Wow! I think you are right! I assumed it was still much higher, but a quick look at my older DD's State U shows 120 hours for various Engineering majors, similar to what your search showed! I am surprised! Really surprised! Across the board, nearly all are 120!
Most state universities have a mandate to get more students graduating in 4 or 5 years (compared to the more typical 5-7 years). Hence, they cannot require more than 130-135 credit hours to graduate. I’m on curriculum advisory boards for two state engineering schools and this is a real problem for engineering departments. When I got my BS in engineering during the Devonian, I graduated with 169 credits. Times have changed.
I have definitely grown cynical about the college industry. It seems they are more worried about their numbers than what actual education they provide. And with the skyrocketing prices and push for freebies, it will only get worse.
My school was reducing PE requirements from 4 hrs to 2 hrs while I was there. The PE instructors were asking students to sign a petition to drop the credit hours from 1 to 0.5 per each one, so it would still require 4 classes. Even us college kids could do that math. My BS degree then required 8 hours each of Chem, Physics, Bio. Now the same major just requires 8 hrs total of chosen science.
I guess every few years another block of requirements fell to get folks graduated in 8 semesters.
Another reason to appreciate the old-school education the SA's provide.
Most Cadets and MIDN will be taking about 18 hours per semester (this will vary slightly). Most courses are 3 credit hours, some with a Lab are 4 hrs. Per Wikipedia: A semester credit hour (SCH) is the amount of credit a student earns for successful completion of one contact hour and two preparation hours per week for a semester. One semester hour equals 15-16 contact hours per semester, regardless of the duration of the course. This makes for a busy schedule, and does not include military training, room inspections, marching, sports, waiting in lines, doing laundry, standing watch, etc. Pressure with a purpose.
Also to OP: Generally you would go to a class for 2.5-3 hrs a week for a college course. 50-60 minutes MWF or 75-90 Tu-Th. Pretty much all History, English, Business, etc classes follow this route. They will be listed as 3hrs for semester.
Some classes like Calc may be 4, but they required a 4th (or 5th) day of week for classes. Classes with labs (Chem, Physics, Bio, etc) will generally have a separate hr lab class each week and also be 4hrs for semester.
Some Intro or shorter topic courses may also only meet half semester or 1 or 2 of 3 MWF days, etc and be 1 or 2 hrs. PEs, College 101 ( the typical Freshman 'How to Succeed at College' Course), etc. are mixed in here.
