I’m comparing two graduate programs. One program (UPenn) uses CUs and the course plan includes 5 to 5.5 CUs of course work per semester. The other program (Vanderbilt) uses credit hours and the course plan is 14.5 credit hours (average) of course work per semester.

It’s my understanding that the general estimate of the time commitment per credit hour across colleges is approximately two hours outside of class per each hour in class (that would be 12 hours weekly for a 4 credit hour course)—this is per the “Carnegie Unit” system, and provides a rough estimate, to my understanding.

As for CUs, I’m gathering that there may be some kind of general understanding in academia that 1CU = approximately 8-12 hours of work, inside and outside of class. However, Penn states in their official resources that the conversion rate is 1CU = 4 credit hours. “Effective Spring 2014, one Course Unit should be converted to semester hours at a ratio of 1:4.” https://srfs.upenn.edu/student-records/transcript-key

Applying some back of the envelope math, this would seem to suggest that the weekly time commitment for the UPenn program may be significantly higher than the Vanderbilt program.

Penn: 5-5.5CUs = 20-22 credits = 60-66 hours/week (worst case, assuming that each of Penn’s CUs is actually approximately equivalent to a 4 credit hour course elsewhere, as they themselves seem to suggest)

Vanderbilt: 14.5 credit hours (average) = 43.5 hours/week (average, using the typical “Carnegie Unit” estimate of two hours of outside work per one hour of class time)

Lowest possible estimate for Penn: 5-5.5CUs times 8 hours total work per CU (lowest per general understanding of 8-12 hours per CU) = 40-44 hours/week. That would seem more comparable, but it certainly doesn’t seem like a safe bet as even the general understanding seems to be 8-12 hours weekly per CU. If I was betting based on the information I have here, it would seem reasonable to suspect I’m looking at closer to the 12 hours per CU estimate.

In summary, it seems likely that the time commitment for Penn’s program is significantly more. Is there any veracity to this?

I should note that both of these are intensive, full-time, accelerated graduate nursing programs, so I’m expecting that the time commitment is going to be a lot no matter what—but as I’m very worried about “biting off more than I can chew” here, I am not comfortable just overlooking this. I would really appreciate any guidance. Thank you!

Here are the Plans of Study for each:
Penn: https://www.nursing.upenn.edu/live/files/2239-mpn-plan-of-study
Vanderbilt: https://nursing.vanderbilt.edu/msn/prespecialty/curriculum.php