Agback said:
Unless you study Architecture, Engineering, or Medicine, college will probably put you in class less than twenty hours per week. (When I was a Engineering student, with 37.5 hours of classes per week, plus a need to prep for labs, do assignments etc., I overheard two Arts students complaining with apparent sincerity that their class schedules of 14 hours per week were too heavy.)
I WISH I had time to play RPG's in college. I was a theatre major with Art as my collatoral field (long story) and though I may not have had much time in class, I regularly spent 50 hours+ working on projects.
I now teach Theatre at a university in southern California. From a professorial standpoint, regardless of the field you choose, you should be spending 3 hours outside of class reading, studying, working on projects, etc. for every 1 hour of in-class instruction. So for those students who spent 14 hours in class, that's actually 42 hours of class-work in addition to their class instruction--a 56 hour work week! In an ideal world that's over 11 hours a day working on school stuff.
I can unequivocally say, no Art student ever puts in less than that if they're actually serious about what they're doing. I know that Theatre students don't have a choice because they're involved in rehearsing class projects, participating in plays, doing design work, working in the scene shop etc. (Theatre geeks don't end up joining many frats or sororities, lemme tell ya...)
Your chosen field will directly impact how much time you've got to play. Don't let it get in the way of your school work, though. School should be considered your full-time job, because in today's dog-eat-dog world employers don't have the time to train you. You should know what you're doing when school is done, that's what it's for.
Grow up and get serious, and play when you have time. Just remember why you're there in the first place, and don't end up wasting your money.
--Coreyartus
