maximizes the use of her daytime hours (studies in the student lounge of the music building), so she can have evenings in the practice room or for other activities and starts on papers the day they are assigned (whether doing research or starting a draft). She still manages to tutor weekly at the local elementary school, sing in a praise band at church, and make weekly doughnut runs at 1:00am to the local bakery (a doughnut and a half pint of milk for $1!) </p>
<p>Frankly, I don’t know where these time management skills came from. I clearly recall the ongoing drama of last year, wondering if she was ever going to get an essay submitted for one college, much less six. And she told me this weekend that she’s going to switch one of her classes next quarter from a 9:00am section to an 8:00am section, because it helps her to get a jump on the day. This is MY kid? Of course it probably helps that she attends her current 8:00 class in her jammies…!</p>
<p>haha, I think i attended a majority of my 8:00 am classes in my jammies. Then I went to our student union and took a nap untill my 11:00 am class and then after that finally went back to my apartment to get a shower eat lunch and go to work. 
Typical college behavior.</p>
<p>The workload sounds relatively heavy but certainly not outside the ‘norm’. The one of my Ds who is an English double major has had five courses every semester so far, as do the vast majority of kids at her school, and this type of reading/writing/presentation workload is common. The kids who are successful at finding the right balance of time management are the ones who will learn how to handle it. Sometimes it means that they don’t read every single chapter of every reading for class. It varies kid by kid as to what they can handle. One thing that is essential, though, is that work be done in a timely and planned manner, and that papers and projects not get left til the last minute. That is one route which can derail a kid for the entire semester or year. She’ll probably be fine, if she’s able to do what she’s done already this year. While it’s true that 101 courses sometimes are used to ‘thin the ranks’, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the upper level courses will be easier. In fact, in my D’s experience, they are even more intense, and more is expected by the profs because the classes are so much smaller. At her school, there are no classes taught by TAs.</p>
<p>I completely agree about the procrastination but the value of “getting a jump on it” is something I think DD is learning, gradually. all by herself. She does have an active social life and I suspect there isn’t a lot of work getting done on Fridays and Saturdays, although she has spent some time in the library on Saturday afternoons. I know she is up till all hours on Sunday nights. She is carrying an A in this English class so I can’t justify nagging her too much about how she is doing it. I suspect she is sleep deprived lol but what else is new? Despite the work, she still seems to work in time for dinners out, working out at the gym, and attending dances, plays etc. I am grateful for that.</p>