Here's a guideline to what freshman can expect throughout their college years: Each unit of credit requires 2 to 3 hours of outside classwork per week. So, a student carrying 15 credit hours should plan to spend 30 to 45 hours each week studying beyond the classroom.
If a student has 3-4 classes a day, they can't reasonably spend 9-12 hours working solely on digesting those lectures that day. They'll have homework at the very least, likely some ongoing projects, normal human activities -- not to mention that in the US they probably also have a part-time (or full time) job.
Maybe we are talking about the same thing but maybe not. Most recommendations that I see (including the official one from the college where I work) say 2-3 hours outside class for every hour inside class. Maybe not the same day, but if you have a week with 3 hourly classes then the recommendation calls for 6-9 additional hours spent that week digesting the material of those class hours.