| Heavily impacted engineering program at one of the top University of California campuses. It spoke for the grading structure of the homework and did not apply to all courses. Exams and projects were graded much more rigorously and there was a similar drop out/fail rate as you describe. Not all engineering courses required homework for a grade. Often homework was only worth 5%, exams and projects the remainder. However, weekly problem sets easily consumed 10-15hrs per course, 3-4 courses per quarter. Professors left it to the student to prove their understanding of coursework through exams. I often suspected due to the high rate of plagerism on homework (copying peers or access to solution guides). Edit: don't get me wrong, I never had free time as a student. Every free moment outside of class was consumed by studying, working, eating or sleeping. I occasionally skipped lectures to buy free time. It all came down to risk assessment which is a valuable skill to be learned for industry. Time management I learned in school has paid off tremendously in my career and is something I seek more than a minimum GPA threshold in my interns and Jr. Eng's. |