A fundamental concern for many students is the amount
of work they must do within their chosen field of study. There is a definite
idea that some majors may be easier than others in terms of the amount of work
distributed to students.
So what is the overall opinion of other majors from
students who view them from the outside? There is a possibility students are
envious of other majors and the amount of work that they do.
Biology professor Dr. Todd Huspeni discusses the views
of the professors on the subject.
“In the context of faculty conversations, the subject
of workloads has not come up as a problem,” Huspeni said. “As a faculty member,
it is unclear to me what the out-of-class number of hours expectation is for
students. There is no sense of agreement to what an acceptable number of hours
would be deemed too much or too little.”
Huspeni explained that it is necessary to be precise in
what is meant by the workload. Is it the number of course credits required for
the major or the amount of work the instructor requires of their students?
Students often define workload as the amount of time
spent studying. Huspeni argues differently.
“Aspects of the workload definition are certainly
dependent on student values,” Huspeni said. “Students with strong impressions
might be making judgments of value of the course, more than evaluating the
workload and what the professor is asking them to do.”
As an example, a science major may not think that two
hours of work to complete a lab report is reasonable, whereas an art major
might not consider 6 hours of work to complete a project unreasonable.
There is an understanding that some degree programs
require many more credits than others. Senior art major Rachel Sieber, explains
there is more than what meets the eye looking from the outside into a different
“Our workload is fairly large. We are expected to do a
lot of hands-on work that may typically take longer than other individual’s
homework,” Siebers said. “There is more of a thought process than what people
give us credit for, and it takes a significant amount of pre-planning before we
jump into a project.”
A science major and an art major may argue that they
have more work than an English or an education major, or vice versa. Some
students go as far to say that some majors are even easier than others.
The communication major has been criticized as being
easy. Communication major Nick Boehm disagrees that the major is easier than
“We don’t have less work to do, but we do have
different work,” Boehm said. “In communication you don’t have the same type of
work as other majors, but you do have the same amount of it, in my opinion.”
Perhaps there is a misunderstanding between the
different majors about what is being accomplished within each degree.
Students on the outside may criticize other majors,
such as communication, because the nature of the work in general is different
than what science, art and all other majors do.
Of course the amount of work between majors is going to
differ, but it depends on the student as well. Even the nature of the work
within the major will differ based on what the student wants to do with the
“If we lack toughness in our coursework, we make up for
it in practicality,” Boehm said. “I might not be able to solve a calculus
equation, but I don’t want to do that anyway. The things we do in comm are
easier to apply to real work problems and will help us after graduation.”
At the end of the day, though, most professors will
agree that the workload boils down to one thing. Every major and department on
campus bases their work around the curriculum. Professors are dedicated to
teaching a curriculum that meets the essential learning outcomes that they want
students to meet.
“We want students to come out of their programs with a
certain set of skills,” Huspeni said. “The question is not how many hours it
takes to do that, but did the students meet the objectives and take something
away from their program.”