My college experience was a bit strange. For my first two years of college, I was at a traditional university, but the last two went something like this: we had terms, not semesters. Each term was five weeks. We went to school Monday through Thursday. On Mondays and Wednesdays, we had one class, and Tuesdays and Thursdays we had another. Each class period was from 8:00 in the morning to 1:00 in the afternoon. Five hours. The only exceptions were labs, which were typically from 8:00 to 11:30.
It was pretty intense, and it's not easy to sit in one room for five hours, even when you get 10 minute breaks on the hour. And because each class was only five weeks long, you don't have a lot of wiggle room for slacking a bit on the homework. And if you miss a day, it's like missing an entire week in a regular college classroom.
But on the flipside, I was able to walk out of there with a Bachelor's degree in two years (would have been two and a half if the Gen Eds from my first school hadn't transfered in), and I got a lot of hands-on work, which is what I love (I learn best by doing).
