Answers

I actually found the load to be smaller as compared to HS. Of course, I took IB courses in HS, which were the toughest of the tough, so I was used to 20-25 hours a week of work. With all of that mental buildup, 20-25 hours in college seemed like a sweat.

Also, it really depends on your own work ethic. I tend to procrastinate a lot, so 20-25 hours of work may actually be about 15 hours of real work, interspersed with 10 hours of wasting time. If you are an efficient studier who can prioritize well, it is possible to spend only 10-15 hours a week on hw and study. If you can manage to do this, then you'll have the luxury of more free time for extracurriculars and your social life.

Either way, you should be concentrating on prioritization strategies and improved time management skills.

In HS, you get used to studying every one of your course topics every single day of the school week. In general, college classes don't work like that. Except for the exception of of foreign language classes, which require intensive daily study since there is a lot more study involved. Getting back to the point, I think you'll need to learn to adjust to the college schedule. Your schedule will get mixed and you're not spending 8 hours a day in class. With college, you get a lot more "you" time to decide on what you want to do on a daily basis. Take advantage of these breaks to study, to get involved on campus, etc.

Back in my dayd, I found that I worked 2x harder than I did in high school. There's just a lot more work and denser material to cover. Expect to study a lot more than you ever did before.

I work practically the same amount that I used to work back in HS. There's barely any difference.