Does anyone know if there is a list somewhere to compare academic calendars? I’m curious to see how they differ and which ones offer something different.
For example, I know that Princeton has exams after winter break. Stanford, CalTech, and Dartmouth have the quarter system. Several top liberal arts colleges seem to utilize the “winter term” as well as MIT. Carleton is on a trimester system that has its winter break starting from Thanksgiving and going into the New Year.
Most common is the semester system, with two 15 week semesters, but the summer schedule can vary (commonly 8 week sessions), and some have mini winter terms.
Less common is the quarter system, with three 10 week quarters. Summer session is typically another 10 week quarter (Carleton’s trimesters are like a quarter system with no summer session). Quarter system schools often start and end the academic year later than semester system schools, but some start earlier, which splits the winter quarter across winter break.
A few schools have more unusual calendars, such as WPI and Colorado College.
As @ucbalumnus alluded to above, Colorado College and Cornell College have a system in which students take one course at a time (3 1/2 weeks each).
WPI is on its own version of the quarter system: four quarters over 9 months with a separate summer session.