<p>How many classes should I take and how many quarters of how many weeks each are there?</p>
<p>and how many courses per year, and how is the whole thing structured....i do not understand.</p>
<p>Each is 10 weeks, except for winter, which is 9 weeks. Most students take 3 classes per term; you can take 2 or 4 on occasion but you generally want to avoid that. Since you take 9 classes for an academic year, you graduate with about 36 credits, give or take a few.</p>
<p>I’m a '13 too, so this whole-year quarter system is new to me as well. Here’s my take from what I recount from alums and my regional rep:</p>
<p>There are four 3-month quarters each year, Winter (Jan-Mar), Spring (Mar-Jun), Summer (Jun-Aug), Fall (Sept-Dec). In each quarter, students usually take 3 courses. Since the courses are so short, they naturally go really fast, and some professors cover textbooks intended for one semester (or even one year) of study in just 3 months. Also, since a student is taking only 3 courses at any one time, it means a lot more extra reading and research per course (versus in other colleges, where you divide time for 4 courses during any one semester). I’ve heard that some students have taken 4 course per quarter and have done fine, though I’m quite sure that he is a workaholic.</p>
<p>The D-Plan allows you to choose which quarters you want to be studying on campus, studying abroad (on one of the gajillion foreign study programs or exchange programs), or leaving for vacation (though many people probably use this time for internships). With the D-Plan, you can take leave in, say, fall or winter for an internship; this gives you an edge over other college students, since competition for internship spots are low during these months. Also, if I remember correctly, you can take up to three leave terms in the four years, which means that you can take 9 months off back-to-back. Sweet.</p>
<p>So that means that there’s no fixed number of courses you take yearly. It may be 3, 6, 9, or 12, depending on your D-Plan arrangements. You do need 35 courses (wait… or is it 36) courses in total to graduate, which—I’m not sure—might limit your D-Plan options. I’m also not sure whether if you can opt to take fewer than the designated three leave terms to take more courses at Dartmouth.</p>
<p>I guess I’ll leave the real students to that.</p>
<p>You pretty much nailed it. You only need 35 credits to graduate, they basically make it so that you can relax at least one term and just take 2 classes.</p>
<p>my daughter has taken 4 courses on two or three ocassions and she said it is not that difficult.</p>