average hours of homework in college

How Much Time Do College Students Spend on Homework

by Jack Tai | Oct 9, 2019 | Articles

Does college life involve more studying or socializing?

Find out how much time college students need to devote to their homework in order to succeed in class.

We all know that it takes hard work to succeed in college and earn top grades.

To find out more about the time demands of studying and learning, let’s review the average homework amounts of college students.

HowtoLearn.com expert, Jack Tai, CEO of OneClass.com shows how homework improves grades in college and an average of how much time is required.

How Many Hours Do College Students Spend on Homework?

Classes in college are much different from those in high school.

For students in high school, a large part of learning occurs in the classroom with homework used to support class activities.

One of the first thing that college students need to learn is how to read and remember more quickly. It gives them a competitive benefit in their grades and when they learn new information to escalate their career.

Taking a speed reading course that shows you how to learn at the same time is one of the best ways for students to complete their reading assignments and their homework.

However, in college, students spend a shorter period in class and spend more time learning outside of the classroom.

This shift to an independent learning structure means that college students should expect to spend more time on homework than they did during high school.

In college, a good rule of thumb for homework estimates that for each college credit you take, you’ll spend one hour in the classroom and two to three hours on homework each week.

These homework tasks can include readings, working on assignments, or studying for exams.

Based upon these estimates, a three-credit college class would require each week to include approximately three hours attending lectures and six to nine hours of homework.

Extrapolating this out to the 15-credit course load of a full-time student, that would be 15 hours in the classroom and 30 to 45 hours studying and doing homework.

These time estimates demonstrate that college students have significantly more homework than the 10 hours per week average among high school students. In fact, doing homework in college can take as much time as a full-time job.

Students should keep in mind that these homework amounts are averages.

Students will find that some professors assign more or less homework. Students may also find that some classes assign very little homework in the beginning of the semester, but increase later on in preparation for exams or when a major project is due. 

There can even be variation based upon the major with some areas of study requiring more lab work or reading.

Do College Students Do Homework on Weekends?

Based on the quantity of homework in college, it’s nearly certain that students will be spending some of their weekends doing homework.

For example, if each weekday, a student spends three hours in class and spends five hours on homework, there’s still at least five hours of homework to do on the weekend.

When considering how homework schedules can affect learning, it’s important to remember that even though college students face a significant amount of homework, one of the best learning strategies is to space out study sessions into short time blocks.

This includes not just doing homework every day of the week, but also establishing short study blocks in the morning, afternoon, and evening. With this approach, students can avoid cramming on Sunday night to be ready for class.

What’s the Best Way to Get Help with Your Homework?

In college, there are academic resources built into campus life to support learning.

For example, you may have access to an on-campus learning center or tutoring facilities. You may also have the support of teaching assistants or regular office hours.

That’s why OneClass recommends a course like How to Read a Book in a Day and Remember It which gives a c hoice to support your learning. 

Another choice is on demand tutoring.

They send detailed, step-by-step solutions within just 24 hours, and frequently, answers are sent in less than 12 hours.

When students have on-demand access to homework help, it’s possible to avoid the poor grades that can result from unfinished homework.

Plus, 24/7 Homework Help makes it easy to ask a question. Simply snap a photo and upload it to the platform.

That’s all tutors need to get started preparing your solution.

Rather than retyping questions or struggling with math formulas, asking questions and getting answers is as easy as click and go.

Homework Help supports coursework for both high school and college students across a wide range of subjects. Moreover, students can access OneClass’ knowledge base of previously answered homework questions.

Simply browse by subject or search the directory to find out if another student struggled to learn the same class material.

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College Homework: What You Need to Know

• April 1, 2020

Samantha "Sam" Sparks

• Future of Education

Despite what Hollywood shows us, most of college life actually involves studying, burying yourself in mountains of books, writing mountains of reports, and, of course, doing a whole lot of homework.

Wait, homework? That’s right, homework doesn’t end just because high school did: part of parcel of any college course will be homework. So if you thought college is harder than high school , then you’re right, because in between hours and hours of lectures and term papers and exams, you’re still going to have to take home a lot of schoolwork to do in the comfort of your dorm.

College life is demanding, it’s difficult, but at the end of the day, it’s fulfilling. You might have had this idealized version of what your college life is going to be like, but we’re here to tell you: it’s not all parties and cardigans.

How Many Hours Does College Homework Require?

Here’s the thing about college homework: it’s vastly different from the type of takehome school activities you might have had in high school.

See, high school students are given homework to augment what they’ve learned in the classroom. For high school students, a majority of their learning happens in school, with their teachers guiding them along the way.

In college, however, your professors will encourage you to learn on your own. Yes, you will be attending hours and hours of lectures and seminars, but most of your learning is going to take place in the library, with your professors taking a more backseat approach to your learning process. This independent learning structure teaches prospective students to hone their critical thinking skills, perfect their research abilities, and encourage them to come up with original thoughts and ideas.

Sure, your professors will still step in every now and then to help with anything you’re struggling with and to correct certain mistakes, but by and large, the learning process in college is entirely up to how you develop your skills.

This is the reason why college homework is voluminous: it’s designed to teach you how to basically learn on your own. While there is no set standard on how much time you should spend doing homework in college, a good rule-of-thumb practiced by model students is 3 hours a week per college credit . It doesn’t seem like a lot, until you factor in that the average college student takes on about 15 units per semester. With that in mind, it’s safe to assume that a single, 3-unit college class would usually require 9 hours of homework per week.

But don’t worry, college homework is also different from high school homework in how it’s structured. High school homework usually involves a take-home activity of some kind, where students answer certain questions posed to them. College homework, on the other hand, is more on reading texts that you’ll discuss in your next lecture, studying for exams, and, of course, take-home activities.

Take these averages with a grain of salt, however, as the average number of hours required to do college homework will also depend on your professor, the type of class you’re attending, what you’re majoring in, and whether or not you have other activities (like laboratory work or field work) that would compensate for homework.

Do Students Do College Homework On the Weekends?

Again, based on the average number we provided above, and again, depending on numerous other factors, it’s safe to say that, yes, you would have to complete a lot of college homework on the weekends.

Using the average given above, let’s say that a student does 9 hours of homework per week per class. A typical semester would involve 5 different classes (each with 3 units), which means that a student would be doing an average of 45 hours of homework per week. That would equal to around 6 hours of homework a day, including weekends.

That might seem overwhelming, but again: college homework is different from high school homework in that it doesn’t always involve take-home activities. In fact, most of your college homework (but again, depending on your professor, your major, and other mitigating factors) will probably involve doing readings and writing essays. Some types of college homework might not even feel like homework, as some professors encourage inter-personal learning by requiring their students to form groups and discuss certain topics instead of doing take-home activities or writing papers. Again, lab work and field work (depending on your major) might also make up for homework.

Remember: this is all relative. Some people read fast and will find that 3 hours per unit per week is much too much time considering they can finish a reading in under an hour.The faster you learn how to read, the less amount of time you’ll need to devote to homework.

College homework is difficult, but it’s also manageable. This is why you see a lot of study groups in college, where your peers will establish a way for everyone to learn on a collective basis, as this would help lighten the mental load you might face during your college life. There are also different strategies you can develop to master your time management skills, all of which will help you become a more holistic person once you leave college.

So, yes, your weekends will probably be chock-full of schoolwork, but you’ll need to learn how to manage your time in such a way that you’ll be able to do your homework and socialize, but also have time to develop your other skills and/or talk to family and friends.

College Homework Isn’t All That Bad, Though

Sure, you’ll probably have time for parties and joining a fraternity/sorority, even attend those mythical college keggers (something that the person who invented college probably didn’t have in mind). But I hate to break it to you: those are going to be few and far in between. But here’s a consolation, however: you’re going to be studying something you’re actually interested in.

All of those hours spent in the library, writing down papers, doing college homework? It’s going to feel like a minute because you’re doing something you actually love doing. And if you fear that you’ll be missing out, don’t worry: all those people that you think are attending those parties aren’t actually there because they, too, will be busy studying!

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How Much Homework is Too Much?

When redesigning a course or putting together a new course, faculty often struggle with how much homework and readings to assign. Too little homework and students might not be prepared for the class sessions or be able to adequately practice basic skills or produce sufficient in-depth work to properly master the learning goals of the course. Too much and some students may feel overwhelmed and find it difficult to keep up or have to sacrifice work in other courses.

A common rule of thumb is that students should study three hours for each credit hour of the course, but this isn’t definitive. Universities might recommend that students spend anywhere from two or three hours of study or as much as six to nine hours of study or more for each course credit hour. A 2014 study found that, nationwide, college students self reported spending about 17 hours each week on homework, reading and assignments. Studies of high school students show that too much homework can produce diminishing returns on student learning, so finding the right balance can be difficult.

There are no hard and fast rules about the amount of readings and homework that faculty assign. It will vary according to the university, the department, the level of the classes, and even other external factors that impact students in your course. (Duke’s faculty handbook addresses many facets of courses, such as absences, but not the typical amount of homework specifically.)

To consider the perspective of a typical student that might be similar to the situations faced at Duke, Harvard posted a blog entry by one of their students aimed at giving students new to the university about what they could expect. There are lots of readings, of course, but time has to be spent on completing problem sets, sometimes elaborate multimedia or research projects, responding to discussion posts and writing essays. Your class is one of several, and students have to balance the needs of your class with others and with clubs, special projects, volunteer work or other activities they’re involved with as part of their overall experience.

The Rice Center for Teaching Excellence has some online calculators for estimating class workload that can help you get a general understanding of the time it may take for a student to read a particular number of pages of material at different levels or to complete essays or other types of homework.

To narrow down your decision-making about homework when redesigning or creating your own course, you might consider situational factors that may influence the amount of homework that’s appropriate.

Connection with your learning goals

Is the homework clearly connected with the learning goals of your students for a particular class session or week in the course? Students will find homework beneficial and valuable if they feel that it is meaningful . If you think students might see readings or assignments as busy work, think about ways to modify the homework to make a clearer connection with what is happening in class. Resist the temptation to assign something because the students need to know it. Ask yourself if they will actually use it immediately in the course or if the material or exercises should be relegated to supplementary material.

Levels of performance

The type of readings and homework given to first year students will be very different from those given to more experienced individuals in higher-level courses. If you’re unsure if your readings or other work might be too easy (or too complex) for students in your course, ask a colleague in your department or at another university to give feedback on your assignment. If former students in the course (or a similar course) are available, ask them for feedback on a sample reading or assignment.

Common practices

What are the common practices in your department or discipline? Some departments, with particular classes, may have general guidelines or best practices you can keep in mind when assigning homework.

External factors

What type of typical student will be taking your course? If it’s a course preparing for a major or within an area of study, are there other courses with heavy workloads they might be taking at the same time? Are they completing projects, research, or community work that might make it difficult for them to keep up with a heavy homework load for your course?

Students who speak English as a second language, are first generation students, or who may be having to work to support themselves as they take courses may need support to get the most out of homework. Detailed instructions for the homework, along with outlining your learning goals and how the assignment connects the course, can help students understand how the readings and assignments fit into their studies. A reading guide, with questions prompts or background, can help students gain a better understanding of a reading. Resources to look up unfamiliar cultural references or terms can make readings and assignments less overwhelming.

If you would like more ideas about planning homework and assignments for your course or more information and guidance on course design and assessment, contact Duke Learning Innovation to speak with one of our consultants .

How Much Homework Is Enough? Depends Who You Ask

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Editor’s note: This is an adapted excerpt from You, Your Child, and School: Navigate Your Way to the Best Education ( Viking)—the latest book by author and speaker Sir Ken Robinson (co-authored with Lou Aronica), published in March. For years, Robinson has been known for his radical work on rekindling creativity and passion in schools, including three bestselling books (also with Aronica) on the topic. His TED Talk “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” holds the record for the most-viewed TED talk of all time, with more than 50 million views. While Robinson’s latest book is geared toward parents, it also offers educators a window into the kinds of education concerns parents have for their children, including on the quality and quantity of homework.

The amount of homework young people are given varies a lot from school to school and from grade to grade. In some schools and grades, children have no homework at all. In others, they may have 18 hours or more of homework every week. In the United States, the accepted guideline, which is supported by both the National Education Association and the National Parent Teacher Association, is the 10-minute rule: Children should have no more than 10 minutes of homework each day for each grade reached. In 1st grade, children should have 10 minutes of daily homework; in 2nd grade, 20 minutes; and so on to the 12th grade, when on average they should have 120 minutes of homework each day, which is about 10 hours a week. It doesn’t always work out that way.

In 2013, the University of Phoenix College of Education commissioned a survey of how much homework teachers typically give their students. From kindergarten to 5th grade, it was just under three hours per week; from 6th to 8th grade, it was 3.2 hours; and from 9th to 12th grade, it was 3.5 hours.

There are two points to note. First, these are the amounts given by individual teachers. To estimate the total time children are expected to spend on homework, you need to multiply these hours by the number of teachers they work with. High school students who work with five teachers in different curriculum areas may find themselves with 17.5 hours or more of homework a week, which is the equivalent of a part-time job. The other factor is that these are teachers’ estimates of the time that homework should take. The time that individual children spend on it will be more or less than that, according to their abilities and interests. One child may casually dash off a piece of homework in half the time that another will spend laboring through in a cold sweat.

Do students have more homework these days than previous generations? Given all the variables, it’s difficult to say. Some studies suggest they do. In 2007, a study from the National Center for Education Statistics found that, on average, high school students spent around seven hours a week on homework. A similar study in 1994 put the average at less than five hours a week. Mind you, I [Robinson] was in high school in England in the 1960s and spent a lot more time than that—though maybe that was to do with my own ability. One way of judging this is to look at how much homework your own children are given and compare it to what you had at the same age.

Many parents find it difficult to help their children with subjects they’ve not studied themselves for a long time, if at all.

There’s also much debate about the value of homework. Supporters argue that it benefits children, teachers, and parents in several ways:

• Children learn to deepen their understanding of specific content, to cover content at their own pace, to become more independent learners, to develop problem-solving and time-management skills, and to relate what they learn in school to outside activities.
• Teachers can see how well their students understand the lessons; evaluate students’ individual progress, strengths, and weaknesses; and cover more content in class.
• Parents can engage practically in their children’s education, see firsthand what their children are being taught in school, and understand more clearly how they’re getting on—what they find easy and what they struggle with in school.

Want to know more about Sir Ken Robinson? Check out our Q&A with him.

Q&A With Sir Ken Robinson

Ashley Norris is assistant dean at the University of Phoenix College of Education. Commenting on her university’s survey, she says, “Homework helps build confidence, responsibility, and problem-solving skills that can set students up for success in high school, college, and in the workplace.”

That may be so, but many parents find it difficult to help their children with subjects they’ve not studied themselves for a long time, if at all. Families have busy lives, and it can be hard for parents to find time to help with homework alongside everything else they have to cope with. Norris is convinced it’s worth the effort, especially, she says, because in many schools, the nature of homework is changing. One influence is the growing popularity of the so-called flipped classroom.

In the stereotypical classroom, the teacher spends time in class presenting material to the students. Their homework consists of assignments based on that material. In the flipped classroom, the teacher provides the students with presentational materials—videos, slides, lecture notes—which the students review at home and then bring questions and ideas to school where they work on them collaboratively with the teacher and other students. As Norris notes, in this approach, homework extends the boundaries of the classroom and reframes how time in school can be used more productively, allowing students to “collaborate on learning, learn from each other, maybe critique [each other’s work], and share those experiences.”

Even so, many parents and educators are increasingly concerned that homework, in whatever form it takes, is a bridge too far in the pressured lives of children and their families. It takes away from essential time for their children to relax and unwind after school, to play, to be young, and to be together as a family. On top of that, the benefits of homework are often asserted, but they’re not consistent, and they’re certainly not guaranteed.

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Course Workload Estimator

A blog post that describes the genesis of this estimator, as well as some of its potential uses, can be read here . You can also find a stand-alone version of the estimator that can be embedded into your site here .

Estimation Details

Somewhat surprisingly, there is very little research about the amount of time it takes the average college student to complete common academic tasks. We have self-reported estimates of how much total time they spend on academic work outside of class (12-15 hours), but we don't know much about the quality and quantity of the work that is produced in that time frame (let alone how the time is allocated to different tasks). We also know quite a bit about how students tackle common academic tasks , but those studies rarely ask students to report on how long it takes them to complete the task (whether reading a book, writing a paper, or studying for an exam). The testing literature provides some clues (because valid instrument design depends on data about the average speed of test takers), but it's tough to generalize from the experience of taking high-stakes, timed tests to the experience of working on an assignment in the comfort of your dorm. And while there is a sizable literature on reading, the nature and purpose of the reading tasks in these experiments are also quite different from what students typically encounter in college.

All of which is to say the estimates above are just that: estimates .

To arrive at our estimates, we began with what we knew from the literature and then filled in the gaps by making a few key assumptions. The details of our calculations are below. If you still find our assumptions unreasonable, however, the estimator allows you to manually adjust our estimated rates. We also welcome those who have knowledge of research about which we are unaware to suggest improvements.

Reading Rates

Of all the work students might do outside of class, we know the most about their reading. Educators, cognitive psychologists, and linguists have been studying how human beings read for more than a century. One of the best summaries of this extensive literature is the late Keith Rayner's recently published " So Much to Read, So Little Time: How Do We Read, and Can Speed Reading Help? " A central insight of this piece (along with the literature it summarizes) is that none of us read at a constant rate. Instead, we use varying rates that depend on the difficulty and purpose of the reading task (Rayner et al., 2016; Love, 2012; Aronson, 1983; Carver, 1983, 1992; Jay and Dahl, 1975; Parker, 1962; Carrillo and Sheldon, 1952; Robinson, 1941). Another obvious (but rarely acknowledged) insight is that a page-based reading rate is going to vary by the number of words on the page. As a result, our estimator assumes that reading rate will be a function of three factors: 1) page density, 2) text difficulty, and 3) reading purpose. For the sake of simplicity, we limited the variation within each factor to three levels.

Page Density*

• 450 words: Typical of paperback pages, as well as the 6" x 9" pages of academic journal articles
• 600 words: Typical of academic monograph pages
• 750 words: Typical of textbook pages that are 25% images, as well as the full-size pages of two-column academic journal articles

* estimates were determined by direct sampling of texts in our personal collection

Text Difficulty

• No New Concepts: The reader knows the meaning of each word and has enough background knowledge to immediately understand the ideas expressed
• Some New Concepts: The reader is unfamiliar with the meaning of some words and doesn't have enough background knowledge to immediately understand some of the ideas expressed.
• Many New Concepts: The reader is unfamiliar with the meaning of many words and doesn't have enough background knowledge to immediately understand most of the ideas expressed

Reading Purpose

• Survey: Reading to survey main ideas; OK to skip entire portions of text
• Understand: Reading to understand the meaning of each sentence
• Engage: Reading while also working problems, drawing inferences, questioning, and evaluating

What we know from the research:

The optimal reading rate of the skilled adult reader (including college students) is around 300 words per minute. This assumes a "normal" reading environment in which there are no new words or concepts in the text and the purpose of the reading is to understand the meaning of each sentence (Rayner et al., 2016; Carver, 1982).

Adults can read faster than 300 words per minute, but if the goal is to understand the meaning of sentences, rates beyond 300 words per minute reduce comprehension in a near linear fashion (Zacks and Treiman, 2016; Love, 2012; Carver, 1982).

The default reading rates of college students under these normal conditions can range from 100-400 words per minute (Rayner et al., 2016; Siegenthaler et al., 2011; Acheson et al., 2008; Carver, 1982, 1983, 1992; Underwood et al., 1990; Hausfeld, 1981; Just and Carpenter, 1980; Jay and Dahl, 1975; Grob, 1970; McLaughlin, 1969; Robinson and Hall, 1941).

There is no real upper limit on skimming speeds, but the average college student skims for main ideas at rates between 450 and 600 words per minute (Rayner et al., 2016; Carver 1992; Just and Carpenter, 1980; Jay and Dahl, 1975)

In conditions where the material is more difficult (i.e., with some new words and concepts), the optimal reading rate slows to 200 words per minute (Carver, 1992).

In conditions where the purpose is to memorize the text for later recall, the optimal reading rate slows even further to 138 words per minute or lower (Carver, 1992).

Although this has not been measured (to our knowledge), reading experts have argued that it is perfectly reasonable to slow down to rates below 50 words per minute if the goal is to engage a text (Parker, 1962).

What we don't know, but deduce and/or stipulate:

Given that the rates above were discovered in laboratory conditions, when subjects are asked to perform in short, time-constrained intervals, we assume that the reading rates in actual conditions, when students read for longer periods with periodic breaks, will be slightly slower.

Because there is no research on the time it takes students to engage texts, we assume that the rates would be similar to the rates found when students are asked to memorize a text for later recall. Although these are incredibly different tasks, both require attention to details alongside additional processing. If anything, we imagine equating these two rates significantly under estimates the time it takes to read for engagement (for an example of the sort of reading that is likely to take more time than it takes to memorize, see the appendix of Perry et al., 2015).

If the reading purpose remains the same, the change in reading rates across text difficulty levels is linear.

The rate of change in reading rates across text difficulty levels is the same across reading purposes.

Combining what we know with what we assume allows us to construct the following table of estimated reading rates (with rates about which we are most confident in yellow):

Writing Rates

Sadly, we know much less about student writing rates than we do about reading rates. This is no doubt because writing rates vary even more widely than reading rates. Nevertheless, we've found at least one study that can give us a place to begin. In " Individual Differences in Undergraduate Essay-Writing Strategies ," Mark Torrance and his colleagues find (among other things) that 493 students reported spending anywhere between 9 to 15 hours on 1500-word essays. In these essays, students were asked to produce a "critical description and discussion of psychological themes" using at least one outside source. Torrance and his colleagues also show that students who spent the least time reported no drafting, while those who spent the most time reported multiple drafts, along with detailed outlining and planning. And the students who spent the most time received higher marks than those who spent the least (Torrance et al., 2000).

Although the sample of this study is sizable, we should not read too much into a single result of student self-reports about a single assignment from a single institution. But to arrive at our estimates, we must. Users should simply be aware that the table below is far more speculative than our reading rate estimates. And that the time your students spend on these tasks is likely to vary from these estimates in significant ways.

As with reading rates, we assume that writing rates will be a function of a variety of factors. The three we take into account are 1) page density, 2) text genre, 3) degree of drafting and revision.

Page Density

• 250 words: Double-Spaced, Times New Roman, 12-Point Font, 1" Margins
• 500 words: Single-Spaced, Times New Roman, 12-Point Font, 1" Margins
• Reflection/Narrative: Essays that require very little planning or critical engagement with content
• Argument: Essays that require critical engagement with content and detailed planning, but no outside research
• Research: Essays that require detailed planning, outside research, and critical engagement

Drafting and Revision

• No Drafting: Students submit essays that were never revised
• Minimal Drafting: Students submit essays that were revised at least once
• Extensive Drafting: Students submit essays that were revised multiple times

What we assume to arrive at our estimates:

• The results of the Torrance study are reasonably accurate.
• The assignment in the study falls within the "argument" genre. It's hard to tell without more details, but "critical description and discussion" seems to imply more than reflection. And while an outside source was required, finding and using a single source falls well below the expectations of a traditional research paper.
• Students write at a constant rate. That is, we assume that a student writing the same sort of essay will take exactly twice as much time to write a 12 page paper as she takes to write a 6 page paper. There are good reasons to think this assumption is unrealistic, but because we have no way of knowing how much rate might shift over the course of a paper, we assume constancy.
• Students will spend less time writing a reflective or narrative essay than they spend constructing an argumentative essay (assuming the same degree of drafting and revision). For simplicity's sake, we assume they will spend exactly half the time. It's highly unlikely to be this linear, but we don't know enough to make a more accurate assumption.
• Students will spend more time writing a research paper than they spend on their argumentative essays. Again, for simplicity's sake, we assume they will spend exactly twice the amount of time. It's not only unlikely to be this linear, it's also likely to vary greatly by the amount of outside reading a student does and the difficulty of the sources he or she tackles.

These assumptions allow us to construct the following table of estimated writing rates (with rates about which we are most confident in yellow):

Bibliography

Aaronson, Doris, and Steven Ferres. “Lexical Categories and Reading Tasks.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 9, no. 5 (1983): 675–99. doi:10.1037/0096-1523.9.5.675.

Acheson, Daniel J., Justine B. Wells, and Maryellen C. MacDonald. “New and Updated Tests of Print Exposure and Reading Abilities in College Students.” Behavior Research Methods 40, no. 1 (2008): 278–89. doi:10.3758/BRM.40.1.278.

Carrillo, Lawrence W., and William D. Sheldon. “The Flexibility of Reading Rate.” Journal of Educational Psychology 43, no. 5 (1952): 299–305. doi:10.1037/h0054161.

Carver, Ronald P. “Is Reading Rate Constant or Flexible?” Reading Research Quarterly 18, no. 2 (1983): 190–215. doi:10.2307/747517.

———. “Optimal Rate of Reading Prose.” Reading Research Quarterly 18, no. 1 (1982): 56–88. doi:10.2307/747538.

———. “Reading Rate: Theory, Research, and Practical Implications.” Journal of Reading 36, no. 2 (1992): 84–95.

Dehaene, Stanislas. Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read . Reprint edition. New York: Penguin Books, 2010.

Grob, James A. “Reading Rate and Study-Time Demands on Secondary Students.” Journal of Reading 13, no. 4 (1970): 285–88.

Hausfeld, Steven. “Speeded Reading and Listening Comprehension for Easy and Difficult Materials.” Journal of Educational Psychology 73, no. 3 (1981): 312–19. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.73.3.312.

Jay, S., and Patricia R. Dahl. “Establishing Appropriate Purpose for Reading and Its Effect on Flexibility of Reading Rate.” Journal of Educational Psychology 67, no. 1 (1975): 38–43. doi:10.1037/h0078669.

Just, Marcel A., and Patricia A. Carpenter. “A Theory of Reading: From Eye Fixations to Comprehension.” Psychological Review 87, no. 4 (1980): 329–54. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.87.4.329.

Love, Jessica. “ Reading Fast and Slow .” The American Scholar , March 1, 2012.

McLaughlin, G. Harry. “Reading at ‘Impossible’ Speeds.” Journal of Reading 12, no. 6 (1969): 449–510.

Parker, Don H. “Reading Rate Is Multilevel.” The Clearing House 36, no. 8 (1962): 451–55.

Perry, John, Michael Bratman, and John Martin Fischer. “ Appendix: Reading Philosophy .” In Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings , 7 edition. New York City, NY: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Rayner, Keith, Elizabeth R. Schotter, Michael E. J. Masson, Mary C. Potter, and Rebecca Treiman. “So Much to Read, So Little Time How Do We Read, and Can Speed Reading Help?” Psychological Science in the Public Interest 17, no. 1 (May 1, 2016): 4–34. doi:10.1177/1529100615623267.

Robinson, F., and P. Hall. “Studies of Higher-Level Reading Abilities.” Journal of Educational Psychology 32, no. 4 (1941): 241–52. doi:10.1037/h0062111.

Siegenthaler, Eva, Pascal Wurtz, Per Bergamin, and Rudolf Groner. “Comparing Reading Processes on E-Ink Displays and Print.” Displays 32, no. 5 (December 2011): 268–73. doi:10.1016/j.displa.2011.05.005.

Torrance, Mark, Glyn V. Thomas, and Elizabeth J. Robinson. “Individual Differences in Undergraduate Essay-Writing Strategies: A Longitudinal Study.” Higher Education 39, no. 2 (2000): 181–200.

Underwood, Geoffrey, Alison Hubbard, and Howard Wilkinson. “Eye Fixations Predict Reading Comprehension: The Relationships between Reading Skill, Reading Speed, and Visual Inspection.” Language and Speech 33, no. 1 (January 1, 1990): 69–81.

Wolf, Maryanne. Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain . Reprint edition. New York: Harper Perennial, 2008.

Zacks, Jeffrey M., and Rebecca Treiman. “ Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read .” The New York Times , April 15, 2016.

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Student Study Time Matters

Vicki nelson.

Most college students want to do well, but they don’t always know what is required to do well. Finding and spending quality study time is one of the first and most important skills that your student can master, but it's rarely as simple as it sounds.

If a student is struggling in class, one of the first questions I ask is, “How much time do you spend studying?”

Although it’s not the only element, time spent studying is one of the basics, so it’s a good place to start. Once we examine time, we can move on to other factors such as how, where, what and when students are studying, but we start with time .

If your student is struggling , help them explore how much time they are spending on schoolwork.

How Much Is Enough?

Very often, a student’s answer to how much time they spend hitting the books doesn’t match the expectation that most professors have for college students. There’s a disconnect about “how much is enough?”

Most college classes meet for a number of “credit hours” – typically 3 or 4. The general rule of thumb (and the definition of credit hour adopted by the Department of Education) is that students should spend approximately 2–3 hours on outside-of-class work for each credit hour or hour spent in the classroom.

Therefore, a student taking five 3-credit classes spends 15 hours each week in class and should be spending 30 hours on work outside of class , or 45 hours/week total.

When we talk about this, I can see on students’ faces that for most of them this isn’t even close to their reality!

According to one survey conducted by the National Survey of Student Engagement, most college students spend an average of 10–13 hours/week studying, or less than 2 hours/day and less than half of what is expected. Only about 11% of students spend more than 25 hours/week on schoolwork.

Why Such a Disconnect?

Warning: math ahead!

It may be that students fail to do the math – or fail to flip the equation.

College expectations are significantly different from the actual time that most high school students spend on outside-of-school work, but the total picture may not be that far off. In order to help students understand, we crunch some more numbers.

Most high school students spend approximately 6 hours/day or 30 hours/week in school. In a 180 day school year, students spend approximately 1,080 hours in school. Some surveys suggest that the average amount of time that most high school students spend on homework is 4–5 hours/week. That’s approximately 1 hour/day or 180 hours/year. So that puts the average time spent on class and homework combined at 1,260 hours/school year.

Now let’s look at college: Most semesters are approximately 15 weeks long. That student with 15 credits (5 classes) spends 225 hours in class and, with the formula above, should be spending 450 hours studying. That’s 675 hours/semester or 1,350 for the year. That’s a bit more than the 1,260 in high school, but only 90 hours, or an average of 3 hours more/week.

The problem is not necessarily the number of hours, it's that many students haven’t flipped the equation and recognized the time expected outside of class.

In high school, students’ 6-hour school day was not under their control but they did much of their work during that time. That hour-or-so a day of homework was an add-on. (Some students definitely spend more than 1 hour/day, but we’re looking at averages.)

In college, students spend a small number of hours in class (approximately 15/week) and are expected to complete almost all their reading, writing and studying outside of class. The expectation doesn’t require significantly more hours; the hours are simply allocated differently – and require discipline to make sure they happen. What students sometimes see as “free time” is really just time that they are responsible for scheduling themselves.

Help Your Student Adjust to College Academics >

How to Fit It All In?

Once we look at these numbers, the question that students often ask is, “How am I supposed to fit that into my week? There aren’t enough hours!”

Again: more math.

I remind students that there are 168 hours in a week. If a student spends 45 hours on class and studying, that leaves 123 hours. If the student sleeps 8 hours per night (few do!), that’s another 56 hours which leaves 67 hours, or at least 9.5 hours/day for work or play.

Many colleges recommend that full-time students should work no more than 20 hours/week at a job if they want to do well in their classes and this calculation shows why.

Making It Work

Many students may not spend 30 or more hours/week studying, but understanding what is expected may motivate them to put in some additional study time. That takes planning, organizing and discipline. Students need to be aware of obstacles and distractions (social media, partying, working too many hours) that may interfere with their ability to find balance.

What Can My Student Do?

Here are a few things your student can try.

• Start by keeping a time journal for a few days or a week . Keep a log and record what you are doing each hour as you go through your day. At the end of the week, observe how you have spent your time. How much time did you actually spend studying? Socializing? Sleeping? Texting? On social media? At a job? Find the “time stealers.”
• Prioritize studying. Don’t hope that you’ll find the time. Schedule your study time each day – make it an appointment with yourself and stick to it.
• Limit phone time. This isn’t easy. In fact, many students find it almost impossible to turn off their phones even for a short time. It may take some practice but putting the phone away during designated study time can make a big difference in how efficient and focused you can be.
• Spend time with friends who study . It’s easier to put in the time when the people around you are doing the same thing. Find an accountability partner who will help you stay on track.
• If you have a job, ask if there is any flexibility with shifts or responsibilities. Ask whether you can schedule fewer shifts at prime study times like exam periods or when a big paper or project is due. You might also look for an on-campus job that will allow some study time while on the job. Sometimes working at a computer lab, library, information or check-in desk will provide down time. If so, be sure to use it wisely.
• Work on strengthening your time management skills. Block out study times and stick to the plan. Plan ahead for long-term assignments and schedule bite-sized pieces. Don’t underestimate how much time big assignments will take.

Being a full-time student is a full-time job. Start by looking at the numbers with your student and then encourage them to create strategies that will keep them on task.

With understanding and practice, your student can plan for and spend the time needed to succeed in college.

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Table of Contents

• Rhythm of the First Semester
• Tips from a Student on Making It Through the First Year
• Who Is Your First‑Year Student?
• Campus Resources: Your Cheat Sheet
• Handling Roommate Issues

• Study Time Matters
• The Importance of Professors and Advisors
• Should My Student Withdraw from a Difficult Course?

• Essential Health Conversations
• A Mental Health Game Plan for College Students and Families
• Assertiveness is the Secret Sauce
• Is Your Student at Risk for an Eating Disorder?

• Learning to Manage Money
• 5 Ways to Begin Career Prep in the First Year
• The Value of Outside Opportunities

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How much time should you spend studying? Our ‘Goldilocks Day’ tool helps find the best balance of good grades and  well-being

Senior Research Fellow, Allied Health & Human Performance, University of South Australia

Professor of Health Sciences, University of South Australia

Disclosure statement

Dot Dumuid is supported by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Early Career Fellowship GNT1162166 and by the Centre of Research Excellence in Driving Global Investment in Adolescent Health funded by NHMRC GNT1171981.

Tim Olds receives funding from the NHMRC and the ARC.

University of South Australia provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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For students, as for all of us, life is a matter of balance, trade-offs and compromise. Studying for hours on end is unlikely to lead to best academic results. And it could have negative impacts on young people’s physical, mental and social well-being.

Our recent study found the best way for young people to spend their time was different for mental health than for physical health, and even more different for school-related outcomes. Students needed to spend more time sitting for best cognitive and academic performance, but physical activity trumped sitting time for best physical health. For best mental health, longer sleep time was most important.

It’s like a game of rock, paper, scissors with time use. So, what is the sweet spot, or as Goldilocks put it, the “just right” amount of study?

Read more: Back to school: how to help your teen get enough sleep

Using our study data for Australian children aged 11 and 12, we are developing a time-optimisation tool that allows the user to define their own mental, physical and cognitive health priorities. Once the priorities are set, the tool provides real-time updates on what the user’s estimated “Goldilocks day” looks like.

More study improves grades, but not as much as you think

Over 30 years of research shows that students doing more homework get better grades. However, extra study doesn’t make as much difference as people think. An American study found the average grades of high school boys increased by only about 1.5 percentage points for every extra hour of homework per school night.

What these sorts of studies don’t consider is that the relationship between time spent doing homework and academic achievement is unlikely to be linear. A high school boy doing an extra ten hours of homework per school night is unlikely to improve his grades by 15 percentage points.

There is a simple explanation for this: doing an extra ten hours of homework after school would mean students couldn’t go to bed until the early hours of the morning. Even if they could manage this for one day, it would be unsustainable over a week, let alone a month. In any case, adequate sleep is probably critical for memory consolidation .

Read more: What's the point of homework?

As we all know, there are only 24 hours in a day. Students can’t devote more time to study without taking this time from other parts of their day. Excessive studying may become detrimental to learning ability when too much sleep time is lost.

Another US study found that, regardless of how long a student normally spent studying, sacrificing sleep to fit in more study led to learning problems on the following day. Among year 12s, cramming in an extra three hours of study almost doubled their academic problems. For example, students reported they “did not understand something taught in class” or “did poorly on a test, quiz or homework”.

Excessive study could also become unhelpful if it means students don’t have time to exercise. We know exercise is important for young people’s cognition , particularly their creative thinking, working memory and concentration.

On the one hand, then, more time spent studying is beneficial for grades. On the other hand, too much time spent studying is detrimental to grades.

We have to make trade-offs

Of course, how young people spend their time is not only important to their academic performance, but also to their health. Because what is the point of optimising school grades if it means compromising physical, mental and social well-being? And throwing everything at academic performance means other aspects of health will suffer.

US sleep researchers found the ideal amount of sleep for for 15-year-old boys’ mental health was 8 hours 45 minutes a night, but for the best school results it was one hour less.

Clearly, to find the “Goldilocks Zone” – the optimal balance of study, exercise and sleep – we need to think about more than just school grades and academic achievement.

Read more: 'It was the best five years of my life!' How sports programs are keeping disadvantaged teens at school

Looking for the Goldilocks Day

Based on our study findings , we realised the “Goldilocks Day” that was the best on average for all three domains of health (mental, physical and cognitive) would require compromises. Our optimisation algorithm estimated the Goldilocks Day with the best overall compromise for 11-to-12-year-olds. The breakdown was roughly:

10.5 hours of sleep

9.5 hours of sedentary behaviour (such as sitting to study, chill out, eat and watch TV)

2.5 hours of light physical activity (chores, shopping)

1.5 hours of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (sport, running).

We also recognised that people – or the same people at different times — have different priorities. Around exam time, academic performance may become someone’s highest priority. They may then wish to manage their time in a way that leads to better study results, but without completely neglecting their mental or physical health.

To better explore these trade-offs, we developed our time-use optimisation tool based on Australian data . Although only an early prototype, the tool shows there is no “one size fits all” solution to how young people should be spending their time. However, we can be confident the best solutions will involve a healthy balance across multiple daily activities.

Just like we talk about the benefits of a balanced diet, we should start talking about the benefits of balanced time use. The better equipped young people and those supporting them are to find their optimal daily balance of sleep, sedentary behaviours and physical activities, the better their learning outcomes will be, without compromising their health and well-being.

• Mental health
• Physical activity
• Children's mental health
• Children and sleep
• Children's well-being
• children's physical health
• Sleep research

Head of School, School of Arts & Social Sciences, Monash University Malaysia

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Module 6: Learning Styles and Strategies

Class-time to study-time ratio, learning objectives.

• Describe typical ratios of in-class to out-of-class work per credit hour and how to effectively schedule your study time

Class- and Study-Time Ratios

After Kai decides to talk to his guidance counselor about his stress and difficulty balancing his activities, his guidance counselor recommends that Kai create a schedule. This will help him set time for homework, studying, work, and leisure activities so that he avoids procrastinating on his schoolwork. His counselor explains that if Kai sets aside specific time to study every day—rather than simply studying when he feels like he has the time—his study habits will become more regular, which will improve Kai’s learning. 

At the end of their session, Kai and his counselor have put together a rough schedule for Kai to further refine as he goes through the next couple of weeks.

Although Kai knows that studying is important and he is trying to keep up with homework, he really needs to work on time management. This is challenging for many college students, especially ones with lots of responsibilities outside of school. Unlike high school classes, college classes meet less often, and college students are expected to do more independent learning, homework, and studying.

You might have heard that the ratio of classroom time to study time should be 1:2 or 1:3. This would mean that for every hour you spend in class, you should plan to spend two to three hours out of class working independently on course assignments. If your composition class meets for one hour, three times a week, you’d be expected to devote from six to nine hours each week on reading assignments, writing assignments, etc.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that the 1:2 or 1:3 ratio is generally more appropriate for semester long courses of 18 weeks. More and more institutions of higher learning are moving away from semesters to terms ranging from 16 to 8 weeks long.

The recommended classroom time to study time ratio might change depending on the course (how rigorous it is and how many credits it’s worth), the institution’s expectations, the length of the school term, and the frequency with which a class meets. For example, if you’re used to taking classes on a quarter system of 10 weeks, but then you start taking courses over an 8 weeks period, you may need to spend more time studying outside of class since you’re trying to learn the same amount of information in a shorter term period. You may also find that if one of the courses you’re taking is worth 1.5 credit hours but the rest of your courses are worth 1 credit hour each, you may need to put in more study hours for your 1.5 credit hour course. Finally, if you’re taking a course that only meets once a week like a writing workshop, you may consider putting in more study and reading time in between class meetings than the general 1:2 or 1:3 ratio.

If you account for all the classes you’re taking in a given semester, the study time really adds up—and if it sounds like a lot of work, it is! Remember, this schedule is temporary while you’re in school. The only way to stay on top of the workload is by creating a schedule to help you manage your time. You might decide to use a weekly or monthly schedule—or both. Whatever you choose, the following tips can help you design a smart schedule that’s easy to follow and stick with.

Start with Fixed Time Commitments

First off, mark down the commitments that don’t allow any flexibility. These include class meetings, work hours, appointments, etc. Capturing the “fixed” parts of your schedule can help you see where there are blocks of time that can be used for other activities.

Kai’s Schedule

Kai is taking four classes: Spanish 101, US History, College Algebra, and Introduction to Psychology. He also has a fixed work schedule—he works 27 hours a week.

Consider Your Studying and Homework Habits

When are you most productive? Are you a morning person or a night owl? Block out your study times accordingly. You’ll also want to factor in any resources you might need. For instance, if you prefer to study very early or late in the day, and you’re working on a research paper, you might want to check the library hours to make sure it’s open when you need it.

Since Kai’s Spanish class starts his schedule at 9:00 every day, Kai decides to use that as the base for his schedule. He doesn’t usually have trouble waking up in the mornings (except for on the weekends), so he decides that he can do a bit of studying before class. His Spanish practice is often something he can do while eating or traveling, so this gives him a bit of leniency with his schedule.

Kai’s marked work in grey, classes in green, and dedicated study time in yellow:

Even if you prefer weekly over monthly schedules, write reminders for yourself and keep track of any upcoming projects, papers, or exams. You will also want to prepare for these assignments in advance. Most students eventually discover (the hard way) that cramming for exams the night before and waiting till the last minute to start on a term paper is a poor strategy. Procrastination creates a lot of unnecessary stress, and the resulting final product—whether an exam, lab report, or paper—is rarely your best work. Try simple things to break down large tasks, such as setting aside an hour or so each day to work on them during the weeks leading up to the deadline. If you get stuck, get help from your instructor early, rather than waiting until the day before an assignment is due.

Schedule Leisure Time

It might seem impossible to leave room in your schedule for fun activities, but every student needs and deserves to socialize and relax on a regular basis. Try to make this time something you look forward to and count on, and use it as a reward for getting things done. You might reserve every Friday or Saturday evening for going out with friends, for example. Perhaps your children have sporting events or special occasions you want to make time for. Try to reschedule your study time so you have enough time to study and enough time to do things outside of school that you want to do.

When you look at Kai’s schedule, you can see that he’s left open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings. While he plans on using Sundays to complete larger assignments when he needs to, he’s left his Friday and Saturday evenings open for leisure.

Now that you have considered ways to create a schedule, you can practice making one that will help you succeed academically. The California Community College’s Online Education site has a free source for populating a study schedule based on your individual course load.

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Students Spend More Time on Homework but Teachers Say It's Worth It

Time spent on homework has increased in recent years, but educators say that's because the assignments have also changed.

Students Spending More Time on Homework

iStockphoto

High school students get assigned up to 17.5 hours of homework per week, according to a survey of 1,000 teachers.

Although students nowadays are spending significantly more time on homework assignments – sometimes up to 17.5 hours each week – the type and quality of the assignments have changed to better capture critical thinking skills and higher levels of learning, according to a recent survey of teachers conducted by the University of Phoenix College of Education. 

The survey of 1,000 K-12 teachers found, among other things, that high school teachers on average assign about 3.5 hours of homework each week. For high school students who typically have five classes with different teachers, that could mean as much as 17.5 hours each week. By comparison, the survey found middle school teachers assign about 3.2 hours of homework each week and kindergarten through fifth grade teachers assign about 2.9 hours each week. 

[ READ : Standardized Testing Debate Should Focus on Local School Districts, Report Says ]

By comparison, a 2011 study from the National Center for Education Statistics found high school students reported spending an average of 6.8 hours of homework per week, while a 1994 report from the National Center for Education Statistics – reviewing trends in data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress – found 39 percent of 17-year-olds said they did at least one hour of homework each day.

"What has changed is not necessarily the magic number of how many hours they’re doing per night, but it’s the quality of the homework," says Ashley Norris, assistant dean of the university's college of education. Part of that shift in recent years, she says, may come from more schools implementing the Common Core State Standards, which are intended to put more of an emphasis on critical thinking and problem-solving skills. 

"You see a change from teachers … giving, really, busy work … to where they’re actually creating long-term projects that students have to manage outside of the classroom, or reading, where they read and come back into the classroom and share their findings," Norris says. "It's not just about rote memorization, because we know that doesn't stick."

For younger students, having more meaningful homework assignments can help build time-management skills, as well as enhance parent-child interaction, Norris says. But the bigger connection for high school students, she says, is doing assignments outside of the classroom that get them interested in a career path.

[ MORE : How Virtual Games Can Help Struggling Students Learn ]

Moving forward, as more schools dive into more time-consuming – but Norris says more meaningful – assignments, there may be a greater shift in the number of schools utilizing the "flipped classroom" method, in which students watch a lesson or lecture at home online, and bring their questions to the classroom to work with their peers while the teacher is present to help facilitate any problems that arise. 

"This is already happening in the classrooms. And I think that idea, this whole idea where homework is this applied learning that goes outside the boundaries of a classroom – what can we use that actual class time for?" Norris says "To come back and collaborate on learning, learn from each other, maybe critique our own [work] and share those experiences."

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Tags: K-12 education , education , Common Core , teachers

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Understanding and Estimating Instructional Time and Homework

Introduction.

What counts as “class time” — especially when you are adapting a course to a new format like hybrid or online? How do you structure time to maximize engagement and (in online or hybrid situations) get the most out of synchronous or in-person time? Here we explain the relationship between instructional time, homework, and credit hours, so you can understand what Champlain and our accreditors require. We also discuss some options for instructional time that may be very different from what you would do in the classroom.

Credit Hours, Instructional Time, and Out-of-Class Work

Students’ class loads are measured in credit hours; a typical full-time load at Champlain is 15 hours, usually equaling five three-hour classes, although this may vary. The number of credit hours associated with a course is determined by the number of hours it “meets” per week — that is, the amount of instructional time. (This will vary for capstones, internships, and some other course types.)

Most faculty who teach in person are not used to thinking about instructional time. Instead, we think about the hours that we are in the classroom with our students each week. But we can learn from Champlain College Online and other online or blended modes of learning that instructional time can take different forms, many of which might not involve synchronous or in-person interaction.

The key characteristic of instructional time is interaction between instructor and students. The New England Commission on Higher Education (NECHE), Champlain’s accreditor, requires that we provide quality learning experiences that include “ regular, substantive academic interaction ” between instructor and students. Regular interaction means that the faculty member connects with students fairly frequently, in a way that students can grow to expect. Substantive interaction means that the faculty-student interaction is academic in nature and initiated by the instructor.

Therefore, in a hybrid or online course, instructional time is the total hours your students spend in synchronous activities AND asynchronous instructional equivalents like watching recorded lectures, taking quizzes via Canvas, participating in discussion forums, and activities you might normally do as a group, such as a virtual field trip or service project.

According to NECHE, alongside instructional time each week, students should spend approximately twice the number of hours they spend “in class” doing work for that class. That is, if a course is worth three credits (about two and a half hours of instructional time), on average students should be doing approximately five hours of preparation and out-of-class assignments each week, for a total of seven and a half hours of time committed to that course. Rice University’s Center for Teaching Excellence provides an interactive tool for estimating out-of-class student time commitments.

For more information on how this math works, please see Albright College’s explanation of Carnegie Units and credit hours .

Planning Online or Hybrid Instructional Time Equivalents

In the classroom, we know what constitutes instructional time: things we do when we are physically present with students. In fully online situations, we must consider the amount of time students are expected to spend on asynchronous instructional equivalents. In hybrid situations, we must carefully consider the mix of in-person and virtual interaction to calculate instructional time.

Virtual instructional time can involve adaptations of in-person instruction. It can also involve different kinds of activities. Some strategies for interactive, engaging instruction that does not take place through videoconference lecturing include:

Possible Adaptations of In-Person Instruction

• Recorded lecture
• Synchronous small group discussions, critiques, labs, projects, etc.
• Asynchronous discussion forums
• Quizzes and tests delivered via Canvas
• Guest speaker virtual “visit” or webinar
• Library education sessions or consultations with a research librarian (currently offered virtually)

Possible Instructional Time Innovations

• One-on-one or small-group synchronous conversations with the instructor (similar to the tutorial system )
• Individual real-world experiences shared through reflection or discussion (e.g., plant observation walk, interviewing a professional in the field, service learning, etc)
• Virtual tours and field trips
• Lecture-style slides, or written instructor-created content that would normally be delivered via lecture in class
• Collaborative whiteboard, brainstorming, and/or problem-solving activities (synchronous or asynchronous)
• Collaborative reading and annotation using a tool like Hypothesis or Perusall
• Remote/virtual labs
• Low-stakes surveys, quizzes, or check-ins
• Peer review (synchronous or asynchronous)
• Contributing to and commenting on a virtual gallery

There are many options! This list is not intended to be exhaustive. When deciding on instructional time activities, you should focus on options that are highly interactive (student-faculty and/or student-student) and/or focus on experiences like labs, field trips, interviews, or service learning.

Estimating Workloads

This wide range of strategies is great, and it raises an important question: how long does it take students to do these things? How do you get the amount of instructional time equivalents to roughly mirror the number of hours you would spend in a classroom with your students, when you students are completing tasks on their own time and may not work at the same speed?

First of all, something to consider: students generally work a lot less hard when they are sitting in a classroom taking part in an all-class discussion than they do when everyone is required to contribute a discussion post or two on Canvas. A group lab may be less work than a virtual one. The great thing about this is that your instruction can become much richer as students branch out into the things that most pique their interest. However, be aware that asynchronous instructional time can be much more mental labor and organizational work than some forms of classroom instruction, and so your students may be working harder for the same amount of instructional time, or may be spending more time than you think. Create your prompts, assignments, and grading schemes in a way that acknowledges this increased effort.

Pragmatically, here are some estimated amounts of time students might spend doing common virtual learning tasks. (We’re skipping over tasks that have a clearer time commitment like lecture videos and timed quizzes.)

• Discussion posts: minimum of 30 minutes for a 250-word/one-paragraph post and skimming other posts. Direct responses to other students’ posts may take a little less time.
• Blog post: approximately 30 minutes for a 250-word reflection post. If you require research or longer posts, allot at least an hour.
• Case study activities: account for reading time as well as writing time, which will vary widely depending on the exercise. An optimal adult reader who reads visually, does not have reading-related disabilities, and is fluent in English can read about 300 words per minute with no new concepts. For new concepts, writing for an academic audience (eg. journal articles), special genres of writing (e.g. legal cases), or texts you want students to analyze deeply, estimate 150 words per minute. Allow writing time as above. Thus a case study analysis based on a news article–which is a great option for a discussion forum!–with a 250-word response might take 30-45 minutes. On the other hand, analysis of a fifteen-page journal article with a 250-word response could easily take an hour and a half or more.
• Independently arranged interview, field trip, or service learning experience: make sure to add an estimate of the time it takes to arrange an experience (if students are doing that work) to the experience itself.

These suggested times may seem slow to you–but remember, you are estimating based on the speed of an average student.

We also provide a resource on strategies for balancing synchronous and asynchronous teaching , as well as some slides with examples of how to balance and estimate synchronous and asynchronous instructional time equivalents in different types of classes.

Works Consulted

Other institutions’ approaches.

• Course Workload Estimator , Rice University Center for Teaching Excellence
• Credit and Contact Hour and Instructional Equivalencies Guidelines , Valdosta State University
• Guidelines for Instructional Time Equivalencies Across Formats/Assignment of Credit Hours , Misericordia University
• Instructional Equivalencies Chart , Albright College

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Students spend three times longer on homework than average, survey reveals

Sonya Kulkarni and Pallavi Gorantla | Jan 9, 2022

Graphic by Sonya Kulkarni

The National Education Association and the National Parent Teacher Association have suggested that a healthy number of hours that students should be spending can be determined by the “10-minute rule.” This means that each grade level should have a maximum homework time incrementing by 10 minutes depending on their grade level (for instance, ninth-graders would have 90 minutes of homework, 10th-graders should have 100 minutes, and so on).

As ‘finals week’ rapidly approaches, students not only devote effort to attaining their desired exam scores but make a last attempt to keep or change the grade they have for semester one by making up homework assignments.

High schoolers reported doing an average of 2.7 hours of homework per weeknight, according to a study by the Washington Post from 2018 to 2020 of over 50,000 individuals. A survey of approximately 200 Bellaire High School students revealed that some students spend over three times this number.

The demographics of this survey included 34 freshmen, 43 sophomores, 54 juniors and 54 seniors on average.

When asked how many hours students spent on homework in a day on average, answers ranged from zero to more than nine with an average of about four hours. In contrast, polled students said that about one hour of homework would constitute a healthy number of hours.

Junior Claire Zhang said she feels academically pressured in her AP schedule, but not necessarily by the classes.

“The class environment in AP classes can feel pressuring because everyone is always working hard and it makes it difficult to keep up sometimes.” Zhang said.

A total of 93 students reported that the minimum grade they would be satisfied with receiving in a class would be an A. This was followed by 81 students, who responded that a B would be the minimum acceptable grade. 19 students responded with a C and four responded with a D.

“I am happy with the classes I take, but sometimes it can be very stressful to try to keep up,” freshman Allyson Nguyen said. “I feel academically pressured to keep an A in my classes.”

Up to 152 students said that grades are extremely important to them, while 32 said they generally are more apathetic about their academic performance.

Last year, nine valedictorians graduated from Bellaire. They each achieved a grade point average of 5.0. HISD has never seen this amount of valedictorians in one school, and as of now there are 14 valedictorians.

“I feel that it does degrade the title of valedictorian because as long as a student knows how to plan their schedule accordingly and make good grades in the classes, then anyone can be valedictorian,” Zhang said.

Bellaire offers classes like physical education and health in the summer. These summer classes allow students to skip the 4.0 class and not put it on their transcript. Some electives also have a 5.0 grade point average like debate.

Close to 200 students were polled about Bellaire having multiple valedictorians. They primarily answered that they were in favor of Bellaire having multiple valedictorians, which has recently attracted significant acclaim .

Senior Katherine Chen is one of the 14 valedictorians graduating this year and said that she views the class of 2022 as having an extraordinary amount of extremely hardworking individuals.

“I think it was expected since freshman year since most of us knew about the others and were just focused on doing our personal best,” Chen said.

Chen said that each valedictorian achieved the honor on their own and deserves it.

“I’m honestly very happy for the other valedictorians and happy that Bellaire is such a good school,” Chen said. “I don’t feel any less special with 13 other valedictorians.”

Nguyen said that having multiple valedictorians shows just how competitive the school is.

“It’s impressive, yet scary to think about competing against my classmates,” Nguyen said.

Offering 30 AP classes and boasting a significant number of merit-based scholars Bellaire can be considered a competitive school.

“I feel academically challenged but not pressured,” Chen said. “Every class I take helps push me beyond my comfort zone but is not too much to handle.”

Students have the opportunity to have off-periods if they’ve met all their credits and are able to maintain a high level of academic performance. But for freshmen like Nguyen, off periods are considered a privilege. Nguyen said she usually has an hour to five hours worth of work everyday.

“Depending on the day, there can be a lot of work, especially with extra curriculars,” Nguyen said. “Although, I am a freshman, so I feel like it’s not as bad in comparison to higher grades.”

According to the survey of Bellaire students, when asked to evaluate their agreement with the statement “students who get better grades tend to be smarter overall than students who get worse grades,” responders largely disagreed.

Zhang said that for students on the cusp of applying to college, it can sometimes be hard to ignore the mental pressure to attain good grades.

“As a junior, it’s really easy to get extremely anxious about your GPA,” Zhang said. “It’s also a very common but toxic practice to determine your self-worth through your grades but I think that we just need to remember that our mental health should also come first. Sometimes, it’s just not the right day for everyone and one test doesn’t determine our smartness.”

HUMANS OF BELLAIRE – Sean Olivar

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Anonymous • Nov 21, 2023 at 10:32 am

It’s not really helping me understand how much.

josh • May 9, 2023 at 9:58 am

Kassie • May 6, 2022 at 12:29 pm

Im using this for an English report. This is great because on of my sources needed to be from another student. Homework drives me insane. Im glad this is very updated too!!

Kaylee Swaim • Jan 25, 2023 at 9:21 pm

I am also using this for an English report. I have to do an argumentative essay about banning homework in schools and this helps sooo much!

Izzy McAvaney • Mar 15, 2023 at 6:43 pm

I am ALSO using this for an English report on cutting down school days, homework drives me insane!!

E. Elliott • Apr 25, 2022 at 6:42 pm

I’m from Louisiana and am actually using this for an English Essay thanks for the information it was very informative.

Nabila Wilson • Jan 10, 2022 at 6:56 pm

Interesting with the polls! I didn’t realize about 14 valedictorians, that’s crazy.

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The 10 Hardest and Easiest College Majors

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Our chancing engine factors in extracurricular activities, demographic, and other holistic details. We’ll let you know what your chances are at your dream schools — and how to improve your chances!

What’s Covered:

• Factors to Consider
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• Hardest College Majors
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Does Your Intended Major Impact Your College Chances?

For incoming undergraduate students, choosing a major can be overwhelming. That’s because your field of study will have meaningful consequences for your future life. Choosing the right major can open the door to engaging work that pays a living wage. On the other hand, selecting the wrong major could result in years of unhappiness if the related work is not interesting, takes up too much time, or doesn’t pay well. 

It might relieve some of your stress to know the important factors to consider when choosing your major, to be familiar with the most challenging and least challenging undergraduate majors, and to remember that your major choice isn’t binding yet . In this helpful guide to choosing your major, we will walk through all of that to help you find a major that suits your needs, interests, and goals.

Factors to Consider When Choosing A Major

Does the work interest me? You will have a much harder time securing good grades and retaining concepts if you are pursuing a major that does not interest you. We are not saying you have to choose something that fascinates you—not everyone can be a professional musician or writer—but make sure you choose a major that holds your attention.

Do I have natural talent in this field? Everyone’s brain is wired a little differently. It follows that certain subjects will be easier for certain students. Natural talent is not a prerequisite for pursuing a given major. In fact, many leaders in their field report initial setbacks that they had to work hard to overcome. However, choosing to major in an area where you already have an intellectual advantage based on your brain chemistry is a good way to make your college years easier.

How much time do I want to spend studying? Realistically, academic coursework is not every student’s top priority. One of the best parts of college is making lifelong friendships. Another is exploring your interests through clubs and internships. Only commit to a time-intensive major if it really is your top priority in college.

What career options will be available to me after graduating? Too many times, we see students treat their undergraduate years as being completely unrelated to what they will do after school. Then, when they find certain career paths are closed to them, they become disappointed. Avoid this outcome upfront by choosing a major with your future career in mind. If you are interested in exploring many different fields, choose a major like Communications or Economics that opens the door to many different industries. If you already know you want to pursue a very specific path, such as film or medicine, choose a major and take the courses that prepare you for your industry.

What are my financial prospects with this major? Even if your goal is not to become a millionaire, keeping an eye on finances will save you a lot of heartache in the long run. If you are split between two majors, consider using return on investment (ROI) as your tie-breaker. If you want to go into a less lucrative field, that is okay! Just be sure you are not taking out large loans to finance a major that will take decades to repay.

When Do You Have To Declare Your Major? And Can You Change It?

When you apply to different universities, you will probably be asked for your intended major . This major is either the program you will enter into as an incoming freshman or, if your institution doesn’t allow you to declare your major until later in your undergraduate studies, it’s the major you think you will declare when the time comes. Sometimes (typically if your intended program is competitive or requires specific technical or artistic skills) you will need to submit a supplemental application or a portfolio for your intended major.

In general, your intended major is exactly what it sounds like: an intention to study a discipline, not set in stone . And many students change their major (hassle-free) throughout their undergraduate years.

Because universities require a certain number of total university credits for graduation, a students’ coursework is generally divided into three components: general education or distribution requirements, major requirements, and minor or elective courses. Students who are unsure about their major might take their elective courses in diverse fields when trying to come to a conclusion about their desired field of study. On the other hand, if you change your major too late, you may delay your graduation, so it is important to plan as you explore . It is also important to remember that, at many universities and colleges, it is easier to change your major within a school than between schools.

Generally, universities will ask you to declare your major by the end of your sophomore year.

CollegeVine’s Top 10 Hardest Majors

To help you start thinking about which major is best for you, we put together a ranked list of the ten hardest majors. We used a combination of lowest average GPA, highest number of hours spent studying, and lowest return on investment (ROI) to determine which majors are the hardest to pursue. In these listings, you’ll notice the statistic, 20-year ROI. A 20-year ROI is the difference between the 20-year median pay for a graduate with a bachelor’s degree in the listed major and the 24-year median pay for an individual with only a high school diploma, minus the total 4-year cost of obtaining a bachelor’s degree. It effectively tells how much better off graduates are financially due to obtaining a bachelor’s degree in a specific area.

This list is by no means exhaustive, and your list of hardest majors likely would be different than ours. As you read, think about what makes some of these majors easier or harder for you .

10. Fine Arts

Average GPA: 3.2

Average Weekly Study Hours: 16.5

Predicted 20-Year ROI: -$163,600

Find schools with a Fine Arts major that match your profile.

This goes on our list of hardest majors because it has such a low return on investment. For students to make this major a successful choice, they will have to spend hours distinguishing themselves from their peers. The same principle applies to other artistic fields, including creative writing, musical theater, dance, and music. If you pursue a creative major, make sure you cultivate a marketable skill alongside it. Consider teaching, art restoration, or technical writing for a skill that complements your love of art.

Potential Careers Paths and Median Salaries for Fine Arts Graduates:

• Professional Artist: $49k
• Art Director: $97k
• Graphic Designer: $53k
• Interior Designer: $60k
• Art Professor (requires further education): $85k

9. Philosophy

Average GPA: 3.1

Average Weekly Study Hours: 16

Predicted 20-Year ROI: $202,000

Find schools with a Philosophy major that match your profile.

Philosophy demands attention to detail and command of logic. On average, philosophy majors spend more time than most college students studying, and those hours require high levels of concentration. Many philosophy majors pursue careers in law or academia because those fields reward hard work, careful reasoning, and attention to detail. Both of these fields require an advanced degree, so be prepared to stay in school for a while.

Potential Career Paths and Median Salaries for Philosophy Graduates:

• Non-Profit Professional: $70k
• Lawyer (requires further education): $127k
• Philosophy Professor (requires further education): $88k
• Public Policy Professional (requires further education): $125k

8. Cellular and Molecular Biology

Average Weekly Study Hours: 18.5

Predicted 20-Year ROI: $382,000

Find schools with a Cellular and Molecular Biology major that match your profile.

Cellular and molecular biology is the biology major with the heaviest workload and lowest average GPA. Students who tend to do well in this field are able to visualize concepts even when they cannot see them with the naked eye. Understanding how different parts of a system work together is a useful skill that this major cultivates. With a cellular and molecular biology undergraduate degree, can pursue an advanced degree or dive straight into the workforce upon graduating, depending on your area of interest.

Potential Career Paths and Median Salaries for Cellular and Molecular Biology Graduates:

• Research Assistant: $46k
• Physician (requires further education): $185-271k
• Biology Professor (requires further education): $101k
• Pharmacist (requires further education): $129k

7. Accounting

Predicted 20-Year ROI: $563,000

Find schools with an Accounting major that match your profile.

Accounting majors have a great return on investment (ROI) since nearly every person and company requires the services of an accountant at some point in their life cycle. If you like mathematics, specifically applied math, this may be a great fit major for you. Becoming an accountant requires long apprenticeships and lots of studying after graduating from college. However, you can get a well-paid job right out of college, as businesses love to hire folks with this quantitative background.

Potential Career Paths and Median Salaries for Accounting Graduates:

• Accountant: $74k
• Financial Analyst: $84k
• Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerk: $42k

Average Hours Spent Preparing for Class: 17

Predicted 20-Year ROI: $525,000

Find schools with a Nursing major that match your profile.

This major has a high workload but amazing job prospects. Upon receiving licensure, graduates are practically guaranteed a job for life in a growing industry. College graduates typically earn a BSN but may continue their studies to become an MSN. Advanced schooling allows MSNs to specialize, depending on their desired career path. Nurses spend less time in school than doctors and have more in-person contact with patients.

Potential Career Paths and Median Salaries for Nursing Graduates:

• Registered Nurse: $75k
• Midwife: $111k
• Nurse Anesthetists: $184k

5. Architecture

Average GPA: 3.3

Average Weekly Study Hours: 22

Average Salary: $67,000

See the best schools for architecture.

This major goes on our list of hardest majors because of the weekly grind. The average architecture major spends 22 hours preparing for class. Students who want to pursue this field need to be ready to spend hours drafting and studying. Upon graduating, your job prospects are fairly narrow because your skills are specialized. That means that when a lot of construction is taking place, you are likely to be in demand. Conversely, if new building projects are not being commissioned, it may be harder to find a job.

Potential Career Paths and Median Salaries for Architecture Graduates:

• Building Architect: $82k
• Landscape Architect: $71k
• Architectural Drafter: $58k

Find schools with a Physics major that match your profile.

Physics makes this list because of the long hours students have to spend getting ready for class each week. A highly conceptual field, physics may be right for you if you like to think abstractly about how forces and objects interact. Keep in mind that pursuing a career in physics often requires you to get an advanced degree after graduating from college.

Potential Career Paths and Median Salaries for Physics Graduates:

• Physicist: $129k
• Biophysicist: $94k
• Physics Professor (requires further education): $104k

3. Electrical Engineering

Average Weekly Study Hours: 19.5

Predicted 20-Year ROI: $850,000

See the best schools with Engineering majors.

Electrical Engineering majors put in some of the longest hours of all college students, but the return on investment (ROI) is very high. If you love circuitry, fixing equipment, and designing better ways to get a job done, this could be a great fit career for you. A degree in engineering sets you up to perform well as an engineer or, later in your career, as the manager of a team of engineers. Advanced study is encouraged but not required to succeed in this field.

Potential Career Paths and Median Salaries for Electrical Engineering Graduates:

• Electronics Engineer: $103k
• Aerospace Engineer: $117k
• Communications Engineer: $110k
• Computer Hardware Engineer: $120k

2. Chemical Engineering

If you love to leverage your knowledge of science to transform materials, chemical engineering could be a great fit for you. This is another high input, high output field, so expect to work long hours but also to earn a large salary after graduation. If you love chemical engineering but do not want to become an engineer, consider a career in academia or patent law. These career paths require graduate school, in the form of a Ph.D., J.D., or both.

Potential Career Paths and Median Salaries for Chemical Engineering Graduates:

• Chemical Engineer: $109k
• Environmental Engineer: $99k

1. Chemistry

Average GPA: 2.9

See the best schools for Chemistry majors

We have chosen chemistry as our #1 hardest major because of its low average GPA combined with the long hours of studying required. If you are fascinated by how minuscule, invisible changes can completely alter a substance, chemistry is a great major to consider. It is hard work to earn a degree in chemistry, but once you do, a wide range of career options open to you. Typically, earning an advanced degree after college is necessary to pursue a career incChemistry.

Potential Career Paths and Median Salaries for Chemistry Graduates:

• Chemical Manufacturing: $91k
• Chemistry Professor (requires further education): $92k

Discover your chances at hundreds of schools

Our free chancing engine takes into account your history, background, test scores, and extracurricular activities to show you your real chances of admission—and how to improve them.

CollegeVine’s Top Easiest Majors

We have put together our list of top easiest majors based on three factors: GPA, weekly study hours, and return on investment. Keep in mind that your factors may be different! Read our brief summary of each major to see if it may be a good fit for you.

Predicted 20-Year ROI: $240,000

See the best schools for English majors.

If you love language and literature, majoring in English is a great way to gain exposure to strong writing. We are including it on the list of easiest majors because it has a relatively high GPA and because most homework preparation is reading literature, an act that English majors find pleasurable in itself. As far as salary is concerned after graduation, English majors have to work a bit harder to ensure they have a steady source of income. Consider choosing a second major or a minor that cultivates a marketable skill. Or, if you wish to pursue a literary career, use summers and your time outside of class to distinguish yourself with internships and publications. You are entering a competitive field, so it helps to have relevant experience outside of class.

Potential Career Paths and Median Salaries for English Graduates:

• Writer: $67k
• Editor: $63k
• High School Teacher: $63k

8. Economics

Average GPA: 3.0

Average Weekly Study Hours: 15

Predicted 20-Year ROI: $626,000

See the best schools for Economics majors.

Economics majors spend a pretty typical amount of time studying relative to other college majors. However, when they graduate, their earning potential is very high. If you are looking for a field that lets you work hard but not too hard while still bringing home a healthy paycheck, Economics is a great field to consider. It strengthens students’ quantitative reasoning by introducing them to a range of real-world, practical financial problems that can be observed in society. 

Potential Career Paths and Median Salaries for Economics Graduates:

• Economist: $108k
• Actuary: $111k

7. Journalism

Average Weekly Study Hours: 13

Find schools with Journalism majors that match your profile.

Journalism majors have relatively high average GPAs relative to peers, and they do not have to spend exorbitant amounts of time studying. That said, it is difficult to secure a full-time position as a journalist, especially if there is a particular subject you long to cover. The strongest applicants to journalism positions have spent years working for local, regional, and national publications prior to applying for their first full-time job. So, consider journalism if you do not want to have a busy course load, but expect that you will devote that extra time to related clubs, writing projects, and internships.

Potential Career Paths and Median Salaries for Journalism Graduates:

• Reporter/Correspondent: $49k
• Radio/Television Broadcaster: $73k

6. Criminal Justice

Average Weekly Study Hours: 12

Predicted 20-Year ROI: $139,000

See the best schools for Criminal Justice majors.

If you find courts, policing, and corrections fascinating, a career in criminal justice may be for you. Students learn how to apprehend, reprimand, and rehabilitate those who commit crimes. This field does not require much time in class but does demand a certain emotional resilience, as course content will at times be disturbing. Job prospects upon graduating exist but are limited, so college graduates with this major should consider careers as police officers and lawyers, both of which require additional training.

Potential Career Paths and Median Salaries for Criminal Justice Graduates:

• Police Detective: $87k
• Private Detective: $53k

5. Public Relations & Advertising

Find schools with Public Relations majors that match your profile.

Do people fascinate you? Do you watch the Super Bowl for the ads? Have you been known to tell a captivating story? If so, public relations & advertising may be the field for you. These students integrate their understanding of the human mind with the business objectives of companies and other large enterprises. They help to shape attitudes around a product, initiative, or idea. Students who graduate with a degree in this field often secure employment quickly because companies are always looking for people with a talent for connecting with consumers. No graduate school is required to build a fulfilling career in this industry.

Potential Career Paths and Median Salaries for Public Relations & Advertising Graduates:  

• Marketing Manager: $161k
• Public Relations Specialist: $63k
• Advertising and Sales Agent: $55k

4. Social Work

Average GPA: 3.4

Find schools with Social Work majors that match your profile.

It is somewhat deceptive to say social work is an easy major, even though it meets the criteria we are using for this list. Often, the greatest difficulty associated with this field is the emotional strain it takes to build a career in social work. Students who do best in social work are highly resilient and practice self-care. If you want to make a practical difference in the lives of others and possess a high EQ (Emotional Quotient, also known as emotional intelligence), consider this major. Earning a graduate degree is customary for those who wish to pursue a career in social work.

Potential Career Paths and Median Salaries for Social Work Graduates:

• Mediator: $66k
• Healthcare Social Worker (requires further education): $58k
• Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker (requires further education): $48k
• Child, Family, and School Social Worker (requires further education): $48k

3. Education

Average GPA: 3.6

Average Weekly Study Hours: 14

Predicted 20-Year ROI: -$9,000

Find schools with Education majors that match your profile.

We are including education on the list of easiest majors because of the high average GPA. But be warned! It has an extremely low return on investment. If you are thinking of pursuing a teaching career, consider getting your undergraduate degree in your subject of interest rather than in teaching. With a teaching minor or summer program, you can easily fulfill your requirements to become a teacher. However, your major will give you more flexibility and earning potential in other careers if teaching does not turn out to be the field for you.

Potential Career Paths and Median Salaries for Education Graduates:

• Instructional Coordinator (requires further education): $67k
• Education Administration (requires further education): $98k
• School Counselor (requires further education): $58k

2. Psychology

Average Weekly Study Hours: 13.5

Predicted 20-Year ROI: $198,000

See the best schools for Psychology majors.

Only within the past hundred years have we begun to objectively measure, analyze, and evaluate human behavior. Psychology majors study the progress we have made so far and participate in social science research to make further discoveries in their field. Psychology students typically have high GPAs relative to their peers, and the weekly homework load is not unreasonable. Job prospects coming out of psychology are not ample, but students willing to pursue a Ph.D. can become professors and lab researchers within their field of interest.

Potential Career Paths and Median Salaries for Psychology Graduates:

• Research Assistant: $49k
• Substance Abuse Counselor: $48k
• Clinical Psychologist (requires further education): $82k
• Psychology Professor (requires further education): $90k

1. Business Administration

See the best schools for Business majors.

Business administration ranks as our #1 easiest college major because it has that perfect trio of low weekly homework load, high average GPA, and great ROI. If you have solid business acumen, a head for figures, and a desire to work with people, could be a great-fit major for you. Just because it is easy to succeed in this major does not mean it is full of only easy classes. You can challenge yourself by taking rigorous quantitative courses and participating in internships that give you a taste of real-world business administration. No graduate school is required to excel in this field.

Potential Career Paths and Median Salaries for Business Administration Graduates:

• Management Analyst: $88k
• Personal Financial Advisor: $89k

You might also like our posts:

Easiest and Hardest Engineering Majors

Easiest and Hardest Science Majors

Because universities know that an intended major isn’t concrete, a student’s intended major generally will not affect whether or not they are accepted to a university. 

However, there are certain instances where an intended major may affect college chances. Some prestigious programs that directly admit students (like the USC Cinema Program or Penn’s Wharton School) have lower acceptance rates than that of the general university. Additionally, some large public universities (like those in the UC system) have specific numbers of students that they will accept for each major program. At these schools, if you are “on the bubble” for admissions, your intended major may become a factor.

Simply put, if your intended major has an impact on admissions, the impact will be very small . In general, your GPA, test scores, extracurriculars, and essays will determine your chances of admission at different colleges. To predict your odds of acceptance at over 500 schools across the country (using those important admissions factors!), utilize our free chancing engine . This engine will let you know how your application compares to those of other applicants and will also help you to improve your profile.

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Analyzing ‘the homework gap’ among high school students

Subscribe to the brown center on education policy newsletter, michael hansen and michael hansen senior fellow - brown center on education policy , the herman and george r. brown chair - governance studies @drmikehansen diana quintero diana quintero former senior research analyst, brown center on education policy - the brookings institution, ph.d. student - vanderbilt university @quintero05diana.

August 10, 2017

Researchers have struggled for decades to identify a causal, or even correlational, relationship between time spent in school and improved learning outcomes for students. Some studies have focused on the length of a school year while others have focused on hours in a day and others on hours in the week .

In this blog post, we will look at time spent outside of school–specifically time spent doing homework–among different racial and socio-economic groups. We will use data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) to shed light on those differences and then attempt to explain those gaps, using ATUS data and other evidence.

What we know about out-of-school time

Measuring the relationship between out-of-school time and outcomes like test scores can be difficult. Researchers are primarily confounded by an inability to determine what compels students to choose homework during their time off over other activities. Are those who spend more time on homework just extra motivated? Or are they struggling students who need to work harder to keep up? What role do social expectations from parents or peers play?

Previous studies have examined the impact of this outside time use on educational outcomes for students. A 2007 study using data from Berea College in Kentucky identified a causal relationship between hours spent studying and a student’s academic performance through an interesting measure. The researchers took advantage of randomly assigned college roommates, paying attention to those who came to campus with a video game console in tow. They hypothesized students randomly assigned to a roommate without a video game console would study more, since all other factors remained equal. That hypothesis held up, and that group also received significantly higher grades, demonstrating the causal relationship.

Other research has relied on data collected through the American Time Use Survey, a study of how Americans spend their time, and shown the existence of a gender gap and a parental education gap in homework time. Other studies have looked at the relationship between holding a job and student’s time use in discretionary activities , like sleep, media consumption, and time spent on homework. We are curious about out-of-school differences in homework time by race and income.

Descriptive statistics of time use

We began with a general sample of 2,575 full-time high school students between the ages of 15 and 18 from the ATUS, restricting the sample to their answers about time spent on homework during weekdays and school months (September to May). Among all high school students surveyed (those that reported completing their homework and those that did not), the time allocated to complete homework amounted to less than an hour per day, despite the fact that high school teachers report they assign an average of 3.5 hours of homework per day.

To explore racial or income-based differences, in Figure 1, we plot the minutes that students reporting spending on homework separately by their racial/ethnic group and family income. We observed a time gap between racial groups, with Asian students spending the most time on homework (nearly two hours a day). Similarly, we observe a time gap by the students’ family income.

We can also use ATUS data to isolate when students do homework by race and by income. In Figure 2, we plot the percentage of high school students in each racial and income group doing homework by the time of day. Percentages remain low during the school day and then expectedly increase when students get home, with more Asian students doing more homework and working later into the night than other racial groups. Low-income students reported doing less homework per hour than their non-low-income peers.

Initial attempts to explain the homework gap

We hypothesized that these racial and income-based time gaps could potentially be explained by other factors, like work, time spent caring for others, and parental education. We tested these hypotheses by separating groups based on particular characteristics and comparing the average number of minutes per day spent on homework amongst the comparison groups.

Students who work predictably reported spending less time on educational activities, so if working disproportionately affected particular racial or income groups, then work could help explain the time gap. Students who worked allocated on average 20 minutes less for homework than their counterparts who did not work. Though low-income students worked more hours than their peers, they largely maintained a similar level of homework time by reducing their leisure or extracurricular activities. Therefore, the time gap on homework changed only slightly with the inclusion of work as a factor.

We also incorporated time spent taking care of others in the household. Though a greater percentage of low-income students take care of other household members, we found that this does not have a statistically significant effect on homework because students reduce leisure, rather than homework, in an attempt to help their families. Therefore, this variable again does not explain the time gaps.

Finally, we considered parental education, since parents with more education have been shown to encourage their children to value school more and have the resources to ensure homework is completed more easily. Our analysis showed students with at least one parent with any post-secondary degree (associate or above) reported spending more time on homework than their counterparts whose parents do not hold a degree; however, gaps by race still existed, even holding parental education constant. Turning to income levels, we found that parental education is more correlated with homework time among low-income students, reducing the time gap between income groups to only eight minutes.

Societal explanations

Our analysis of ATUS could not fully explain this gap in time spent on homework, especially among racial groups. Instead, we believe that viewing homework as an outcome of the culture of the school and the expectations of teachers, rather than an outcome of a student’s effort, may provide some reasons for its persistence.

Many studies, including recent research , have shown that teachers perceive students of color as academically inferior to their white peers. A 2016 study by Seth Gershenson et al. showed that this expectations gap can also depend on the race of the teacher. In a country where minority students make up nearly half of all public school students, yet minority teachers comprise just 18 percent of the teacher workforce, these differences in expectations matter.

Students of color are also less likely to attend high schools that offer advanced courses (including Advanced Placement courses) that would likely assign more homework, and thus access to rigorous courses may partially explain the gaps as well.

Research shows a similar, if less well-documented, gap by income, with teachers reporting lower expectations and dimmer futures for their low-income students. Low-income students and students of color may be assigned less homework based on lower expectations for their success, thus preventing them from learning as much and creating a self-fulfilling prophecy .

In conclusion, these analyses of time use revealed a substantial gap in homework by race and by income group that could not be entirely explained by work, taking care of others, or parental education. Additionally, differences in educational achievement, especially as measured on standardized tests, have been well-documented by race and by income . These gaps deserve our attention, but we should be wary of blaming disadvantaged groups. Time use is an outcome reflecting multiple factors, not simply motivation, and a greater understanding of that should help raise expectations–and therefore, educational achievement–all around.

Sarah Novicoff contributed to this post.

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What’s the Right Amount of Homework?

Decades of research show that homework has some benefits, especially for students in middle and high school—but there are risks to assigning too much.

Many teachers and parents believe that homework helps students build study skills and review concepts learned in class. Others see homework as disruptive and unnecessary, leading to burnout and turning kids off to school. Decades of research show that the issue is more nuanced and complex than most people think: Homework is beneficial, but only to a degree. Students in high school gain the most, while younger kids benefit much less.

The National PTA and the National Education Association support the “ 10-minute homework guideline ”—a nightly 10 minutes of homework per grade level. But many teachers and parents are quick to point out that what matters is the quality of the homework assigned and how well it meets students’ needs, not the amount of time spent on it.

The guideline doesn’t account for students who may need to spend more—or less—time on assignments. In class, teachers can make adjustments to support struggling students, but at home, an assignment that takes one student 30 minutes to complete may take another twice as much time—often for reasons beyond their control. And homework can widen the achievement gap, putting students from low-income households and students with learning disabilities at a disadvantage.

However, the 10-minute guideline is useful in setting a limit: When kids spend too much time on homework, there are real consequences to consider.

Small Benefits for Elementary Students

As young children begin school, the focus should be on cultivating a love of learning, and assigning too much homework can undermine that goal. And young students often don’t have the study skills to benefit fully from homework, so it may be a poor use of time (Cooper, 1989 ; Cooper et al., 2006 ; Marzano & Pickering, 2007 ). A more effective activity may be nightly reading, especially if parents are involved. The benefits of reading are clear: If students aren’t proficient readers by the end of third grade, they’re less likely to succeed academically and graduate from high school (Fiester, 2013 ).

For second-grade teacher Jacqueline Fiorentino, the minor benefits of homework did not outweigh the potential drawback of turning young children against school at an early age, so she experimented with dropping mandatory homework. “Something surprising happened: They started doing more work at home,” Fiorentino writes . “This inspiring group of 8-year-olds used their newfound free time to explore subjects and topics of interest to them.” She encouraged her students to read at home and offered optional homework to extend classroom lessons and help them review material.

Moderate Benefits for Middle School Students

As students mature and develop the study skills necessary to delve deeply into a topic—and to retain what they learn—they also benefit more from homework. Nightly assignments can help prepare them for scholarly work, and research shows that homework can have moderate benefits for middle school students (Cooper et al., 2006 ). Recent research also shows that online math homework, which can be designed to adapt to students’ levels of understanding, can significantly boost test scores (Roschelle et al., 2016 ).

There are risks to assigning too much, however: A 2015 study found that when middle school students were assigned more than 90 to 100 minutes of daily homework, their math and science test scores began to decline (Fernández-Alonso, Suárez-Álvarez, & Muñiz, 2015 ). Crossing that upper limit can drain student motivation and focus. The researchers recommend that “homework should present a certain level of challenge or difficulty, without being so challenging that it discourages effort.” Teachers should avoid low-effort, repetitive assignments, and assign homework “with the aim of instilling work habits and promoting autonomous, self-directed learning.”

In other words, it’s the quality of homework that matters, not the quantity. Brian Sztabnik, a veteran middle and high school English teacher, suggests that teachers take a step back and ask themselves these five questions :

• How long will it take to complete?
• Have all learners been considered?
• Will an assignment encourage future success?
• Will an assignment place material in a context the classroom cannot?
• Does an assignment offer support when a teacher is not there?

More Benefits for High School Students, but Risks as Well

By the time they reach high school, students should be well on their way to becoming independent learners, so homework does provide a boost to learning at this age, as long as it isn’t overwhelming (Cooper et al., 2006 ; Marzano & Pickering, 2007 ). When students spend too much time on homework—more than two hours each night—it takes up valuable time to rest and spend time with family and friends. A 2013 study found that high school students can experience serious mental and physical health problems, from higher stress levels to sleep deprivation, when assigned too much homework (Galloway, Conner, & Pope, 2013 ).

Homework in high school should always relate to the lesson and be doable without any assistance, and feedback should be clear and explicit.

Teachers should also keep in mind that not all students have equal opportunities to finish their homework at home, so incomplete homework may not be a true reflection of their learning—it may be more a result of issues they face outside of school. They may be hindered by issues such as lack of a quiet space at home, resources such as a computer or broadband connectivity, or parental support (OECD, 2014 ). In such cases, giving low homework scores may be unfair.

Since the quantities of time discussed here are totals, teachers in middle and high school should be aware of how much homework other teachers are assigning. It may seem reasonable to assign 30 minutes of daily homework, but across six subjects, that’s three hours—far above a reasonable amount even for a high school senior. Psychologist Maurice Elias sees this as a common mistake: Individual teachers create homework policies that in aggregate can overwhelm students. He suggests that teachers work together to develop a school-wide homework policy and make it a key topic of back-to-school night and the first parent-teacher conferences of the school year.

Parents Play a Key Role

Homework can be a powerful tool to help parents become more involved in their child’s learning (Walker et al., 2004 ). It can provide insights into a child’s strengths and interests, and can also encourage conversations about a child’s life at school. If a parent has positive attitudes toward homework, their children are more likely to share those same values, promoting academic success.

But it’s also possible for parents to be overbearing, putting too much emphasis on test scores or grades, which can be disruptive for children (Madjar, Shklar, & Moshe, 2015 ). Parents should avoid being overly intrusive or controlling—students report feeling less motivated to learn when they don’t have enough space and autonomy to do their homework (Orkin, May, & Wolf, 2017 ; Patall, Cooper, & Robinson, 2008 ; Silinskas & Kikas, 2017 ). So while homework can encourage parents to be more involved with their kids, it’s important to not make it a source of conflict.

How Much Homework Do American Kids Do?

Various factors, from the race of the student to the number of years a teacher has been in the classroom, affect a child's homework load.

In his Atlantic essay , Karl Taro Greenfeld laments his 13-year-old daughter's heavy homework load. As an eighth grader at a New York middle school, Greenfeld’s daughter averaged about three hours of homework per night and adopted mantras like “memorization, not rationalization” to help her get it all done. Tales of the homework-burdened American student have become common, but are these stories the exception or the rule?

A 2007 Metlife study found that 45 percent of students in grades three to 12 spend more than an hour a night doing homework, including the six percent of students who report spending more than three hours a night on their homework. In the 2002-2003 school year, a study out of the University of Michigan found that American students ages six through 17 spent three hours and 38 minutes per week doing homework.

A range of factors plays into how much homework each individual student gets:

Older students do more homework than their younger counterparts.

This one is fairly obvious: The National Education Association recommends that homework time increase by ten minutes per year in school. (e.g., A third grader would have 30 minutes of homework, while a seventh grader would have 70 minutes).

Studies have found that schools tend to roughly follow these guidelines: The University of Michigan found that students ages six to eight spend 29 minutes doing homework per night while 15- to 17-year-old students spend 50 minutes doing homework. The Metlife study also found that 50 percent of students in grades seven to 12 spent more than an hour a night on homework, while 37 percent of students in grades three to six spent an hour or more on their homework per night. The National Center for Educational Statistics found that high school students who do homework outside of school average 6.8 hours of homework per week.

Race plays a role in how much homework students do.

Asian students spend 3.5 more hours on average doing homework per week than their white peers. However, only 59 percent of Asian students’ parents check that homework is done, while 75.6 percent of Hispanic students’ parents and 83.1 percent of black students’ parents check.

Teachers with less experience assign more homework.

The Metlife study found that 14 percent of teachers with zero to five years of teaching experience assigned more than an hour of homework per night, while only six percent of teachers with 21 or more years of teaching experience assigned over an hour of homework.

Math classes have homework the most frequently.

The Metlife study found that 70 percent of students in grades three to 12 had at least one homework assignment in math. Sixty-two percent had at least one homework assignment in a language arts class (English, reading, spelling, or creative writing courses) and 42 percent had at least one in a science class.

Regardless of how much homework kids are actually doing every night, most parents and teachers are happy with the way things are: 60 percent of parents think that their children have the “right amount of homework,” and 73 percent of teachers think their school assigns the right amount of homework.

Students, however, are not necessarily on board: 38 percent of students in grades seven through 12 and 28 percent of students in grades three through six report being “very often/often” stressed out by their homework.

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Not Your Average College Job

With the rising cost of higher education today, many college students consider working while studying. However, finding the right job and knowing how many hours to take on are crucial to success. Research suggests that there are many pros to employment in college, but there can be drawbacks if students can’t figure out how to strike a balance between academics and job responsibilities. One of the essential ways to make a college job, internship or work-study position worth your while is to make sure you are engaged in meaningful work, preparing you for the future.

A Journey Toward Career Readiness

So, what does it look like to find a job that is preparing you for the future? The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) , a professional group connecting nearly 17,000 academic and business professionals across the country, drafted a list of eight competencies that can be used to assess whether a college graduate is career ready. Higher education professionals use these as a framework for helping students identify career-related goals for curricular and extracurricular activities, regardless of the student’s area of study. Likewise, employers in the U.S. use this list as the exemplary elements for sourcing talent or developing it through internships and other experiential education programs. The eight agreed-upon competencies include:

• Critical thinking
• Verbal/written communication
• Teamwork/collaboration
• Technological skills
• Professionalism/work ethics
• Equity/inclusion
• Self and career development

Although extracurricular activities and classes may be designed to help students grow in these areas, many college job opportunities don’t prioritize this type of development. Waiting tables at a local restaurant or bagging groceries may give a student experience with professionalism and communication but not the opportunity for maturing in career competencies. Likewise, federal work-study programs may help cover tuition and fees, but they often place less emphasis on career development.

However, some colleges value real-world work experiences and focus on incorporating them into campus life. One of the leading national examples is the LifeWorks program at Berry College. Designed with the NACE competencies in mind and student success at its core, LifeWorks blends work seamlessly with academic life to create the ideal environment for students to thrive in their studies and professional growth.

A Legacy of Meaningful Work

Since its inception, Berry College has valued the education of the whole student and has offered a unique work solution for students through the LifeWorks program, which provides eight paid semesters of personal and professional development. Founded on the idea that students gain valuable experience when they invest their effort and energy into shaping their community, student roles not only enhance their personal fulfillment but also enrich the college environment. Students are also mentored by trained supervisors invested in their growth. While involved in LifeWorks, students:

• Gain real-world personal and professional development experiences.
• Explore a wide range of career fields.
• Develop professional and transferable skills through on-the-job learning.
• Build a support network of mentors and supervisors — often lifelong relationships.

More Than a Paycheck, the LifeWorks Solution

For Berry students, getting involved in real-world work opportunities begins the summer before freshman year. Each student who wants a job fills out a survey about their interests, preferences and work experiences before college. The Center for Personal and Professional Development (CPPD) also encourages students to fill out a free assessment tool that makes career suggestions based on personalities, values, interests and workplace preferences. Based on this information, students are placed in jobs that align with their needs and priorities such as academic tracks, prior work experiences, interests or their individual required campus involvement.

Freshmen can work up to 10 hours per week to ensure they can gain valuable professional experience as they acclimate to college life and Berry College's academic rigor. Following the first year, upperclassmen can work up to 12 hours per week, with the exception of certain scholarship students who are cleared to work more. During breaks and in the summer, students can work up to 40 hours per week in the LifeWorks program.

Dean of Personal & Professional Development Marc Hunsaker says, “Berry’s LifeWorks program is unique because it provides real-world work experiences that develop professional skill sets valued by employers nationwide. Our enhanced job classification and promotion system ensures students don’t just earn a paycheck in college, but they also become well-rounded, career-ready individuals prepared to make a lasting impact on the places they live, work and serve.”

The Perfect Balance

Supervisors, alongside the Center for Personal and Professional Development at Berry, structure student responsibilities and development along a tiered system in 180 different departments and specialty areas using the NACE competencies.

Entry-Level Jobs: Task-oriented, highly routine and easy to learn, these jobs help students grow in professionalism, communication and teamwork. Supervisors oversee these roles closely.

Intermediate-Level Jobs: With increased responsibilities, these jobs involve supervising, managing small to mid-level projects and training others. Students gain more independence and develop more critical thinking and self-management skills in these roles.

Advanced-Level Jobs: Students take significant ownership of major projects and department management. They work independently about 50% of the time and demonstrate high levels of professionalism, communication and collaboration.

Pre-Professional Jobs: These roles involve departmental management or significant leadership positions with minimal supervision. Students at this level are highly skilled, receive advanced training and sometimes have specialized knowledge. They are capable of mentoring others, are adept at research and excel in all NACE competencies.

Still debating if working during college is the right move for you? Seek job opportunities that not only help cover tuition but also set you up for future success. And if you are looking for an experience that is more than just exceptional academics and includes eight semesters of paid professional development with the support from a network of mentors, LifeWorks at Berry College might be an excellent fit for you.

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Kishwaukee college announces spring 2024 part-time student honors list.

Kishwaukee College has announced the students named to the Spring 2024 Part-Time Student Honors List. To be eligible for this honor, a student must have completed a minimum of six (but less than 12) semester hours of college-level courses at Kish with a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher.

The following students have been named to the Kishwaukee College Spring 2024 Part-Time Student Honors List:

Ashton — Jennah Asbury

Aurora — Leo Valerio

Batavia — Zachary Bilitzki

Belvidere — Faith Allen, Larissa Herrera

Byron — Zechariah VanVickle

Chana — Jack Anderson, Samuel Merrick

Chicago — Mekhia Harris, Javontae Morris

Cortland — Brenda Acevedo, Alicia Balli, Woodfin Billingsly, Kevin Farlinger, Deja-Rene Hudson, Grace Hunt, Tasha Kimble, Cara Leadingham, Zachary LeBouef, Ayanna Lisy, Rylan Lottes, Abigail Orr, Yessica Valdez, Lana Zimmerman

Creston — Everett Kaspar

Davis Junction — Autumn Kittoe

DeKalb — Abeer Abbas, Stephanie Anne Alkonga, Jacinta Allen, Hayden Anderson, Edlyn Arellano, Idalis Bahr, Drew Beckett, Gracie Bishop, Makiya Blackshire, Donna Borowiec, Ana Castellanos, Erik Castro, Brittany Coleman, Samuel Corral, Skyla Craig, David Doherty, Tamika Ellis, Sebastian Espinosa, Fern Evins, Nicole Foerster, Olivia Fuller, Julie Garcia, Yoidelin Gonzalez, Amber Gutierrez, Kaitlin Haley, Kimberly Hall, Madison Hallaron, Xzaria Hansbrough, Evan Harrelson, Torrencia Harris, Janice Hemp, Jennie Henrikson, Monica Hernandez, Leslie Hernandez, Melanie Hernandez, Maryah Holden, Matt Holuj, Zara Hussain, Ebuwa Igbinovia, Geovany Izaguirre, James Jackson, Grady Johnson, John Kafka, Holly Kobezak, Elena Lara, David Larsen, Roxanne Lule, Hannah MacCabe, Connor McPartlin, Ashley Moss, Samuel Murdock, Erika Nunez, Unique Omodayo, Dirtha Ortega Perea, Tyniya Patterson, Suleyma Perea-Castellanos, Mia Perez, Jackson Pfaff, Samuel Ray, Robert Ray, John Rinkenberger, Jacqueline Rodriguez, Fernanda Rojas, Amanda Rollins, Melissa Ruel, Laurie Ruiz, Adrian Ruiz, Starr Sanders-Moore, Jake Schultz, Megan Shriver, Clarissa Sisson, Iain Skaret, Alexander Skrzypek, Zaila Smith, Emily Stewart, Addyson Sulaver, Kevin Sullivan, Abigail Taylor, Jacqueline Tellez, Angelina Terry, Evelyn Torres, Krystal Torres, Angela Trujillo, Ninette Tsiftilis, Alyssa Tumminaro, Nathan Tumminaro, Matthew Tunk, Jackson Vanderbleek, Tyler Vilet, Ryan Villalobos, Nakia Walker, Daija Wallace-Wilson, Samuel Walt, Olivia Warner, Liam Whelan, Jesse Whipp, Ian Wickens-Walther, Kadja Yattara B. Mahamane, Kyle Young, Jane Zacny

Dixon — Imanol Aburto

Earlville — Elizabeth Bend, Jaiden Dyer

Esmond — Miriam Wagnaar

Geneva — Marcia Curran

Genoa — Olivia Arias, Maria Ayala, Bridget Babb, Maira Besara, Kendra Delgado, James Dreska, Abigail Fellows, Brandon Foley, Bradley Fowler, Nathan Fowler, Odalys Galarza, Roy Grady, Charlie Hansen, Brandon Hernandez-Villalobos, Jaden Holland, Alivia Keegan, Joshua King, John Krueger, Felicia Kubica, Madelyn Lavender, Nicholas Mazza, Emily Mendoza Aguilera, Jessica Mercado, Alayna Pierce, Emma Rhoads, Isabelle Sester, Rylie Stoffregen, Kristen Tatroe, Kylie Timmermann, Reese Tomlinson, Emily Trzynka, Jessica Urbina, McKennah Welch, Brandon Wolcott, Aidan Zweifel

Kingston — Brady Brewick, John Cerny, Luis Garcia, Cristian Huerta, Talon Joynt, Leyah Langley, Johannah Langton, Allison Poegel, John Swineheart, Maylen Vazquez

Kirkland — Hayley Basler, Dale Giebel, Adeline Marbutt, Marcella Schultz

Lee — Grant Goken, Jaden Haley

Lindenwood — Erica Prange

Malta — Hunter Bingaman, Aiden Dively, Rebecca Seldal, Megan West

Maple Park — Brody Pfund

Marengo — Lily Goode

Mount Morris — Nickolas Hoffman

Mount Prospect — Caleb Romanowitz

Naperville — Kathleen Putra

Oregon — Jackson Glendenning, Brent Gross, Candace Reynolds, Parker Rowland, Kathleen Wilson

Paw Paw — Nicole Faber, Italia Howell, Miller Jenkins, Jacob Pierce, Andrew Prescod, Jessica Solis

Peru — Mary Whaley

Rochelle — Dylan Benge, Julia Berry, Julian Blish, Alex Burnette, Tatnai Carcasses Suarez, Allison Cole, Ryan Corson, Brittney Duncan, Kyle Furman, Alison Gustafson, Benjamin Harvey, Parker Lenkaitis, Angel Lewis, Michele Lidren, Kyla Lyp, Catherine Macias, Jaime Martinez, Alexander McBride, Lizbeth Menez, David Menez, Asia Miller, Carlos Morales, Ashley Reuter, Joshua Reyes, Justin Schubbe, Erick Sepulveda, Alexie Smith, Frank Tesinsky, Cierra Thomas, Alexander Torres, Arista Trosper-White, Humberto Valdez, Ariana Valencia Sanchez, Alexavier Villatoro, Asher Wiegartz, Cale Workman

Rock Falls — David Haenni, John Haenni

Rockford — Nayelly Alanis, Madison Fitzhenry, Michael Magnuson

Sandwich — Melanie Cole, Logan Frantzen

Shabbona — Avery Boehne, Anthony Carnana, Alex Gahala, Libby Johnson

Sheridan — Ella Yarman

Somonauk — Ian Page

Sugar Grove — Payton Runyan

Sycamore — Alyssa Bennett, Henry Bisco, Stephen Brazier, Kiley Bryer, Cassidi Calfa, Alexis Carlsen, Alexis Carroll, Steven Chen, Tabitha Copenhaver, Joshua Cossey, Allison Denlinger, Ty DeVito, Mary Dimas Gilbert, Tyler Dodson, Emma Dold, Karie Eisman, Foluke Esan, Joshua Ford, Kalli Fowler, Kaitlyn Goff, Kimberly Hansen, Ryan Hein, Jacob Hull, Molly Isham, Christopher Johnson, Chase Johnson, Josh Johnson, Benjamin Kirchmann, Brianna Kuhlman, Grace Laraia, Katie Maier, Kylie Mapes, Aimee Marsh, Hailey Michaels, Nicolo Morsello, Lindsay Moser, Matthew Ray, Kara Robers, Ellie Rothenbach, Twanna Sampson, Sarah Scarpace, Lydia Schoenthal, Jessica Schumacher, Sydney Sukach, Timothy Tekiela, Danielle Tidrick, Karli Warner

Walnut — Melissa Garza

Waterman — Joseph Bennett, Cheyenne Fay, Paige Feitlich, Kyle Langston, Emily Munsen, Austin Richardson, Shanna Tomkins

Woodstock — Hayden Gieseke, Sergio Soto

Wyanet — Bradley Maness

Yorkville — Tyler Huntsha

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Kishwaukee college announces spring 2024 dean’s list.

Kishwaukee College has announced the students named to the Spring 2024 Dean’s List. To be eligible for Dean’s List honors, a student must have completed a minimum of 12 semester hours (at the 100/200 level) during an academic term at Kishwaukee College with a semester grade-point average of 3.50 or higher on a 4.0 scale.

Everything I learned about EA Sports’ College Football 25 after two hours of gameplay

ORLANDO, Fla. — Broadly, there are two kinds of college football video game players: those who drifted away from gaming when the NCAA Football franchise went away and those that have continued to play Madden for their up-to-date football video game fix. I played every NCAA Football and Madden from 2002 to 2014, then got out of gaming after college.

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Last week at EA Sports’ office in Orlando, I was back at the controls as part of a small group of reporters and YouTube creators invited to tour the studio, meet the developers, test the game and get a rundown of what to expect in all the other game modes for both Madden and College Football 25. After 11 years away, the college football game is coming back this July, and the people who make the game emphasized that this game is for all of FBS college football. Playing the game makes that very clear.

In the years since the game’s production was halted by fears of further litigation over the NCAA ’s name, image and likeness restrictions, I did not play College Football Revamped, the online modern update of NCAA 14, but EA did hire people from that team to work on this game. I have periodically played the recent Madden games and consulted with my gaming friends on their feelings and concerns about modern gameplay coming into this.

To cut to the chase and get to what they and everyone else really want to know: Playing College Football 25 was very fun. We weren’t allowed to take photos or video of gameplay because the game is not yet finished. We couldn’t test Dynasty mode or other modes. A few bugs popped up during games, which we flagged for developers. That’s normal. Although teams and players had ratings, we were told the ratings process hadn’t been completed, and because the numbers I saw may not match the ratings when the game is released in July, I won’t share them here.

The College Football 25 event included a three-hour period for gameplay and interviews, so I played about two hours of game action on the PS5. The refrain I heard several times from people in the building last week was, “Every team is someone’s favorite team.” I didn’t play more than a quarter with any one team because I wanted to experience as many different environments and playbooks as possible. The event offered so much information about College Football 25 that we’ve split this up into multiple stories and will have more to come after today. You can read about Dynasty mode and EA’s approach to NIL here.

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As for playing the game mode, here’s what I learned over two hours.

The in-game playing experience is incredibly smooth and realistic

The first team I pulled up was Virginia Tech because I wanted to experience the Hokies’ “Enter Sandman” entrance. Unfortunately, “Enter Sandman” is not in the game — licensing Metallica songs is really expensive. It has been replaced by a generic rock theme that sounds somewhat familiar. So that was a disappointment. (“Jump Around” is also not played in games at Camp Randall Stadium, for similar reasons.) But the feeling quickly dissipated when I began playing the actual game.

If you take one thing away from reading this, it’s that running the ball is actually fun. The blocking AI is really well done, and players are rewarded for hitting the hole. The game has new physics-based tackling, based on where and how hard a hit is made, that looks much more realistic than Madden 24. Breaking tackles or falling forward through them becomes more likely if you follow blockers correctly.

The flip side is that playing defense is tougher. If you’re one of those people like me who used to just use the Hit Stick when your defender was close to a ball carrier, that won’t cut it anymore. For advanced players, the right joystick helps you switch between defensive players more quickly, which helps in the secondary and in some situations where close control of two players is necessary.

This is where the new Wear and Tear system comes into play. Not all hits are equal, but if a player is taking big hits, certain body parts on a model will turn orange and then red on the play screen to indicate his increased chance of injury. A player’s Strength attribute corresponds with how much impact he can take, and bigger players have more Strength. If you put a small wide receiver at QB and run the option, he’ll be more likely to get injured. The longer the game, the more the injury chances rise.

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The passing game is revamped, as is kicking

As the quarterback, the ability to layer the football is the key. When you throw the ball, a meter appears above the receiver, similar to an option in Madden 24. Obviously, tapping or holding a button creates the difference between a floater and a rocket, but holding the button as long as you can to the end of the meter can impact the throw’s accuracy.

The same goes for kicking. The new meter has a ball rock left and right; you click and hold to get the accuracy, and then the power meter goes up the arrow. If you hold it to the very top into the red, the accuracy can take a hit. While I was playing as Penn State , Ohio State doinked a kick, so there is real downside. (I couldn’t tell whether there was a “doink” sound because of the noise in the room).

The playbooks have always differentiated college football games from Madden, and that’s the case again. College Football 25 has 134 different playbooks, part of 10 different offensive styles. I committed many delay of game penalties just looking through the playbooks. There are different menus for plays, ranging from coach suggestions to formations to concepts and more. The play menu design is essentially the same as Madden 24.

I spent a good 20 minutes with Wake Forest to test the Demon Deacons’ RPO slow-mesh offense. The RPO options include four different kinds of plays: read, peek, alert and glance. You can choose to throw a quick pass instead of hand off, but you have to do it quickly, or else you’ll be hit with an illegal man downfield penalty. That happened to me several times. I didn’t find any actual slow mesh plays, but a developer said they should be in the final game.

I also spent some time with Air Force to test the triple-option. One change in the option and RPO plays is that you tap a button to pull the ball as the quarterback, rather than pressing a button to hand it off like in the past. That was an adjustment. There are also two options on pitches: Similar to throwing the ball downfield, you can tap LB for a quick pitch or hold it for a stronger pitch.

The pre-snap options are deep

The capabilities players enjoy before the snap have also grown. You can adjust pass protection to go in a certain direction, an improved process from Madden 24. When calling a hot route, custom stems allow you to adjust how far downfield you want an out route to go. Senior quarterbacks can see more than freshmen, like the possibility of a blitz or a certain kind of defense.

And yes, there are custom playbooks and custom audibles. There’s also a two-minute warning, which will be new to college football this fall. Stadium Pulse is also back, and you can feel the loudest stadiums in the vibrating controller. As in the past, the play art on the field could be difficult to read, and audibles and hot routes may not work, depending on the crowd.

The experiences of playing as the game’s best players and as its worst players are very different. For those gamers coming back from the old NCAA games, linebackers can’t jump sky-high for interceptions and easily run with slot receivers anymore. (The defensive AI still drops easy interceptions from time to time as in the old games.)

To answer the question everyone asks me, is the gameplay just like Madden? Yes and no. I’m not allowed yet to speak on Madden 25, which is built on the same engine (as is normal). But the gameplay in College Football 25 is extremely smooth, and there are differences between the games, such as the playbooks, the kicking meter, player attributes, Stadium Pulse and more.

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The sounds and visuals are what really stand out

The pageantry and the environments are what really separate college football from every other sport, and the video game reflects that.

EA Sports said it went through more than 1,000 photos per school to create 150 different stadiums. There are 16,000 different head combinations for players, including 240 shapes. The game took so long to make because it had to be created from scratch.

The average team has four helmets, three jerseys and three pants. Some have 20-plus options (hello, Oregon). You can see all the individual stitching in the jerseys because EA Sports employs a Creaform 3D handheld scanner that’s normally used for aerospace parts. Here, it’s used to scan cleats, gloves, helmets, jerseys and more, down to the tiniest detail. While NFL players have mostly the same equipment, college football has different apparel companies with unique designs. Those differences are noticeable in this game.

I’ve been asked whether helmets can be knocked off from a big hit. They cannot. Along those lines, the game does not have targeting penalties — controlling head placement is difficult to develop, and EA figured fans would just be annoyed about the rule like they are in real life.

The crowds are also unique. Michigan fans have the maize pom-poms. Missouri fans have the tiger tails. There are unique hand signs and Surrender Cobras . The student sections are positioned correctly, and we were told those fans will be seen standing during the game. Opposing fans and bands are also positioned in the correct spots in stadiums. As for in-progress renovated stadiums, Vanderbilt is shown post-renovation, but Northwestern still plays at Ryan Field. Kansas’ stadium will be pre-renovation at game launch.

Penn State has the White Out. Tennessee has the checkerboard. Boise State has the Stripe Out. Even the Texas A&M red, white and blue crowd after 9/11 is in the game — I’m not sure how that one activates, but special crowd colors will happen for the biggest games in Dynasty mode. We were told some teams have called EA Sports to let them know of crowd blackout plans later this season to be included in the game.

We saw the turnover chainsaw at Oregon State and the waterfalls at Arkansas State. EA Sports showed how it motion-captured players with the trophies, which included making wooden versions of trophies for virtual mo-cap players to hold. To simulate ripping through a sign, mo-cap players pushed through pool noodles. For Bevo, Ralphie and the dog mascots, an EA staff member pretended to be the animal positioned around mo-capped virtual players.

What makes this game feel as real as anything is the sound. You really notice it when music kicks in after the opening kickoff. While “Enter Sandman” is not in the game, “Zombie Nation,” “Sandstorm,” “Tsunami” and “Mo Bamba” are. We see the Army Corps of Cadets jump up and down for “Tsunami” before kickoff, something the TV broadcast rarely shows. Beaver Stadium plays “Zombie Nation” after Penn State touchdowns. Every school has unique fan chants, as EA acquired thousands of assets from schools and in many cases had staff members replicate the cheers for recording. The studio also recorded 41 real game crowds over the last two years, from big to small programs. And yes, I saw sheet music for an instrumental version of “Neck.”

Chris Fowler was on hand in Orlando to talk about his commentating for the game, and it was clear he’s still quite upset that ESPN blocked him from being in the game in the past. ESPN itself is not in this game as a brand, but its commentators are. There is no ESPN logo on the score bug, which has been relocated to the bottom of the screen. There is no “College GameDay”. Because I was focused on so many other parts of the game, the lack of ESPN was not something I even noticed; it still sounds like college football with Fowler/Kirk Herbstreit and Rece Davis/Jesse Palmer/David Pollack on the call.

Several camera options can be flipped through quickly with the arrow pad. Most sit at different height levels behind the quarterback, but a broadcast-ish option from the side of the field is available.

What’s not in the gameplay

Mascot mode is not in the game, to answer a question I got a lot. Players do not have X-Factors like in past Madden games. Online Dynasty mode cannot be played across consoles, but that and Mascot mode could come in future games.

You will not be able to edit the attributes of real-life players in the rosters. You can edit created players, but there supposedly will be blocks to keep you from making a player like Arch Manning , who did not opt into the game. In recent days, a handful of starting players have tweeted that they’d like to be in the game and don’t know how to opt in. I don’t know if or when they will get updated.

We did not get any more details on Ultimate Team and college football legends who could be in it, nor was there more information about Team Builder, which allows gamers to create schools. But both features will be in the game.

Did you get all of that? I took 10 pages of notes over two days, hoping to answer as many of your questions as possible. People crave every morsel of news about this game.

There will be player updates throughout the real season as EA sends out patches. If a freshman breaks out, EA will be able to update the rosters to reflect that. The dream for future games is that if a new trick play happens on a Saturday, EA may be able to push it out a few days later.

While most sports video games are just updates from the year before, College Football 25 is a completely new game. Pretty much nothing from NCAA 14 could carry over, and the final edition of NCAA is now two console generations behind (College Football 25 will only be available on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S). The entire process of building this game will have taken more than four years, but it creates the foundation moving forward.

It was a surreal experience to play a new college football video game again. It’s really coming back. Do not consider this an official review. That will come closer to launch. This is my attempt to give you as much information as possible based on my limited time. I still want to actually play Dynasty mode and Road to Glory. There may be parts of the new game you and I don’t like. There are just so many things with this game I need to jump back into, and my two-ish hours of gameplay were just a small window.

It’s been a long 11 years, but the wait is almost over.

(Screenshots courtesy of EA Sports)

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Chris Vannini covers national college football issues and the coaching carousel for The Athletic. A co-winner of the FWAA's Beat Writer of the Year Award in 2018, he previously was managing editor of CoachingSearch.com. Follow Chris on Twitter @ ChrisVannini