What are credit hours?
If you have
made up your mind to become an international student and pursue a degree in the
United States of America, then it is also important for you to figure out how
credits and grading system are granted at American college and universities.
What are credit hours?
Credit hours
are the number of instruction hours that are scheduled per week throughout a term. When a course is
completed, a student’s performance is based on both—the course grade and a set
number of credit hours.
At the
undergraduate level students are required to study four years and minimum
number of credit hours, that is, usually from 120 to 130 credits. The number of
credits varies from one university to another.
At the graduate level, the minimum number of credit hours required is 30.
Some
universities and colleges follow either a semester-based calendar system or a
quarter-based calendar system. In the semester-based calendar system, an
academic year is divided into two terms—the spring and the fall. Students
normally take up to 16 credits each semester. In a quarter-based systems, an
academic year is divided into three terms called quarters. Each quarter is of
about 12 weeks. On an average, each course has 3 credits or sometimes more
depending upon the number of hours per week.
What is a contact hour?
A contact
hour includes any lecture that the professor is teaching to the student. In
universities and colleges, students normally obtain credit hours based on the
number of contact hours they attend studying per week in class.
What is a semester credit hour?
A semester
credit hour is the amount of credit a student obtains for successfully
completing of one contact hour and two preparation hours per week for a
semester. One semester credit hour equals to 15-16 contact hours per semester,
despite the duration of the course. Basically, for a one semester credit hour
course, student should spend one contact hour in class and two extra
preparation hours each week. The two extra preparation hours are the activities
that take place out of class. These out of the class activities can represent
homework, practical courses or fieldwork.
What is grade point average score?
In the
United States education, credits are also used to calculate a student’s Grade
Point Average (GPA) for an academic year. GPA scores range from 0.0 to 4.0. A
score of 4.0 is equivalent to an A average, whereas, 0.0 represents an F score.
The semester GPA of a student is calculated based on the final marks received
for each course and the credit hours for that semester. The overall final GPA
is the average of all courses completed during the years of study.
This is just
a brief understanding of credit system in the US education. Further information about the credits of
different fields of study can be obtained by visiting the web sites of the
universities concerned.
What are credit hours?
Reviewed by Komal Ganjoo
on
March 16, 2017
Rating: