Workload at WP

H

Hoppy

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All I hear about West Point is how much work you get and how hard the academics are. Can someone put, in simple terms, how much work I'll be getting? Like how many hours of HW/studying, approx, do you get each night? Thanks
 
I am not a USMA grad, but will speak to generalities about your question based on commonalities between all Service Academies.

You will have more academics on your plate than students at traditional colleges. Service Academy minimum course loads typically exceed the maximum suggested course load of traditional colleges.

You will have fitness requirements that do not exist at traditional colleges.

You will have military duties and knowledge requirements that do not exist at traditional colleges and exceed those of any ROTC detachment. If not by volume, then by the 24/7 nature of the Service Academy.

Every student's strengths and weaknesses vary - you may be an academic rock star but bad at memorizing the names of your Cadet Chain of Command or recognizing artillery based on a silhouette. Your roommate may be an athletic rock star who never needs to prep for the physical fitness test.

The combination of tasks and expectations equates to having more to do than there is time in a day. As a result, you will triage and it will force you to learn time management. It is not uncommon to have homework in multiple classes and to also need to prep for an exam in another. Homework could be to read 50+ pages of a book for one class and 40 pages for another. Based on the info presented before you, one may conclude to NOT do the homework because it may hypothetically represent 1% of your overall grade in Class A when the exam is 20% in Class B. You learn to evaluate tasks differently -- and you will focus more on their relative value to your mission of graduation. Starting with - what will get me kicked out?

In a perfect world, you could do everything -- but here you can not, and this is by design. The experience will teach you to focus on what is important and honestly it is one of the best takeaways one could ask for. It is a lesson you cannot appreciate at the time, but certainly appreciate in the rear view.
 
To add to the above, it’s also highly dependent on your own strengths/weaknesses and what you choose to do for your sport and with your free time. If you are great at academics, you probably won’t be spending as much time on homework compared to someone struggling in the same subject. If you’re good with time management, you’ll find free time to just chill and go to bed earlier or you could be the guy perpetually up until o’dark thirty working on things you procrastinated. Your cadet job responsibilities will also take time but some are more time intensive than others.

I probably averaged 4-7 hours a night depending on my team traveling and the heavy course load I took plus cadet job. There were people who got less sleep and those who got more. It just depended. There is no one size fits all. You’ll be as busy as you want to be. If you’re good with 2.0 and go, you’ll have to put a lot less time in than the folks excelling in all domains.
 
Building on the great responses from @shiner and @Casey, and carrying over an observation from USNA: SA academics aren’t necessarily tougher than at other rigorous schools (by the way, don’t mistake “rigorous” for “prestigious”).

What actually makes things tougher is the presence of other obligations: military, athletic, fitness, billets, etc. As the others said, these take away from study time. There’s also a level of accountability at SAs that’s unparalleled in higher learning, and that makes things tougher. I teach at our flagship state university and I’m amazed at what students try to — or think they can — get away with. And there’s a level of haphazard work that I see that I believe would be unacceptable at SAs.

At the same time, though, the SAs provide probably more academic support than any other institution. They’re committed to helping you succeed.
 
MidCakePa said:
At the same time, though, the SAs provide probably more academic support than any other institution. They’re committed to helping you succeed.
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Fully agree.

  • SA are regularly awarded in college reviews with the highest access to faculty.
  • They do not use graduate teaching assistants - you get the full fledge professor.
  • Class sizes rarely go over 25 students.
  • Plentifull access to tutoring (extra instruction)
  • Financial model is reversed - your teacher is paying for you to go to school (think about that)
  • You are not a paycheck to them - you don't pay to go there
  • You cannot be replaced with a new student - if you leave, quit, or fail out, they cannot replace you in the class
  • The future of our country's military is partially in your hands and there is direct benefit to the instructor to have the best force protecting them as possible.
 
How much time spent studying can vary greatly by student. What does not vary is required course load, which is generally greater at USMA.

A normal course load at a civilian college is 16 credit hours. A normal West Point course load is 18 - 20 credit hours, varying by placement, course choices, and major. In either case, a student may elect to overload or possibly take a lighter load during a sports season. Note: those credit hours are reduced from what they once were (the Corps has ;)). The accrediting agencies required the reduction to approve the majors curriculum - we once had areas concentration rather than majors.

Additionally, many students at civilian colleges also engage in extracurricular activities with demanding time requirements. The difference is that those requirements are voluntary and the student has considerable control, while much of the extracurricular time demands at West Point are involuntary with little control by the student.
 
I'm ranked in the top 25% or so of my class and am taking 21+ credit hours every semester here with an engineering major and a minor. I spend about four to six hours a night on work, though I try to space it out throughout the day. It's a lot. I don't put nearly as much effort in as some of my peers with school. I procrastinate and rely too much on being naturally mildly good at academics to get through my classes, and it works for me, but do as I say not as I do on that one.

I'm involved in upwards of eight clubs so I spread myself a little thin. I could sleep more if I chose not to get involved in such things, but I value experiences a lot here. If I took an easy major, stayed uninvolved, etc, I could sleep eight hours a night every night. That's boring though.
 
prospective2019 said:
I'm ranked in the top 25% or so of my class and am taking 21+ credit hours every semester here with an engineering major and a minor. I spend about four to six hours a night on work, though I try to space it out throughout the day. It's a lot. I don't put nearly as much effort in as some of my peers with school. I procrastinate and rely too much on being naturally mildly good at academics to get through my classes, and it works for me, but do as I say not as I do on that one.

I'm involved in upwards of eight clubs so I spread myself a little thin. I could sleep more if I chose not to get involved in such things, but I value experiences a lot here. If I took an easy major, stayed uninvolved, etc, I could sleep eight hours a night every night. That's boring though.
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What would you consider an easy major??
 
JCSDVM1 said:
What would you consider an easy major??
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Something that's not one of the classically difficult engineerings (mech, civil, chem, electrical, etc), non-STEM.

Languages and things like DSS, IA, and the like are considered to be "easy" here. While the course content may not individually be all that much easier, there is a lot less of it. My Firstie friends in IA are taking 12-14 credits this semester while I will never be below 20.
 
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