Academic Regulations & Procedures

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Credit Unit

A Carleton College course normally consists of 10 weeks of instruction and one week of exams. A standard course at Carleton earns 6 Carleton credits. Carleton requires 210 credits for graduation. Physical Education activity courses and the completion of a Writing Portfolio, although requirements for the degree, typically carry no additional credit.

Summary of the policy.
Briefly, a 6-credit Carleton class corresponds to at least 125 total hours of student work, counting both direct instruction and work done outside of class. (That is, a standard credit corresponds to at least 21 hours of student work.) While these expectations are stated as minima and not as maxima, faculty should carefully consider their expectations in the context of a student’s standard 18-credit course load. 

To achieve the expected 125+ total hours of student work, courses are expected to meet for all of their scheduled sessions; if an individual class meeting must be cancelled, a make-up session or another alternative activity with commensurate student work is to be held. Similarly, instructors are expected to use their scheduled finals period slot for a final exam, presentation, or similar event, or to ask students to do an equivalent amount of work through a different assignment during the finals period. 

Expectations for work in standard 6-credit classes.
Federal policy defines a “semester credit hour” as corresponding to a reasonable approximation of (i) a minimum of 50 minutes of classroom or other direct faculty instruction per week (called an “hour of instructional time” using the commonly accepted Carnegie unit) and (ii) a minimum of two hours of out-of-class student work per week, for each of 15 weeks. Based on the conversion of Carleton credits to semester hours, under this definition a standard 6-credit Carleton course requires a total of at least 125 hours of student work in the term, including both direct instruction and out-of-class work.

This total implies that a standard 6-credit course normally includes an average of at least four hours of direct instruction per week. Typically, 200–210 minutes of direct instruction comes from the standard two or three class weekly meetings (plus the 150-minute final exam period); the remaining direct instruction comes in other forms of required and scheduled academic engagement, including but not limited to: laboratory or studio work; music lessons; scheduled viewing or listening to various media outside of class (e.g., film screenings and recorded lectures); talks, concerts, and other events on or off campus; meetings with other instructional staff (e.g., the Library, Writing Center, QRC, Language Center, Math/Stats Skills Center, etc.); field trips or CCCE events; office hours or other meetings with the instructor; review sessions; etc. For courses without a published class schedule (e.g., many forms of independent research, comps, music lessons, etc.), specific meeting times are scheduled individually with the instructor.

For each hour devoted to direct instruction, students are typically expected to carry out at least two additional hours of out-of-class work. (Most Carleton classes require more, typically three or more hours of out-of-class work for each hour of direct instruction.) This out-of-class work is inclusive of time spent during Reading Days and the final exam period. Note that the ⅓-to-⅔ ratio is an overall guideline rather than a strict week-by-week requirement for every class; some classes will ask students to complete an equivalent amount of work over a different amount of time. For example, some classes may require relatively more out-of-class work and less direct instruction (e.g., comps or other advanced independent work); others may involve relatively more hours of direct instruction and less out-of-class work (e.g., some arts practice or academic civic engagement courses). Some 6-credit courses include a required laboratory section that bears no separate credit but instead impacts the grade of the course; instructors of these (and other) courses are reminded that their 6-credit course (including the lab) represents only one third of a student’s standard 18-credit load and thus one third of their expected work in that term.

Expectations for courses offered for fewer than 6 credits.
For courses carrying fewer than 6 credits, classroom and out-of-class student work expectations are reduced by the appropriate proportion. For example, typical courses would require the following amount of student work (inclusive of direct instruction and out-of-class work):

(These expectations hold both for term-long courses and for those offered on a different schedule, e.g., first- or second-five-week courses.) As with 6-credit classes, normally every hour of direct instruction would require at least two hours of out-of-class work; for example, a typical 3-credit course would require at least two hours of direct instruction and at least four hours of out-of-class work weekly. The same total-time expectations hold for courses garnering variable credit, such as independent study, reading, or research courses: a 6-credit project corresponds to at least 125 hours of total work per term; a project for a smaller number of credits has its minimum number of hours of work scaled proportionately. Note that these quantities are all minima; the expected amount of student work per credit per week may be higher than the stated minimum, but not lower.

Make-up instruction for cancelled classes.
Carleton expects that classes will meet for all scheduled sessions throughout the term. If, due to illness, weather, or some other rare circumstance, the instructor is not available for a particular class meeting, then the missed direct instruction time is to be made up, either with a qualified substitute instructor during the scheduled session or with some other commensurate activity at a different time.

Carleton expects that all classes will culminate with a final examination during the class’s allocated final exam period, or an alternative final assignment (e.g., project, paper, presentation, or take-home exam) of commensurate scale.

Converting Carleton credits to a semester or quarter credit system.
A standard Carleton course is valued at 6 Carleton credits and is the equivalent of 3.333 semester hours or 5 quarter hours. Laboratory sessions are required elements of some courses and usually meet weekly for four hours, but in some cases students do not earn additional Carleton credits for completing them. Carleton laboratory courses are equivalent to courses at other colleges valued at 5 semester or 8 quarter hours.

Last Revised: February 25, 2026

For: Faculty, Students

Last Reviewed: February 26, 2026

Maintained by: Office of the Provost

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