<p>
[quote]
sitting in classes is irrelevant
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I beg to differ. You can tell by sitting in classes</p>
<p>-class size
-student-teacher interaction
-quality of professors
-quality of students (are they engaged, do they ask smart questions?)
-academic strengths
-feel</p>
<p>The main activity at college hopefully is to go to classes. So are you going to pay thousands of dollars to a school without trying out the classes?</p>
<p>OP, I would suggest that you just look up the information on the websites of the schools you are interested in.</p>
<p>At Dartmouth, the minimum required number of courses/credits with a passing grade is 34. (9 courses times 4 years=36) </p>
<p>At Penn, the number of required credits/courses is between 32 and 36, depending on the number of courses required by your major (8 courses times 4 years=32 courses)</p>
<p>The fact is, of course, that many students will take more than the minimum number of courses required to graduate. At quarter schools, usually no more than 4 per quarter. At semester schools, usually no more than 5 per semester. (Whether or not any of the classes has a lab or any other "extra" meeting is irrelevant, unless it is a schedule conflict.) </p>
<p>BTW, no quarter school with which I am personally familiar, including D, has individual classes meeting 5 days per week. In fact, I've never heard of such a thing anywhere. Some classes have extra meetings (labs, sections, language drill sessions), but those are typically a fourth meeting, at most. The same holds true at semester schools. I'm sure there are exceptions. There always are.</p>
<p>consolation:</p>
<p>Dartmouth's D-Plan is unique in its three class/quarter approach. Other colleges on the quarter system require 4 classes/qtr to graduate in 4 years.</p>
<p>no cousin...thoughtful and insightful comments above. Hopefully, applicants and their parents can benefit from your wisdom. Thank you.</p>