Between sketches, problem sets and papers, students in the Architecture School, Engineering School, and College of Arts & Sciences each have their own uniquely challenging workloads and schedules every semester. But how are they different?
Some students said Engineering students seemed to have more daily or weekly assignments while College students had more long-term projects and papers and Architecture students had a combination of both.
"I prefer having weekly assignments because I'm really bad at managing my time," first-year Engineering student Yannick Kimmel said.
He said the constant assignments kept him in check and stopped him from falling too far behind in his classes.
While the strict structure of Engineering assignments keep students on track, some students said the flexibility of College assignments allows students to choose their own work schedules.
"Depending on the kind of student you are, you can set the workload for yourself," first-year College student Jonathan Neeley said. "Even if you're in the same class, one person might work one hour per day, and another might work one hour per week."
Nevertheless, this flexibility also creates opportunities for students to procrastinate, resulting in extremely stressful days when long-term projects are due.
"Because the workload varies on how much you choose to do, I can really go a period of time without being stressed," Neeley said. "But then once it all catches up with me, the stress will get really intense."
Neeley said this cycle of stress occurs numerous times during the semester.
The type of work assigned in the different schools varies as well.
Third-year College student Cassie Devolites said she has hundreds of pages of reading per week rather than problem sets every night. However, the work or resulting stress depends on "how you schedule everything and how you balance it out," she said.
Similarly, first-year Architecture student Kristen Henderson said although her weekly and long-term projects tended to be more "creative-based," the workload is no lighter than the other two schools.
"The usual stereotypical view of the A-School is that we just do a lot of creative art projects, but in reality we're spending more time on our work than anyone," Henderson said.
Overall, students said the difference between the amount of work and stress in the three schools was dependent on the individual and his or her preferences. Different classes, majors and extracurricular activities also contribute to the varying schedules students adhere to throughout the school year.
"In the end I think all of us have the same type of workload, it all depends on the class and what it's like for each person," Devolites said.
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