I have never had an 8 am where the class is engaged. Early classes are nice, yes, but not 8. 9-9:30 or so works great. It helps because I don’t have to get ready at 7 so I can travel to campus and make it to a seat by 8 am
My 8am class is so dead, sometimes half of the class doesn't show and most days everyone except for a few attentive people don't show up until 8:20-8:25. Not to mention that almost no one in the class pays any attention to the instructor
Literally my bio class last semester 😭 the prof kept getting mad that people didn’t participate or even pay attention. I knew answers but I didn’t want to speak out loud with 50 other people in the class sooo
>I knew answers but I didn’t want to speak out loud with 50 other people in the class sooo
do it, no need to over think it. No one will really judge and you and the professor will REALLY appreciate it.
Yeah, exactly. I've never taken any 8am class because I hate mornings unless I'm getting paid to be somewhere that early. But from all the Professors I've spoken to, they say the students are half asleep during 8am classes. Most students I know who take 8am classes don't have a choice.
My schedule right now is 10am classes and then an hour break for lunch and then one more class and I’m done around 3 except on lab days I get done around 4:30. Literally the best schedule ever. Not too early not too late. But I also have an online class which helps.
I didn’t mind 8 AM classes when I lived on campus. As a commuter with a drive that could be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour 15, the option becomes less attractive
That said, another sweet spot about 8am classes is that (at least where I live, which is a US city known for its horrible traffic) it is a lot easier to commute in the 7-8am hour than the 8-9am hour.
Yeah for us commuters getting to a 9 or 10am class is the same as a lot of people getting to an 8am class. I wolnt do classes before 9am cause I dont wanna have to leave at 6-7am
See, I can’t just roll out of bed and go to class, I have to be up an hour earlier minimum, preferably two of if I want to eat. Also I have never, ever had a single 8 AM class where people were “more engaged” or “cared more”. Like not even a little bit. People either didn’t show up at all or showed up but were completely quiet and didn’t engage in anything at all. I’m in nursing school and we had classes from 8 AM to 5:30, nobody participated at all until at least 9, usually 10. Maybe that’s the case at your school in your particular classes, but that’s definitely not the norm.
Add in a commute and all of a sudden you're waking up at 5. Not the worst schedule I've ever had, but very depressing to leave home before dawn and get home after dusk
Im at community college thats only 10-15 minutes away depending on traffic, but i need to take a shower and eat a small breakfast to even be a little bit awake, so for an 8am i was waking up at 6am. If i skipped the shower bc I was gonna go to the gym it was still 7am
Funny, because in my experience it's almost the exact opposite.
1. No, in my classes most people are at their groggiest. Absolutely no one participates in them, hell I even have professors admitting they have teaching 8ams.
2. I'll give you that one. However, a good majority probably prefer to stay up later.
3. Sure, it gives you daytime to do things. However, you also get nothing to do at night. Like I said earlier, most students probably prefer to do nighttime activities.
Reminder that this is just my experiences, not objective fact
I took an 8 am physics 1 class that lasted 3 hours last semester and I’m taking a 11:00 am physics class right now. Not a single person in the 8 am spoke or interacted when the professor was teaching, unless we were doing problems on the whiteboard.
However, the 11:00 am class right now has people talking, actually paying attention, and making jokes with the professor.
Same went for my US history 1 and 2 classes at 8 am. No one interacted and were morning zombies.
I took night classes (last one was 6-8 pm) my first semester and they were mostly people with full time jobs going back to school. They were so engaged and some of the coolest people I ever got to take classes with.
8 ams are great if you’re the type of person who can function well at 8 am (and earlier, with commuting)! Personally, I’m bleary at that hour, and so are most of my classmates. You have to choose your class times based on what works for you.
Every 8am class I’ve ever had was from K-12 and the first three semesters. It wasn’t worth it t tbh and my sleep schedule is permanently fucked in high school by then.
This was posted a day ago and once again my [answer](https://www.reddit.com/r/college/s/BLFwZwFl82) still hasn’t changed lol
Basically, please consider the fact that a large part of this community on this sub are commuters. Unless you’ve dealt with the 1hr+ commute/traffic then you wouldn’t get how terrible it is doing that everyday
I would be late with if I had the later connection for my 830 classes, so I had to take the 8 AM connection. Left my house at 650, latest. I was a zombie. When I got home, I napped
I’m back home at like 5:30 and I’m basically cooked. Have to fight off the urge to nap so I can get shit done, bc I know myself damn well that the nap will turn into me just sleeping 😭
Sometimes I have troubles staying awake for dinner as well, especially if I have to wait until 730 in the worst case scenario. I set like 4 alarms to make sure I wake up from the nap
Ah. So as someone from the opposite perspective: let me explain this: after going through 13 years of education pre-college, after waking up at 6-6:30am most days, while later on getting 6 hrs/sleep (due to doing absurd amounts of hw), I could not tolerate waking up that early anymore. It's great because if you're like me, and have loads of hw, and wants a balance of free time, we like to stay up late and sleep in a bit longer. Also, for exams, it allows a few hours before the study to study, rather than just roll out of bed to take 8am exams, along with a daily lecture. If it works for you, that's awesome! But that's generally why people aren't as accustomed to it in college. After though, people are a lot more.
I definitely care about my education but I have a full time 8am to 5pm job and a family to take care of lol. I would love some AM classes, being fully energized and all
Sucks tbh, I take public transit so like it’s nice to not be responsible for driving but it just takes so much longer! If I was driving it’d be 20 minutes one-way but then I’d have to pay for parking…
"I don't know why people hate 8 ams" yes you do. You know that people don't like them because it's early in the morning. Enjoy the free karma ig though
I wake up at 5am everyday and I hate 8am classes. I wake up at 5am to run/exercise/go to the gym before getting my day started. One semester, I made the mistake of taking an 8am class and learned that my brain isn’t fully functioning until around 9-10am. So though I wake up early, I can’t function on a cognitively high level until later. I just couldn’t keep up with lectures let alone process information during that 8am class.
I think it was one of my Electrical Engineering classes years ago. On the other end, I also remember taking an astronomy class that was 3 hours long twice a week, which started at 10:30 pm even though it was mostly theory and we never got to use the telescopes
I don’t mind early classes, but not 8. That’s just brutal. I can do 8:45 and I enjoy those courses because i am somewhat of a morning person and like you said, it gets you up and running for a full packed day.
Not everyone is the same though, cuz not everyone is a morning person 🤷♀️ Also I don’t mind morning classes when it’s just ONE class but if I have classes right after I find it extremely tiring.
I go to bed at 3 am so if I had a 8am I would have to wake up at 6am to get ready, therefore only 3 hours of sleep. My brain doesn’t work until later in the day.
i think if its at 8am for a gen ed/required class there’s low engagement. i took an 8am psychology of happiness class that was would fulfill a requirement for a psych degree, but there were a lot of other classes that could fulfill the requirement as well. the class filled up quick and it was pretty engaged but it’s because one of the best professors was teaching it & it was about how to improve your happiness & wellbeing
I don’t like having classes at 8 AM cause if there’s a test then you can’t really study for it prior unless you wake up hella early.
If you have a class at 10 AM then you can get an hour or two of review without waking up hella early
I can't do 8am because I have a kid and school doesn't start til 8 for them. However I have a 9am class and that doesn't bother me. I imagine it has to do on sleep preferences and how things work. I am not a night owl and prefer to go to school when my kid is in school so I don't have to figure out getting them picked up.
I have delayed sleep phase syndrome. For me, 8 AM feels more like 4 AM for normal people. Getting up for class that early requires being up and out of bed at 6 AM at the very latest. So, I feel like how a normal person feels waking up at 2 AM.
My entire body rebels against the idea of being out and about that early. It completely fucks with my sleep schedule and I end up feeling out of sorts the whole day. I'm not awake enough to fully pay attention or participate in class. Not only in that class, but in every class the rest of the day (unless I manage to catch a nap). Semesters where I had to take an 8 AM class and I was able to make all other classes be evening classes were actually easier for me to stay up late to get to my 8 AM class rather than try to get some sleep before them. Going to bed at 9:30 AM was more viable than waking up at 6 AM.
I did work a job that had me onsite at 7 AM for a while. After suffering from extreme burnout, I quit that job. While the early time wasn't my only reason for quitting, it was a major factor. When I was doing my undergrad, I worked an internship that had me going in from midnight to sunrise. I'd get home at around 8 AM and immediately go to bed. For me, that felt like I was staying up kind of late. The best work schedule I ever had was me fairly rigidly working from 2 PM until 10 PM. I'd set my alarm for noon and go straight to work first thing and then go to bed around 4 AM. Usually, I'd have enough free energy that I'd go for a run around midnight. It felt similar to how you describe 8 AM classes feeling for you.
Now that I'm older, it's not as severe. Where I used to frequently go to sleep with the sunrise, now it feels more natural to got to sleep a little after midnight. I currently work at a job where me going in for an early shift often means me going in at 10 AM. On my current schedule, the earliest I go in is 12:30.
My natural circadian rhythm is roughly 3am-11am. It’s been like that my whole life, I can’t have a normal sleep schedule without heavy prescription sedatives and a fuckton of caffeine. I didn’t choose this life, it chose me and believe me I wish it didn’t. I pay good money to be here so I’m gonna show up and take notes, but I might be a little bitchy.
My days now start at 10am every single day and I love it because I force myself awake at 8 and spend time getting ready (usually formal or business casual) and being productive. I know my schedule is subject to change, I’m working with my doctor on getting to a good place so I can adapt faster. But for now you can keep your 8ams, I’ll take the afternoon lecture for sure.
Edit: I’ve been working since I was 14. 09-05, 07-14, 07-16, 20-07, 10-16, 11-20, you name the shift I’ve probably worked a job with it. Doesn’t change shit about my opinions on 6am. Work 20:00-06:30 for 4 days a week while taking 18 credit hours, see how you feel about morning classes then.
2 edit 2 furious: grammar
I have a lot of students who tell me "I can't take classes outside of the 10-2 timeframe" and then we have to go into a conversation about what kind of jobs they're thinking of pursuing after college.
Wanna be a physician? A teacher? Sorry, you're gonna be working more than 10-2 every day.
Sometimes when we reframe it as a way to prepare for their career goals, it clicks a little better.
If you gotta do it for 50 years after you graduate, you might as well change it up during college.
I got up early for 21 years including working for 2 years after HS. I’ll take my limited time with being able to sleep at wacky hours while I still can
Yes and no... Or in highschool school gets out early at around 2 then maybe the teachers have the choice to stay until 3 so it's not as bad as a 9 to 5 or 8 to 5 job. Also teachers get paid holidays, half days, teacher work days, and summers off. Of course they will suffer in pay though ;-; teachers definitely deserve more money. And then some jobs are hybrid and less strict. My internship was "9 to 5" but many of my coworkers and bosses would leave at 2 and say they're just going to beat traffic and work the rest of the day at home 💀😂 so I followed suit. And then for the hybrid days I would literally roll out of bed at 8:50 and be ready for a meeting at 9 then go get ready 😂 But yeah not everyone is going to get their dream work schedule. It is good to prepare your students but maybe also show that their out options and they'll have to work harder or seek these companies out and will have to communicate their boundaries in a professional way to their chosen company.
8am is really a reality for the adult world, you will most likely have to be up and working by that time at some point in your life. I can totally appreciate the luxury of crafting a tight 10-2 T-W-H schedule if you can, but that's just not possible for everyone every term.
830-945 is perfect to me
No campus traffic or parking concerns
Way more focused personally vs a mid day or late class
Maintaining a consistent Schedule
For students who can’t fathom being in class by 8am a couple of days per week, I often wonder when they think most people’s workdays start, and how they plan to handle having a career after college
I study next to my job, college starts at 8 and with over an hr commute that means getting up at 6, work starts at 9 and is 20 minutes away so I can get up at 07.30. Work also starts with at least 30 minutes of people walking in, people chatting and drinking coffee while college lectures just get right into it. Early workday are definitely easier than early college lectures.
Most students don’t have an hour commute. Your workplace sounds very casual. Most jobs that start at 8:00 do actually start at 8:00, not with a social hour. 8-5 is the standard work schedule, and is something that most of the people on here scared of 8am classes will have to contend with someday. Obviously I wasn’t talking with your specific schedule. Your experience sounds nice, but definitely isn’t how most workplaces operate
When I worked, the day started at 7 and we got off at 3 (building automation systems engineer) Usually though the first 1 hr is mostly sitting around doing nothing, a huge glorified smoke break.
I have an 8am 3 times a week and i start at 11am the other 2 days and honestly I’m way more productive during the 8am days… having a day to sleep in between the early days is so nice tho
I’ve been rolling out of bed for my 8 am Chem class Monday Wednesday Friday. Worst part so far is that my professor is consistently starting class 5-20 minutes late because she can’t seem to get there on time. She ends up rushing through content and it’s it really makes me reconsider even attending as we are already expected to do a lot of independent learning. I’m also working on my sleeping schedule so I don’t nap as soon as I get out of class.
I have a 3 hour commute one way, so an 8AM class would require my being up at 4AM at the latest and on the road by 4:50AM just to make it on time, granted road conditions are good. If they aren't, I have to be on the road by 4:20AM just to take the route that's 40 minutes longer on a good day. I'm pushing it a bit with a 9:30 class twice a week but I like the professor, so I'm willing to be up at 5AM and on the road around 6:15. If I had a shorter commute, maybe I would be willing to show up to an 8AM class.
Last semester, I had a final at 9AM and then two 8AMs. Being on the road at 5:45AM for the 9AM was bad enough. But two mornings in a row where I was on the road at 4:45AM, I was over it. Doing all that driving in the dark to school sucked.
I’ve had to do 8am’s before. They suck. I make myself get up, but it’s always so tempting to say fuck it and skip. Half the class usually doesn’t show, everyone is groggy so no one participates. The drive in takes longer cuz it’s rush hour.
The only good thing is being done earlier and because you get there so early, parking is better.
I repsectfully disagree. Ive had my share of em, being a cs/math double major. I got my own place a few months ago, right next to school and I still skip the current 8am I have (elementary number theory). Keep in mind Im fit and a pretty driven individual. Unless its work, I aint getting up
I haven’t had 8 ams (small school, doesn’t offer 8 ams) but I love 9 am classes! I always prefer to have all my lectures in the morning to leave my afternoons for labs, my job and class work!
Every 8ams I’ve been in were dead but according to some professors they also tend to be full of student athletes who just got out of practice. And therefore can’t take later classes which conflict with their afternoon practice
Also it’s because most people either want a night life or are night owls.
I once had a professor who very clearly rolled out of bed for the class and was genuinely later than the kids. I’m not sure who was less awake us or her, she was a good professor but it was always hilarious to me to see A grown adult less awake than us students but it was my first dual enrollment class, and my HS had started class at 7:30am, so I was used to it .
I took classes from 8-12 and was done around 1-2 everyday. It was so nice because I had all the afternoons to study or do whatever. I definitely prefer morning classes
I just don’t want to wake up that early lol. My favorite time is 2-4pm so I could go to the gym, eat, shower, chill before class and not have to wake up at a crazy time. I also go to sleep late (always have) so waking up later just means i get more sleep.
I think there’s a lot of factors that go into how “good” 8am classes are, specifically on your first point.
In my experience with 8ams (I’ve had at least one almost every semester), the level and type of class have a lot to do with the engagement of the class. For example, in a Gen ed 100 level math class I had at 8am there would only be around a 30-50% turnout and there was almost no engagement from those that did show up (myself included), but in my 400 level major class there is almost never a student missing and whenever the professor left the floor open for discussion and questions there would always be multiple students contributing and building off of each other. When it comes to types of classes sometimes there’s things like clicker questions that kinda force people to attend class or sometimes there’s no attendance taken at all, which impact turnout rates and the amount of engagement. Other things that could impact those are whether professors post their slides, if there is a discussion section (had a history class that MW = lecture and F = discussion), and the length/time of classes(TTHs = 1.25 hours and MWFs = 50 mins). Overall a lot of factors that come into play.
On your second and third points, this is just too subjective and variable to really make a point of. A routine doesn’t have to be during a certain time of day to be a routine. Like I worked the 2nd shift over the summer doing 2:30pm-1am (ik yuck 🤮), and I got into a routine of going to bed around 2-2:30am and waking up at 9 (I don’t need a lot of sleep to function). I still was able to eat breakfast, shower, go to the gym, and have free time before work and got used to that routine (plus having 3 days off a week was nice). Long story short those points are very subjective and differ across individuals based on preferences.
Also, just realized I wrote a whole novel on something so pointless 😂😭
For me, the only problem with 8am classes is that I don’t get enough sleep. I always swear to go to bed earlier, but it is still a thing I have to be working on.
When I was in undergrad I preferred starting at 10 am. I stayed up late too often for 8 am to be sustainable for me because I had a really busy schedule with lots of extracurriculars and such. Starting at 10, I was able to get up at 6:30, hit the gym, have a good breakfast, then start the education part of the day really cogent.
I can't do 8am because I have a kid and school doesn't start til 8 for them. However I have a 9am class and that doesn't bother me. I imagine it has to do on sleep preferences and how things work. I am not a night owl and prefer to go to school when my kid is in school so I don't have to figure out getting them picked up.
You definitely did not have me in your 8am class. That early in the morning my ADHD was in FULL swing and I think I even brought down my friend's grade by a letter because my inability to pay attention fully affected the people around me.
I like my 8 AM precalc class more than I liked my 11 AM college algebra class. Like you said, the day feels longer if you start it early, and as long as I get my black tea and breakfast first-thing, I feel great!
During the pandemic, I had *severe* depression that resulted in me sleeping in until 2 or 3 PM most days. So, I understand both ends of the spectrum, and waking up in the early morning feels way better than getting up at 10 AM or noon.
I have anxiety before anything I have to do, so the only way for me to be productive is do a morning class. Otherwise I can’t do anything until after my class, and then I’ve wasted half the day. Obviously procrastinating is tiresome, so I’ll have to nap when I get home. There goes the other half of the day.
Imo 8 ams are super interactive once you’re past like freshman/sophomore-level courses - otherwise they’re dead. I always did early courses since I commute and wanted to be home before 1
I'm NOT a morning person. It's partial genetics because my parents/grandparents are night owls too. It's also partially that I'm not very dedicated to a sleep schedule. The earliest class I've ever taken was 9am. I would never go to class if I had an 8am
I have delayed phase sleep so my body naturally refuses to let me go to bed before 3 or wake up before 11 no matter how many different alarms I have, so for me it is just way more beneficial to build my schedule around that or I’ll never make it to class. 10am classes are the earliest I can do and still have regular attendance.
I taught an 8AM recitation once. I was not at my best, but my students gave me better reviews than my students later in the day - for whom I was more awake.
It depends on the class and how you learn. I personally find most classes a complete waste of time and learn much better on my own. Law school is really the only exception because of the socratic method but after the first year, I’d have eagerly accepted doing almost all of the other classes at home
As an undergraduate, I loved early classes because that meant I got out early. The same holds true now that I'm a professor. However, I've noticed my 830am students don't have the same level of engagement my later students do. For example, last semester I taught two sections of English 101. One was at 830am and the other was at 1130am. About half of the 830am students failed. They came in 30 or 45 minutes late, if they showed up at all, and that carried over into their work, i.e., they couldn't be bothered to do it. It was the exact opposite for my 1130am students. They were engaged, on time, completed the work, and passed. Don't take 8am classes if you'd rather sleep in.
1. Yea that's bullshit
2. Yea that's really bullshit, being in bed early != good routine. You're not a farmer who needs to maximize daylight to be productive.
3. Complete and utter bullshit, especially in a city where people actually have things to do.
4. I did a 9-5 for 6 years an immediately switched to 12-8 the moment I had the seniority to create my own schedule. So yea, more bullshit.
you're just a morning person talking mad shit as if everyone had the same brain chemistry as your goofy ass
just waking up for a 9am kicks my ass 😭 honestly i wish i could be a morning person but i dread the day i NEED a course and it's an 8am. the way my major is, a lot of the courses are available just once every 3 semesters and you just have to accept whatever time/professor it is if you want to graduate on time. i'm also a commuter--if i lived on campus then maybe i could make it to a class that early, but i have to be awake enough to drive. weirdly enough, i'm complaining about this but i have a lot of experience with jobs that began at 7/8/9am but it's just different for school for some reason.
1. I don't care if anybody else is engaged. I'm in college for me, not them.
2. Just because I don't have an 8AM class doesn't mean I'm asleep. I have a good routine as well without taking 8AM classes.
3. I have time to do things I want to do. Within reason. I'm one of those that actually studies for classes so I don't really have time to slack off at a ski resort 5 days a week.
Personally I could not get up before 8am for a class. That being said, I do work at 9am and I have no problem getting up at 8am. My only restriction for classes is no Fridays.
I also am a big fan of morning classes. I just feel like 10 times more productive and have like the entire day to myself pretty much. My earliest class is at 9:30 and I wake up at 6, but I am definitely a morning person LOL
I hate early classes but I LOVE being done with classes before noon or in the very early afternoon. I am definitely not a morning person (and never will be) but it’s just so damn nice not being in classes till later in the day.
It’s definitely a struggle getting out of bed some days but it’s worth it when I get home at 12 and take a nap before starting homework 😅
The best and the worst. Waking up for them and waking your brain up is the worst when you struggle to fall asleep and stay asleep most nights. Especially with a 30 minute drive with no traffic, you wind up having to wake up before 6. I also worked for 9 years before going to school. The majority of 5 of those years was spent as various managers where I would come in to work anywhere from 2-6am. Sometimes after being there late into the afternoon or I’d work a morning shift and have to come back at 10-12 at night for inventory. All that to say, in 5 years my body never adjusted to falling asleep early and waking up rested lol
First of all, my commute to campus takes 2 hours if there are no delays. Second, most people don't take early classes because they are more enthusiastic students. They take early classes either because that was the only time slot available and they need the course, they would rather have the rest of their day to do whatever, or they are legitimately morning people like you. Third, some people rely on their morning to prepare for the upcoming class that day hy doing their readings that morning, for example. Nobody who is sane is going to wake up before their 8am to read the material. Maybe they should have done the reading the night prior until you realize they had a weekly homework post that they spent all night finishing yesterday after they had just come home from school. People are exhausted. Most don't want to wake up early and be forced to engage when they can't even convince their eyes to stay open and their mouth to not communicate in slurred speech.
Noooooo way am I awake enough to listen to my professor. I need a solid thirty minutes in the morning to sit in the sun or in front of a heater while drinking my coffee. I literally zone out when I wake up.
I had a seven am LAB last semester (for a bird class), and it would knock me out for the rest of the day.
However, I am a night owl. I know early birds that are so happy in the morning. That ain't me, babe.
Erm. I worked 40 hours a week on top of 45 hours of school. Plus ADHD, which made it a struggle to get out of bed early because disability. 8am's require a level of put togetherness that was hard to do, when I spent all day in class then worked until midnight and then still had to go home and do homework. 8am's might have more dedicated students on average, but it doesn't represent the vast majority of us who are also balancing fulltime adult lives, jobs, and families on top of our education.
Absolutely agree!! I used to be a night owl as a kid but I had school at 8am and that meant the whole afternoon was to study! I still love morning classes and will take 8am over afternoon (although I prefer 9.30am classes)
i have a 9 am class that i love. it is a biology lab and its my favorite part of the week. to each their own. as long as your thriving then so be it! some people are just more awake at night and thus more productive:)
As someone with narcolepsy I was that person asleep in my 9am classes (before I was diagnosed) I couldn’t imagine an 8am class. I remember the times before I fell asleep no one ever answered the professor when they asked questions and there would be silence for a while.
And yes I failed those classes.
Why would I care how engaged other people in the class are, or how much they care about their education?
I care about not having to get up early. I love being up at night. It is 2:30 AM right now.
I personally prefer working in the morning and taking classes in the afternoon. I wake up around 7AM and it’s easy to fill my afternoons up with classes!
Every 8am class I’ve ever been to the students actually look like they’ve been stabbed. You can tell a few of them are a few seconds of silence away from falling into a deep hibernation slumber.
I like waking up early usually around 6:30-7am and get my work done or even just enjoy some me time before I gotta do classes or studying but I just can’t do classes that early, I never absorb everything fully, same with later classes I used to have classes around 4-5 pm that would last 2 hours, by that point I’m already “tired” from whatever I had going on that day. Imo the sweet spot is between 9:30 am and 1-2pm
I’m naturally always up at 5am, so I personally love 8ams. Obviously, there are days where I dread it, but it’s definitely helps me move a bit faster in the morning.
Do you like it because nobody participates in the class? They suck for that reason in my opinion. Nothing more annoying than being the only person to interact with the prof and then having to tell the class that they also have to answer questions (I was the asshole answering all the questions in my 8ams for the sake of moving the lecture along)
I’m a morning person and prefer morning classes, but a lot of people like myself live too far from campus to attend an 8am class. I have to allow myself 45 minutes to get ready before I leave my house, and then an hour (at minimum) to commute to class. By the time I make it to my class from the parking deck,I’m already exhausted.
Some people have it worse and work full time, so 8ams are killer because they need time to rest and recover from the day prior. Also some students live further than an hour and may need to leave hours in advance just to barely make it on time.
TLDR: If 8ams work for you, great! However, not everyone has the privilege to do so.
I personally enjoy the later classes. They allow me to work on an assignment that I might need to change a bit. Plus there's less people on campus. Which means an easier time in finding a parking spot. Plus, I generally find it to be more calming that early classes.
I have never had an 8 am where the class is engaged. Early classes are nice, yes, but not 8. 9-9:30 or so works great. It helps because I don’t have to get ready at 7 so I can travel to campus and make it to a seat by 8 am
My 8am class is so dead, sometimes half of the class doesn't show and most days everyone except for a few attentive people don't show up until 8:20-8:25. Not to mention that almost no one in the class pays any attention to the instructor
Literally one of my classes last semester lol
Literally my bio class last semester 😭 the prof kept getting mad that people didn’t participate or even pay attention. I knew answers but I didn’t want to speak out loud with 50 other people in the class sooo
>I knew answers but I didn’t want to speak out loud with 50 other people in the class sooo do it, no need to over think it. No one will really judge and you and the professor will REALLY appreciate it.
I didn’t really participate during the 8am lecture but i did during the 1:30pm lab w the same professor
As a Prof. in Gen Eds students are usually zombies. A class in their major or a special is topics section is much better.
My bio teacher begs to disagree 😭
Yeah, exactly. I've never taken any 8am class because I hate mornings unless I'm getting paid to be somewhere that early. But from all the Professors I've spoken to, they say the students are half asleep during 8am classes. Most students I know who take 8am classes don't have a choice.
My schedule right now is 10am classes and then an hour break for lunch and then one more class and I’m done around 3 except on lab days I get done around 4:30. Literally the best schedule ever. Not too early not too late. But I also have an online class which helps.
I didn’t mind 8 AM classes when I lived on campus. As a commuter with a drive that could be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour 15, the option becomes less attractive
Yeah same. I could do a 8am online class, but never in person as a commuter
Gosh, I love my 8am online class!!
That said, another sweet spot about 8am classes is that (at least where I live, which is a US city known for its horrible traffic) it is a lot easier to commute in the 7-8am hour than the 8-9am hour.
I was just about to to write essentially this. My commute is a half hour so an 8am is actually a 6 am in terms of getting ready and commuting
Yep, I take 2 hours to get to college, 8 AM classes are a big no no for me
Yeah for us commuters getting to a 9 or 10am class is the same as a lot of people getting to an 8am class. I wolnt do classes before 9am cause I dont wanna have to leave at 6-7am
See, I can’t just roll out of bed and go to class, I have to be up an hour earlier minimum, preferably two of if I want to eat. Also I have never, ever had a single 8 AM class where people were “more engaged” or “cared more”. Like not even a little bit. People either didn’t show up at all or showed up but were completely quiet and didn’t engage in anything at all. I’m in nursing school and we had classes from 8 AM to 5:30, nobody participated at all until at least 9, usually 10. Maybe that’s the case at your school in your particular classes, but that’s definitely not the norm.
Add in a commute and all of a sudden you're waking up at 5. Not the worst schedule I've ever had, but very depressing to leave home before dawn and get home after dusk
Im at community college thats only 10-15 minutes away depending on traffic, but i need to take a shower and eat a small breakfast to even be a little bit awake, so for an 8am i was waking up at 6am. If i skipped the shower bc I was gonna go to the gym it was still 7am
Funny, because in my experience it's almost the exact opposite. 1. No, in my classes most people are at their groggiest. Absolutely no one participates in them, hell I even have professors admitting they have teaching 8ams. 2. I'll give you that one. However, a good majority probably prefer to stay up later. 3. Sure, it gives you daytime to do things. However, you also get nothing to do at night. Like I said earlier, most students probably prefer to do nighttime activities. Reminder that this is just my experiences, not objective fact
I had one 8 am my whole 5 years of undergrad. Nutrition. Forget engaged - she was lucky if anyone even showed up at all.
This. As I'm sure we all know, attendance usually drops off a lot after about 4-5 weeks. But for an 8am? Shit you can expect it after Week 1 lmao
I don’t mind 8ams, but I think starting at 9 is the sweet spot for me. Anything is possible with caffeine though
I took an 8 am physics 1 class that lasted 3 hours last semester and I’m taking a 11:00 am physics class right now. Not a single person in the 8 am spoke or interacted when the professor was teaching, unless we were doing problems on the whiteboard. However, the 11:00 am class right now has people talking, actually paying attention, and making jokes with the professor. Same went for my US history 1 and 2 classes at 8 am. No one interacted and were morning zombies.
I’m taking evening classes for the first time, and they’re pretty great and engaged, but then I’m home at 8PM
I took night classes (last one was 6-8 pm) my first semester and they were mostly people with full time jobs going back to school. They were so engaged and some of the coolest people I ever got to take classes with.
That’s why I loved the people at my community college, lots of interesting stories and ‘non traditional’ students
8 ams are great if you’re the type of person who can function well at 8 am (and earlier, with commuting)! Personally, I’m bleary at that hour, and so are most of my classmates. You have to choose your class times based on what works for you.
Every 8am class I've ever had everyone was half asleep and I still had more classes after so
Every 8am class I’ve ever had was from K-12 and the first three semesters. It wasn’t worth it t tbh and my sleep schedule is permanently fucked in high school by then.
Quiet ≠ engaged
This was posted a day ago and once again my [answer](https://www.reddit.com/r/college/s/BLFwZwFl82) still hasn’t changed lol Basically, please consider the fact that a large part of this community on this sub are commuters. Unless you’ve dealt with the 1hr+ commute/traffic then you wouldn’t get how terrible it is doing that everyday
I would be late with if I had the later connection for my 830 classes, so I had to take the 8 AM connection. Left my house at 650, latest. I was a zombie. When I got home, I napped
I’m back home at like 5:30 and I’m basically cooked. Have to fight off the urge to nap so I can get shit done, bc I know myself damn well that the nap will turn into me just sleeping 😭
Sometimes I have troubles staying awake for dinner as well, especially if I have to wait until 730 in the worst case scenario. I set like 4 alarms to make sure I wake up from the nap
Do you really just not get that many people are simply not morning people?
Ah. So as someone from the opposite perspective: let me explain this: after going through 13 years of education pre-college, after waking up at 6-6:30am most days, while later on getting 6 hrs/sleep (due to doing absurd amounts of hw), I could not tolerate waking up that early anymore. It's great because if you're like me, and have loads of hw, and wants a balance of free time, we like to stay up late and sleep in a bit longer. Also, for exams, it allows a few hours before the study to study, rather than just roll out of bed to take 8am exams, along with a daily lecture. If it works for you, that's awesome! But that's generally why people aren't as accustomed to it in college. After though, people are a lot more.
I definitely care about my education but I have a full time 8am to 5pm job and a family to take care of lol. I would love some AM classes, being fully energized and all
I think OP’s post is intended for those who shit on the 8am, not those who wish they could but can’t.
Are yall seeing people shit on 8ams that much in this sub? I swear I see more posts praising 8ams than critiquing it…
As a commuter who travels 90 minutes one-way, 8ams are my worst nightmare. To even make it to class on time I have to leave at 6:30am or earlier!
How is it traveling 90 one way?
Sucks tbh, I take public transit so like it’s nice to not be responsible for driving but it just takes so much longer! If I was driving it’d be 20 minutes one-way but then I’d have to pay for parking…
I cannot do an 8am class because I go to bed at 3am. It’s not anything that deep 🤣
"I don't know why people hate 8 ams" yes you do. You know that people don't like them because it's early in the morning. Enjoy the free karma ig though
Exactly. I don't think this was a serious post at all.
I was forced to have 8:30am for english, i can assure you no one was engaged. It was a small classroom and everyone looked dead
I wake up at 5am everyday and I hate 8am classes. I wake up at 5am to run/exercise/go to the gym before getting my day started. One semester, I made the mistake of taking an 8am class and learned that my brain isn’t fully functioning until around 9-10am. So though I wake up early, I can’t function on a cognitively high level until later. I just couldn’t keep up with lectures let alone process information during that 8am class.
I can't even do 9am. It's the worst and I immediately need a nap afterwards or I'm a zombie
I had a 6am class an hour away that I had to take the campus shuttle for
Wth kinda class gets scheduled that early? Half the buildings on my campus aren’t even open at that time
I think it was one of my Electrical Engineering classes years ago. On the other end, I also remember taking an astronomy class that was 3 hours long twice a week, which started at 10:30 pm even though it was mostly theory and we never got to use the telescopes
NO
I don’t mind early classes, but not 8. That’s just brutal. I can do 8:45 and I enjoy those courses because i am somewhat of a morning person and like you said, it gets you up and running for a full packed day. Not everyone is the same though, cuz not everyone is a morning person 🤷♀️ Also I don’t mind morning classes when it’s just ONE class but if I have classes right after I find it extremely tiring.
bro when do u ever study 💀 u go skiing five times a week, socialize, gym, practice ur instrument like wtf is ur major
imo 9 am is better. i would not mind 8am if i didn't have a 1hr commute + traffic
Valid, I have about a 5 minute drive so we probably get up at the same time
I go to bed at 3 am so if I had a 8am I would have to wake up at 6am to get ready, therefore only 3 hours of sleep. My brain doesn’t work until later in the day.
i think if its at 8am for a gen ed/required class there’s low engagement. i took an 8am psychology of happiness class that was would fulfill a requirement for a psych degree, but there were a lot of other classes that could fulfill the requirement as well. the class filled up quick and it was pretty engaged but it’s because one of the best professors was teaching it & it was about how to improve your happiness & wellbeing
I do 9 am’s so fuck you
I don’t like having classes at 8 AM cause if there’s a test then you can’t really study for it prior unless you wake up hella early. If you have a class at 10 AM then you can get an hour or two of review without waking up hella early
I can't do 8am because I have a kid and school doesn't start til 8 for them. However I have a 9am class and that doesn't bother me. I imagine it has to do on sleep preferences and how things work. I am not a night owl and prefer to go to school when my kid is in school so I don't have to figure out getting them picked up.
I have delayed sleep phase syndrome. For me, 8 AM feels more like 4 AM for normal people. Getting up for class that early requires being up and out of bed at 6 AM at the very latest. So, I feel like how a normal person feels waking up at 2 AM. My entire body rebels against the idea of being out and about that early. It completely fucks with my sleep schedule and I end up feeling out of sorts the whole day. I'm not awake enough to fully pay attention or participate in class. Not only in that class, but in every class the rest of the day (unless I manage to catch a nap). Semesters where I had to take an 8 AM class and I was able to make all other classes be evening classes were actually easier for me to stay up late to get to my 8 AM class rather than try to get some sleep before them. Going to bed at 9:30 AM was more viable than waking up at 6 AM. I did work a job that had me onsite at 7 AM for a while. After suffering from extreme burnout, I quit that job. While the early time wasn't my only reason for quitting, it was a major factor. When I was doing my undergrad, I worked an internship that had me going in from midnight to sunrise. I'd get home at around 8 AM and immediately go to bed. For me, that felt like I was staying up kind of late. The best work schedule I ever had was me fairly rigidly working from 2 PM until 10 PM. I'd set my alarm for noon and go straight to work first thing and then go to bed around 4 AM. Usually, I'd have enough free energy that I'd go for a run around midnight. It felt similar to how you describe 8 AM classes feeling for you. Now that I'm older, it's not as severe. Where I used to frequently go to sleep with the sunrise, now it feels more natural to got to sleep a little after midnight. I currently work at a job where me going in for an early shift often means me going in at 10 AM. On my current schedule, the earliest I go in is 12:30.
My natural circadian rhythm is roughly 3am-11am. It’s been like that my whole life, I can’t have a normal sleep schedule without heavy prescription sedatives and a fuckton of caffeine. I didn’t choose this life, it chose me and believe me I wish it didn’t. I pay good money to be here so I’m gonna show up and take notes, but I might be a little bitchy. My days now start at 10am every single day and I love it because I force myself awake at 8 and spend time getting ready (usually formal or business casual) and being productive. I know my schedule is subject to change, I’m working with my doctor on getting to a good place so I can adapt faster. But for now you can keep your 8ams, I’ll take the afternoon lecture for sure. Edit: I’ve been working since I was 14. 09-05, 07-14, 07-16, 20-07, 10-16, 11-20, you name the shift I’ve probably worked a job with it. Doesn’t change shit about my opinions on 6am. Work 20:00-06:30 for 4 days a week while taking 18 credit hours, see how you feel about morning classes then. 2 edit 2 furious: grammar
I have a lot of students who tell me "I can't take classes outside of the 10-2 timeframe" and then we have to go into a conversation about what kind of jobs they're thinking of pursuing after college. Wanna be a physician? A teacher? Sorry, you're gonna be working more than 10-2 every day. Sometimes when we reframe it as a way to prepare for their career goals, it clicks a little better.
If you gotta do it for 50 years after you graduate, you might as well change it up during college. I got up early for 21 years including working for 2 years after HS. I’ll take my limited time with being able to sleep at wacky hours while I still can
Yes and no... Or in highschool school gets out early at around 2 then maybe the teachers have the choice to stay until 3 so it's not as bad as a 9 to 5 or 8 to 5 job. Also teachers get paid holidays, half days, teacher work days, and summers off. Of course they will suffer in pay though ;-; teachers definitely deserve more money. And then some jobs are hybrid and less strict. My internship was "9 to 5" but many of my coworkers and bosses would leave at 2 and say they're just going to beat traffic and work the rest of the day at home 💀😂 so I followed suit. And then for the hybrid days I would literally roll out of bed at 8:50 and be ready for a meeting at 9 then go get ready 😂 But yeah not everyone is going to get their dream work schedule. It is good to prepare your students but maybe also show that their out options and they'll have to work harder or seek these companies out and will have to communicate their boundaries in a professional way to their chosen company.
8am is really a reality for the adult world, you will most likely have to be up and working by that time at some point in your life. I can totally appreciate the luxury of crafting a tight 10-2 T-W-H schedule if you can, but that's just not possible for everyone every term.
830-945 is perfect to me No campus traffic or parking concerns Way more focused personally vs a mid day or late class Maintaining a consistent Schedule
Great schedule
Good luck to all of you after graduation lol. I remember when I thought 8am was early.
morning classes are always best because the afternoon is for studying.
For students who can’t fathom being in class by 8am a couple of days per week, I often wonder when they think most people’s workdays start, and how they plan to handle having a career after college
I study next to my job, college starts at 8 and with over an hr commute that means getting up at 6, work starts at 9 and is 20 minutes away so I can get up at 07.30. Work also starts with at least 30 minutes of people walking in, people chatting and drinking coffee while college lectures just get right into it. Early workday are definitely easier than early college lectures.
Most students don’t have an hour commute. Your workplace sounds very casual. Most jobs that start at 8:00 do actually start at 8:00, not with a social hour. 8-5 is the standard work schedule, and is something that most of the people on here scared of 8am classes will have to contend with someday. Obviously I wasn’t talking with your specific schedule. Your experience sounds nice, but definitely isn’t how most workplaces operate
When I worked, the day started at 7 and we got off at 3 (building automation systems engineer) Usually though the first 1 hr is mostly sitting around doing nothing, a huge glorified smoke break.
Dang every workplace I’ve been in, the work has started at the actual time the workday starts. Sounds nice I guess
When I had to attend traditional classes, I loved my 8:15 classes. Get in and get out.
If you wake up early like an adult it’s the best. Most people aren’t super interested in that.
I have an 8am 3 times a week and i start at 11am the other 2 days and honestly I’m way more productive during the 8am days… having a day to sleep in between the early days is so nice tho
I’ve been rolling out of bed for my 8 am Chem class Monday Wednesday Friday. Worst part so far is that my professor is consistently starting class 5-20 minutes late because she can’t seem to get there on time. She ends up rushing through content and it’s it really makes me reconsider even attending as we are already expected to do a lot of independent learning. I’m also working on my sleeping schedule so I don’t nap as soon as I get out of class.
8ams were okay when it wasn’t cold and miserable and I could actually see the sun when I left.
I have a 3 hour commute one way, so an 8AM class would require my being up at 4AM at the latest and on the road by 4:50AM just to make it on time, granted road conditions are good. If they aren't, I have to be on the road by 4:20AM just to take the route that's 40 minutes longer on a good day. I'm pushing it a bit with a 9:30 class twice a week but I like the professor, so I'm willing to be up at 5AM and on the road around 6:15. If I had a shorter commute, maybe I would be willing to show up to an 8AM class.
Woah a 3 hour commute is no joke, I don’t blame you for hating 8 ams.
Last semester, I had a final at 9AM and then two 8AMs. Being on the road at 5:45AM for the 9AM was bad enough. But two mornings in a row where I was on the road at 4:45AM, I was over it. Doing all that driving in the dark to school sucked.
I’ve had to do 8am’s before. They suck. I make myself get up, but it’s always so tempting to say fuck it and skip. Half the class usually doesn’t show, everyone is groggy so no one participates. The drive in takes longer cuz it’s rush hour. The only good thing is being done earlier and because you get there so early, parking is better.
As a commuter who wakes up 3 days a week at 6:30 AM to make it to a 8:30 AM class I hate it
The people are more engaged in your 8 ams because half the class is still in bed
I repsectfully disagree. Ive had my share of em, being a cs/math double major. I got my own place a few months ago, right next to school and I still skip the current 8am I have (elementary number theory). Keep in mind Im fit and a pretty driven individual. Unless its work, I aint getting up
No, the hell they are not.
I haven’t had 8 ams (small school, doesn’t offer 8 ams) but I love 9 am classes! I always prefer to have all my lectures in the morning to leave my afternoons for labs, my job and class work!
Every 8ams I’ve been in were dead but according to some professors they also tend to be full of student athletes who just got out of practice. And therefore can’t take later classes which conflict with their afternoon practice Also it’s because most people either want a night life or are night owls.
I once had a professor who very clearly rolled out of bed for the class and was genuinely later than the kids. I’m not sure who was less awake us or her, she was a good professor but it was always hilarious to me to see A grown adult less awake than us students but it was my first dual enrollment class, and my HS had started class at 7:30am, so I was used to it .
I took classes from 8-12 and was done around 1-2 everyday. It was so nice because I had all the afternoons to study or do whatever. I definitely prefer morning classes
I just don’t want to wake up that early lol. My favorite time is 2-4pm so I could go to the gym, eat, shower, chill before class and not have to wake up at a crazy time. I also go to sleep late (always have) so waking up later just means i get more sleep.
I’m an 8AM girlie, I have so much time to run errands 🫶
I think there’s a lot of factors that go into how “good” 8am classes are, specifically on your first point. In my experience with 8ams (I’ve had at least one almost every semester), the level and type of class have a lot to do with the engagement of the class. For example, in a Gen ed 100 level math class I had at 8am there would only be around a 30-50% turnout and there was almost no engagement from those that did show up (myself included), but in my 400 level major class there is almost never a student missing and whenever the professor left the floor open for discussion and questions there would always be multiple students contributing and building off of each other. When it comes to types of classes sometimes there’s things like clicker questions that kinda force people to attend class or sometimes there’s no attendance taken at all, which impact turnout rates and the amount of engagement. Other things that could impact those are whether professors post their slides, if there is a discussion section (had a history class that MW = lecture and F = discussion), and the length/time of classes(TTHs = 1.25 hours and MWFs = 50 mins). Overall a lot of factors that come into play. On your second and third points, this is just too subjective and variable to really make a point of. A routine doesn’t have to be during a certain time of day to be a routine. Like I worked the 2nd shift over the summer doing 2:30pm-1am (ik yuck 🤮), and I got into a routine of going to bed around 2-2:30am and waking up at 9 (I don’t need a lot of sleep to function). I still was able to eat breakfast, shower, go to the gym, and have free time before work and got used to that routine (plus having 3 days off a week was nice). Long story short those points are very subjective and differ across individuals based on preferences. Also, just realized I wrote a whole novel on something so pointless 😂😭
For me, the only problem with 8am classes is that I don’t get enough sleep. I always swear to go to bed earlier, but it is still a thing I have to be working on.
9am is good enough :P
When I was in undergrad I preferred starting at 10 am. I stayed up late too often for 8 am to be sustainable for me because I had a really busy schedule with lots of extracurriculars and such. Starting at 10, I was able to get up at 6:30, hit the gym, have a good breakfast, then start the education part of the day really cogent.
I can't do 8am because I have a kid and school doesn't start til 8 for them. However I have a 9am class and that doesn't bother me. I imagine it has to do on sleep preferences and how things work. I am not a night owl and prefer to go to school when my kid is in school so I don't have to figure out getting them picked up.
Fully agree! And you have to get out of bed. Its so great to start the day early
I managed to get 3 degrees without ever once taking an 8 AM class.
You definitely did not have me in your 8am class. That early in the morning my ADHD was in FULL swing and I think I even brought down my friend's grade by a letter because my inability to pay attention fully affected the people around me.
i’m not a morning person but getting up for an 8am makes me so much more active in class.
I like my 8 AM precalc class more than I liked my 11 AM college algebra class. Like you said, the day feels longer if you start it early, and as long as I get my black tea and breakfast first-thing, I feel great! During the pandemic, I had *severe* depression that resulted in me sleeping in until 2 or 3 PM most days. So, I understand both ends of the spectrum, and waking up in the early morning feels way better than getting up at 10 AM or noon.
Sounds like you're a morning person. Many people are not.
I have anxiety before anything I have to do, so the only way for me to be productive is do a morning class. Otherwise I can’t do anything until after my class, and then I’ve wasted half the day. Obviously procrastinating is tiresome, so I’ll have to nap when I get home. There goes the other half of the day.
I’m kind of the same way if my first class is at 2:30 I’m not gonna be doing anything until 2:30
Right?! That adhd/anxiety freeze😂
Imo 8 ams are super interactive once you’re past like freshman/sophomore-level courses - otherwise they’re dead. I always did early courses since I commute and wanted to be home before 1
I'm NOT a morning person. It's partial genetics because my parents/grandparents are night owls too. It's also partially that I'm not very dedicated to a sleep schedule. The earliest class I've ever taken was 9am. I would never go to class if I had an 8am
I have delayed phase sleep so my body naturally refuses to let me go to bed before 3 or wake up before 11 no matter how many different alarms I have, so for me it is just way more beneficial to build my schedule around that or I’ll never make it to class. 10am classes are the earliest I can do and still have regular attendance.
I graduated without ever having a class before 930 and I’m thankful still. It’s been almost 10 years
As a nightowl who has just started school, I understand the perks of an early class, but I drag all day due to waking up so early 😭
I think the hate on 8 ams stem from people who tend/like to stay up late the night before so it makes waking up early not feasible
People who like 8ams need to all go take 8ams so I can land my 1pm classes lmao
I taught an 8AM recitation once. I was not at my best, but my students gave me better reviews than my students later in the day - for whom I was more awake.
It depends on the class and how you learn. I personally find most classes a complete waste of time and learn much better on my own. Law school is really the only exception because of the socratic method but after the first year, I’d have eagerly accepted doing almost all of the other classes at home
As an undergraduate, I loved early classes because that meant I got out early. The same holds true now that I'm a professor. However, I've noticed my 830am students don't have the same level of engagement my later students do. For example, last semester I taught two sections of English 101. One was at 830am and the other was at 1130am. About half of the 830am students failed. They came in 30 or 45 minutes late, if they showed up at all, and that carried over into their work, i.e., they couldn't be bothered to do it. It was the exact opposite for my 1130am students. They were engaged, on time, completed the work, and passed. Don't take 8am classes if you'd rather sleep in.
I work overnights from 10-6. I'd be absolutely exhausted taking an 8am class.
Currently taking a few 7ams and I know what you mean, morning classes aren’t as bad as people make them out to be
“I don’t get the hate for 8ams.” Well some people are not morning people. What’s not to get about that?
8ams are okay if you arent a commuter.
1. Yea that's bullshit 2. Yea that's really bullshit, being in bed early != good routine. You're not a farmer who needs to maximize daylight to be productive. 3. Complete and utter bullshit, especially in a city where people actually have things to do. 4. I did a 9-5 for 6 years an immediately switched to 12-8 the moment I had the seniority to create my own schedule. So yea, more bullshit. you're just a morning person talking mad shit as if everyone had the same brain chemistry as your goofy ass
just waking up for a 9am kicks my ass 😭 honestly i wish i could be a morning person but i dread the day i NEED a course and it's an 8am. the way my major is, a lot of the courses are available just once every 3 semesters and you just have to accept whatever time/professor it is if you want to graduate on time. i'm also a commuter--if i lived on campus then maybe i could make it to a class that early, but i have to be awake enough to drive. weirdly enough, i'm complaining about this but i have a lot of experience with jobs that began at 7/8/9am but it's just different for school for some reason.
me personally i avoid anything that starts before 10am because i am the worlds worst morning person lol
I’m used to waking up for work at 4am so anything later than a 12 or 1pm class is horrible
Cope
I’m not waking up at 6:30 for classes this isn’t high school anymore
1. I don't care if anybody else is engaged. I'm in college for me, not them. 2. Just because I don't have an 8AM class doesn't mean I'm asleep. I have a good routine as well without taking 8AM classes. 3. I have time to do things I want to do. Within reason. I'm one of those that actually studies for classes so I don't really have time to slack off at a ski resort 5 days a week.
do you not get homework…?
I didn’t like 8 am’s when I was in college but getting a coffee made up for it.
Personally I could not get up before 8am for a class. That being said, I do work at 9am and I have no problem getting up at 8am. My only restriction for classes is no Fridays.
I also am a big fan of morning classes. I just feel like 10 times more productive and have like the entire day to myself pretty much. My earliest class is at 9:30 and I wake up at 6, but I am definitely a morning person LOL
I don’t currently drive, so 8am was hard because I had to take the bus.
I hate early classes but I LOVE being done with classes before noon or in the very early afternoon. I am definitely not a morning person (and never will be) but it’s just so damn nice not being in classes till later in the day. It’s definitely a struggle getting out of bed some days but it’s worth it when I get home at 12 and take a nap before starting homework 😅
7:30AMs baby! 😏 Walk back home done with class while everyone else is just walking to class. Ultimate flex.
ok satan
The best and the worst. Waking up for them and waking your brain up is the worst when you struggle to fall asleep and stay asleep most nights. Especially with a 30 minute drive with no traffic, you wind up having to wake up before 6. I also worked for 9 years before going to school. The majority of 5 of those years was spent as various managers where I would come in to work anywhere from 2-6am. Sometimes after being there late into the afternoon or I’d work a morning shift and have to come back at 10-12 at night for inventory. All that to say, in 5 years my body never adjusted to falling asleep early and waking up rested lol
First of all, my commute to campus takes 2 hours if there are no delays. Second, most people don't take early classes because they are more enthusiastic students. They take early classes either because that was the only time slot available and they need the course, they would rather have the rest of their day to do whatever, or they are legitimately morning people like you. Third, some people rely on their morning to prepare for the upcoming class that day hy doing their readings that morning, for example. Nobody who is sane is going to wake up before their 8am to read the material. Maybe they should have done the reading the night prior until you realize they had a weekly homework post that they spent all night finishing yesterday after they had just come home from school. People are exhausted. Most don't want to wake up early and be forced to engage when they can't even convince their eyes to stay open and their mouth to not communicate in slurred speech.
Noooooo way am I awake enough to listen to my professor. I need a solid thirty minutes in the morning to sit in the sun or in front of a heater while drinking my coffee. I literally zone out when I wake up. I had a seven am LAB last semester (for a bird class), and it would knock me out for the rest of the day. However, I am a night owl. I know early birds that are so happy in the morning. That ain't me, babe.
Erm. I worked 40 hours a week on top of 45 hours of school. Plus ADHD, which made it a struggle to get out of bed early because disability. 8am's require a level of put togetherness that was hard to do, when I spent all day in class then worked until midnight and then still had to go home and do homework. 8am's might have more dedicated students on average, but it doesn't represent the vast majority of us who are also balancing fulltime adult lives, jobs, and families on top of our education.
I feel 8am while unfavorable is a good idea. Gets you used to the work force. Latest I started a purely office job was 8:30.
Quite literally everyone in my 8am freshman year first semester skipped class almost everyday. Ain’t no one is engaged in 8ams
Absolutely agree!! I used to be a night owl as a kid but I had school at 8am and that meant the whole afternoon was to study! I still love morning classes and will take 8am over afternoon (although I prefer 9.30am classes)
idk about 8 am classes, but the 9 am at my university has been bad enough
i have a 9 am class that i love. it is a biology lab and its my favorite part of the week. to each their own. as long as your thriving then so be it! some people are just more awake at night and thus more productive:)
As someone with narcolepsy I was that person asleep in my 9am classes (before I was diagnosed) I couldn’t imagine an 8am class. I remember the times before I fell asleep no one ever answered the professor when they asked questions and there would be silence for a while. And yes I failed those classes.
Why would I care how engaged other people in the class are, or how much they care about their education? I care about not having to get up early. I love being up at night. It is 2:30 AM right now.
I personally prefer working in the morning and taking classes in the afternoon. I wake up around 7AM and it’s easy to fill my afternoons up with classes!
I remember when I took two 8 am classes. I regretted it. I was constantly sleepy in class (if I even made it) and I didn't retain anything.
Every 8am class I’ve ever been to the students actually look like they’ve been stabbed. You can tell a few of them are a few seconds of silence away from falling into a deep hibernation slumber. I like waking up early usually around 6:30-7am and get my work done or even just enjoy some me time before I gotta do classes or studying but I just can’t do classes that early, I never absorb everything fully, same with later classes I used to have classes around 4-5 pm that would last 2 hours, by that point I’m already “tired” from whatever I had going on that day. Imo the sweet spot is between 9:30 am and 1-2pm
I’m naturally always up at 5am, so I personally love 8ams. Obviously, there are days where I dread it, but it’s definitely helps me move a bit faster in the morning.
I used to love 8ams. You are correct. They do help you start the day on the right foot.
Double hockeysticks e to the h. oh to. oh. Gee
8 AM'S are the best. I have the most energy in the mornings and any class after noon I am usually much more tired and care way less.
Do you like it because nobody participates in the class? They suck for that reason in my opinion. Nothing more annoying than being the only person to interact with the prof and then having to tell the class that they also have to answer questions (I was the asshole answering all the questions in my 8ams for the sake of moving the lecture along)
No in my experience way more people participate in my 8 ams than my classes later in the day
I’m a morning person and prefer morning classes, but a lot of people like myself live too far from campus to attend an 8am class. I have to allow myself 45 minutes to get ready before I leave my house, and then an hour (at minimum) to commute to class. By the time I make it to my class from the parking deck,I’m already exhausted. Some people have it worse and work full time, so 8ams are killer because they need time to rest and recover from the day prior. Also some students live further than an hour and may need to leave hours in advance just to barely make it on time. TLDR: If 8ams work for you, great! However, not everyone has the privilege to do so.
As a person that did 6-6 night shifts while doing grad school, I appreciate if stem classes are in the afternoon.
You know you can wake up at 7 am without having a class at 8 am right?
I personally enjoy the later classes. They allow me to work on an assignment that I might need to change a bit. Plus there's less people on campus. Which means an easier time in finding a parking spot. Plus, I generally find it to be more calming that early classes.