Our S in on the quarter system in STEM and it works well for him. He has not had to take fewer classes and has not encountered any real pace related difficulties. However, he hasn’t experienced any other system, so…
I agree that quarters are tricky for the STEM kids. One 10-week quarter of calculus is the same amount of material as a AP calc class. I was an engineering major at Northwestern in the 80s and my first quarter was the third level of calc (I passed out of two quarters with the BC test), Chemistry, Fortran (that’s programming for you young ones out there), and Intro to Biomedical Engineering. It was impossible. I totally tanked. And I knew it was a problem from the second week at school and there was no way to dig myself out. I hung on in the engineering department for the first year of school then switched to the liberal arts school and, while easier in certain ways, we had a lot of reading to do in those 10-week sessions. One quarter, I took a Russian Lit class called War and Peace. That’s all we read for the class. 1200 pages of War and Peace plus three other classes was quite challenging but it ended up being the class I remember the most! And that’s the positive side of quarters - you get to take so many more classes than kids with semesters.
I never had any problem getting internships and starting late was not a problem. I think that’s an easy question to get answered by just calling the placement center at each college.
Our S19 is only looking at one school on quarters. He talked to a young alum about it last week and he understands the trade offs. If this school ends up being in the final few next spring, I think he will dive deeper into the question of quarters vs. semesters as it does seem like something that’s important to consider. He’s an undecided liberal arts kid, though, so I sort of think quarters may be a good thing for him since he will take 12 different classes instead of 8 freshman year and maybe that will give him a better chance to find something he’d love to study.
I went to Santa Clara for mechanical engineering. The only issue I had with quarters was that in a few courses it took me almost until finals to really understand the material. The work load is not inherently different between quarter and semester schools. You still have 120 weeks of schooling to graduate in four years. You do have more finals in a quarter school. If you need one semester of a class, on the quarter system it will sometimes end up as one quarter and sometimes as two quarters, so that will impact how classes are structured a bit.
I certainly never dropped my course load down because of the quarter system. My two hardest quarters were each 19 units of engineering courses plus I audited a graduate level course for fun and worked 8 hours and raced for the cycling team. It did require good study habits, but I still managed to have fun.
@collegemomjam D is STEM major at SCU. Agree it does seem like she always has midterms and finals, it moves fast. But for her it works well and I think it is good for her overall, even if stressful, she works through it and good life prep. She isn’t one that wants anything laid back, she would be bored. Was that way through high school too, had to take the hardest load possible, so she sorta runs on stress, so quarters are good fit. Agree it doesn’t fit everybody. Has internship at one of those “top companies” to work for, so that wasn’t an issue at all. She just has less of a break between school ending and starting work than someone else does, and is also working a full 12 weeks. Great that you are factoring that in, we never considered it at all, but I can see how for some, semester system would be preferable.
I did semesters for undergrad and quarters for grad and preferred the latter. At both, the “normal” number of class hours was the same in a week. I know that when DS was looking, some quarter schools he considered offered only 3 courses per quarter, and I thought that for a certain kind of student, this could be helpful because it encouraged a little more focus, but at a faster pace. So having noted that, a different academic calendar doesn’t mean the same thing everywhere.
Yes, it does feel like you go from midterms to finals more often – because you do – but it’s also helpful in ensuring that you keep up. For me, this was helpful. I felt like the quarters provided a little more flexibility on content as well. A course might not include the little bit of “padding” at the end or it might go over 2 quarters. It seemed that something that might have been covered in a year (2 semesters) now was 3 quarters, but it also meant that if it was a topic that lent itself to 10 weeks, it wasn’t 10 plus some fluff. Or it was 20, rather than a rushed, possible cut-off 15.
It WAS a little bit of a pain being “off schedule” with most other schools for internships, catching up with friends, etc., but not enough that I’d discourage someone for considering such a school because of this.
BTW, when I was on the quarter system I don’t recall “mid-terms” being a thing. Every class was different. Some had a big mid-course test, some had none before the final, some had 4 before the final, some were just papers and projects, etc. My son is at a semester college now and it’s the same thing – there’s no defined midterms, every class is different.
D - a STEM major - prefers semesters. She likes having the runway to dig herself out if she gets into a bit of an academic hole. While she applied and was accepted to quarter-based schools, she wound up at a semester-based one and does not regret it as far as I know.
@citivas omg we laugh about that because every test is called and labeled a mid-term, oh the drama of it all. It’s two weeks in and it is time for mid-terms, huh? We don’t know how it is possible to have that many mid-terms and virtually every week of the quarter, but that’s what they call them. It is always midterms except when they are finals. I guess they don’t take tests when on the quarter system. lol.
@CADREAMIN Took a while for us at home to learn that terminology: everything’s a mid-term unless it’s a final
Yes my daughters who are both at regular semester colleges have multiple mid-terms usually in each class per semester. Was different 30 years ago when I went to college.
Apparently, it is not THE exam given in the middle of the term, but AN exam that is given during the term…
But we digress. Nobody hated a school recently? Too many blue light, too much blue hair, …
We visited UCDavis today - dropped from #2 to #3 (behind UC Santa Cruz): 60 min from home.
D had a massive allergy attack about an hour on campus. Weather was mid 80’s and classes last until mid June when it will be 100+ every day. Add dust/polen (hey it is an Agi school), and the prospects of being on campus and actually participating in any activities drops pretty quick. The students/tour guides also seemed to
- not acknowledge that there were transfer students on the tour. Everything was geared to frosh.
- Just seemed to be trying too hard. Pushed to get an SIR on the spot, “we will shower you with confetti and gifts.”
Visited UC Santa Cruz a couple weeks ago. After going to UCD, they jumped up a spot: 90 minutes from home
We are in the SF Bay Area, so know the city and Santa Cruz area well. The campus is in the redwoods, overlooks the Pacific Ocean, is small, almos LAC style. D loves the campus, was really down the city feel, but after the weather in Davis, “can figure Sant Cruz out.” We will have to figure out how to teach her to be comfortable driving over the mountain to get there.
Waiting on Cal (Berkeley). 30 minutes from home
If they say yes, she is going to sign the SIR on the spot. She loves the feel of the campus, the city (she knows just how sketchy it can be), Has friends (also transfers from Jan '18 and Fall '18), can join a lot of clubs that match her well.
In our case her bachelor’s degree is a step towards her JD, so good grades from any UC and a good LSAT is the mid-term goal. So, a LOT of this decision will be based on the vibe, the feel. Yes academics is important, but making sure she feels comfortable, challenged, and welcomed will determine where she finaly accepts.
My Daughter is deciding between Northwestern and Middlebury - two very different schools. She has a few days to make this decision. She loves nature and I have a feeling the Green Mountains are calling her.
Quarters vs semesters… the first time I heard a tour guide say you get more classes on the quarter system I was puzzled. I always took 5 classes/semester as an undergrad, so 10 per year, and the tour guide was saying that standard was 3 classes per quarter (so 9 per year).
Then my daughter started college on the semester system and she only takes 4 classes/semester. Not sure if I was overachieving in undergrad or if the standard varies by school ;-).
@washugrad - 3 classes per quarter would be 12 per year…
@washugrad Yes, it does vary by school. My S took five three credit courses per semester and my D took four four credit courses per semester. It is just the way the school sets things up. I think (at least theoretically) my D’s classes met for more hours/week and had more work but who knows?
@pkgny2022 Quarter system includes a summer quarter. So, kids take three quarters during the school year. I believe a normal class load is four classes so that still makes 12 per year. Four classes first quarter, four classes second quarter, four classes third quarter…then summer off.
Some schools do 4 seven week quarters or 2 quarters per semester not taking summer into account.
@pkgny2022 wow. I’ve never heard of that. The two schools that I know well on the quarter system are Carelton and Northwestern. Kids do three quarters for the school year. Don’t get how a class could be done in seven weeks!
UTD even though it was free ride for him due to National merit. It had a very community college vibe. Most students said they only picked it because they didnt get into UT Austin, parents made them, it was near home, it didn’t require campus living, accepted dual credit or discounted tuition.