Why do some college have the majority of their classes as 4 credit units while others have 3 credit units?

Answer 1

In my experience it was because of the rario of credits to graduation requirements. At the first University I attended I was awarded 4 credits for several classes, but I had fewer classes to take to meet the University's graduation requirement. when I transfered, these same classes were only 3 credits, and I had more classes to take to meet the graduation requirement.

Answer 2

all recognized universities follow the Carnegie unit system, devised by a study committee paid for by the Carnegie Trust decades ago.

A Carnegie unit is one hour of direct instruction per week, or a specificed amount of labratory work [i think three hours, but have forgotten] per week.

Thus, a class that meets for three hours per week of either lecture or discussion is a three credit class. A class that meets for two hours of lecture plus tow hours of discussion is four credits.

Etc.

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The assumption behind the Carnegie unit system is that all actual hours spent under direct instruction are equal -- which, of course, is nonsense as any student who has suffered through a boring lecturer can tell you.

Still, no one has yet devised an alternative method of measuring the relative value of time spent learning that holds any promise of allowing employers to compare what you should have learned across colleges.

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Btw, that one Carnegie unit also includes the presumption that the student will spend at least three hours on his or her own doing related work, so homework is required. A three unit class meets for three 'hours' [50 minutes each] a week and requires an estimated nine hours a week of homework.

It follows that 15 credits is a full load of studies. You'll spend 15 hours a week in classes and 45 more hours doing your homework or preparing papers, etc.

Studying for exams requires extra hours, in my experience.

:-)

Answer 3

contraptions are what college instructions are measured in. a school on the quarter equipment (like UCLA) demands someplace around a hundred and eighty contraptions to graduate with a bachelors degree. some instructions may be truly worth 4 or extra contraptions whilst some are in straight forward terms truly worth a million, counting on how plenty time they require. If/once you attend a school to pursue a level, those contraptions will, in maximum situations, flow and count sort in the direction of your graduation standards.

Answer 4

So they can charge more for the classes. I took a BIO class and it was six credits. It should have been 8 because it was lab and lecture combined.