Each credit hour corresponds to a minimum of 3 hours of student engagement per week for a traditional 14-week course or 6 hours per week for a 7-week course. This time may be spent on discussions, readings and lectures, study and research, and assignments. Most courses at AIC are three credit hours.
12 hours12 hours is considered a full-time course load during a 16-week session of the fall or spring term. The maximum load—with permission of the Vice President for Academic Affairs—is 18 semester hours. 8 hours is considered the most you should attempt during each 8-week session of the fall or spring term.
A college student is considered to be enrolled on a full-time basis for student financial aid purposes if they are enrolled for at least 12 credits a semester. Since a class typically requires at least three credits, 12 credits will require four classes per semester. Half-time enrollment requires at least six credits.
In college, classes can last around 50 minutes, meeting three days a week or twice a week, meeting for an hour and 15 minutes. A class that meets for an hour two or three days a week is a standard college schedule for full-time students.
If you're interested in finishing college in four years, one of the best ways to ensure a timely graduation is to take a full course load—meaning a minimum of 15 units per semester.
Most college courses are three credit hours, so that means you should expect to spend between six and nine hours a week studying for one course every week. A full-time course load is 12 credit hours – or four courses – so in this scenario, you would spend between 24 and 36 hours a week studying each week.
The average college student attends class for 15 hours per week, hence the typical daily class length of three hours. Students usually do not sit in class for three hours straight, however. Instead, they break these class sessions up throughout the day.
Understanding College Lingo Taking 12-15 credits is considered “full-time” in college lingo. That amounts to 4-5 classes, and for young students, that course load is really heavy (let's be honest, it's heavy for MOST students of any age).