How many hours per week should I estimate to be allocated to studying at graduate level per class? I'm not sure whether to take one online class each semester for an MBA (RA school TBD) , and one online class for an MHA (Ashworth College) at the same time, OR take 2 classes at a time for a MBA, complete it and then start a MHA (perhaps not at Ashworth but at a RA school). I'll have a full day off work most weeks to study, plus some time on evenings and weekends. I'd like to try to stick to one full day most of the time and then do extra hours only when assignments, exams etc. are looming. Would an Ashworth class be less demanding of my time than a RA class (other than the fact that I can fit their classes easier around my schedule)?
Texascot: I am a distance Regis University MBA student. For one class per 8 week session I allocate 10-12 hours for reading, research, and assignments. Some classes are more difficult than others depending of course on your strengths and weaknesses. I could probably take two courses at a time but I'm 47 and in no hurry. -Kevin
Kevin, In your opinion, which courses require more than the 10-12 hours of work each week? Which courses do you feel are most difficult? Rhonda
Someone sent me this when I asked about work load for graduate courses in another thread. "Recommended Loads (Per Term) for Grad Students Full-time student, no assistantship obligations: 9 hours, maybe 12 Full-time student, with assistantship obligations 6 hours, maybe 9 Working adult, part-time student 3 hours, maybe 6"
I think this HUGELY depends on the content of the course. For example, I HATE finance classes - that class I probably put in 10 hours a week on, every week. In my marketing classes I loved those, and could have put less in, but probably right around 10 as well. The final course, the capstone was big for me, probably 15 hours. All in all - I was taking 3 classes per semester, and with two full weekends, and working about 2 hours each night, I was able to do it. (Be ready for no life )
I would say that two classes makes for a good load depending on the classes. My recommendation would be to find a program that has shorter (say 8 week classes) and take only 1 at a time. The reason I say this is that recently I ended up with multiple projects and exams in the same week. Not a good month. I easily put in 10 hours a week for each class but I travel so my nights are open for study. The times I don't travel I have to work around family obligations and that can sometimes be tough. I recommend that while you are searching for a program try to get the syllabus for the classes. Many are online and a google search limited to .edu sites with course names (i.e. Underwater Basketweaving 101 site:.edu) often gets the syllabi for many schools which would provide a consistent picture of expectations for workload. Good luck, Kevin
In my experience, 10-12 hours per 3 credit class sounds about right. This presumes that you 1) do all the assigned readings, and 2) "work ahead" as much as possible so that due dates are essentially meaningless. The ways to cheat yourself are: 1) to "skim" and otherwise do the bare minimum session by session, and 2) to allow your life to be dictated by the dates on the syllabus, so that you begin studying only a few hours a week at the beginning of the course and end the term in a nightmare of constant work. Sometimes I found that treating a Saturday or Sunday as an academic "workday" could allow me to get a great deal of studying done between 9-5.
That's it, right there. For me, that's essential. And on that weekend day, I start at the crack of dawn (I'm more of a morning person), steaming coffee nearby, snoozing labrador retriever at my feet, classical music in the background, and a do-not-disturb sign on the den door. Works-out beautifully. It allows me to either review or get caught-up on studying during the week, as well as permits me to get ahead a little if I want. Scheduling the loss (to one's personal life) of one weekend day per week seems like a small price to pay for however long it takes to get the degree... but that's just me. By the way... readers here might find this thread relevant; or, if not, then at least peripherally so.
I put in about 7 hours a week for one 3 credit class that is 16 weeks. I usually finish in about 8-10 weeks.
Absolutely. If I am up by 5 AM anyway, I can be studying by 6 (caffeine infusion at the ready), and finish in early afternoon. I forgot to mention that I was thinking in terms of 10 week quarters (my strong perference--I am currently in a 16 week semester system and miss the fast-paced quarter).
The same here, I took three MBA courses this semester, and it really is the upper limit for me. I have found that I spend two to three hours per night, or around 10-15 hours per week working on these courses. Now, with the semester nearing end, I am working far more hours and seven days a week in order to complete everything that needs to be done. As a full time soldier, this is the max I would recommend to a full time employed person, in fact, I would recommend 6 hours max, but everyone is different. William Parker Morehead State University MBA Student
People quite often do not realize just how much time (in clock hours) they're going to have to devote to a given three-semester-hour course -- be it at the undergrad or graduate level -- in order to truly do it justice. In a typical 16-week semester, an undergrad will spend around 48 clock hours in the classroom; and will spend from 96 to 144 clock hours studying at home. That's a grand total, over the 16 weeks of the semester, of 144 to 192 clock hours that s/he will devote to just that one three-semester-hour undergraduate course. To make those numbers easier to remember, it might be better to just call it 150 to 200 clock hours. In a typical 16-week semester, a grad student will spend around 48 clock hours in the classroom; and will spend from 144 to 192 clock hours studying at home. That's a grand total, over the 16 weeks of the semester, of 192 to 240 clock hours that s/he will devote to just that one three-semester-hour graduate-level course. To make those numbers easier to remember, it might be better to just call it 200 to 250 clock hours. So, these numbers mean that: a typical undergrad who takes 12 semester hours (4 courses) in a given 16-week semester will devote around 600 to 800 clock hours to the task; and, a typical grad student who takes 9 semester hours (3 courses) in a given 16-week semester will devote around 600 to 750 clock hours to the task. To put that into some kind of familar perspective, someone who works a 40-hour-per-week, full-time job will put in 640 clock hours doing so over that same 16-week period. So, this means that: for the typical undergrad student, 12 semester hours (4 courses) is equivalent to a full-time job; and, for the typical grad student, 9 semester hours (3 courses) is equivalent to a full-time job. This is, no doubt, why most grad students with a full-time job, and a family, and a life, find it difficult to take much more than one 3-semester-hour course at a time... maybe two, at the outside. So... now that we know these things... Roughly from 9 to 12 clock hours; which, over a 16-week semester, comes out to 144 to 192 clock hours... which, to make it easier to remember, could be rounded to 150 to 200 clock hours. Two masters-level courses, taken simultaneously during a given semester, is roughly equivalent to having a part-time job wherein one works perhaps two-thirds as many hours as if that job were full-time. So, if one is already working a full-time job, taking 2 three-semester-hour grad-level courses would be roughly equivalent to having a second two-thirds-time job... roughly equivalent to going from working 40 hours per week to working around 67 hours per week. Or at least that's one way of looking at it. If you hadn't written that second sentence, I would have said that you could think of your full day off as your study day per week for one course, and your evenings (around two hours per night, five nights a week) for the other course. But if you'd like to just study one day a week, and only on weeknights if you absolutely have to, then I don't know if you are going to be successful taking two grad-level classes at a time. Probably... but not as much on the pure rigor of it as you'd probably prefer. If it's less demanding, it's mostly because of its flexibility... of which, by your remark about fitting it around your schedule, you indicate your awareness.
Although not as eloquent as some who have already posted - I spent 10-12 hours a week for two classes at Touro while working on my MBA. Hope this helps... Steven King aka The Kingster
As for finishing one degree first, then the other, vs. working on two degrees at once, some universities require that you get permission to enroll at second university.
I am happy with them, they are a KY State University and AACSB. The instructors are all knowledgeable (full-time faculty, if that is important to you) and everyone at MSU I have dealt with have been professional and fast to respond. I would highly recommend them. They also have quite a few electives which I like, you can take 18 hours in Management, or 15 hours in Accounting, Finance, CIS, Marketing and Economics I believe, so if you are looking to concentrate in a specific area you can. William
It really depends on your level of confort with the material you are learning. But I say anywhere between 10 and 20 hours a week.
