<p>My DD is into her second term of a quarter system. I think she likes the pace, and rapid turnover of classes. I think I would have, too, I took a couple of classes on summer schedule in college, which were similar to being on quarters, and it worked well for some subjects. She had a math, science and one writing class last term, it will be interesting to see how she likes this term with one science, one advanced language class (mostly writing and speaking) and one reading/writing class - if Eulenspiegel's thought is correct, that it is harder in the "paper" classes.</p>
<p>She is not a procrastinator, it does suit her work style, one reason she was attracted to this school.</p>
<p>Another reason has not been mentioned - she really wants to do some study abroad, and as a non-science pre-med person, she thought it would work out better to only be gone 10 weeks, using 3 classes.</p>
<p>DD is on the 10-week term schedule. She loves the pace -- no time to get bored. Best for me is that she gets home just before Thanksgiving and doesn't go back until after New Years</p>
<p>Not all schools on quarters have the same schedule. The school my daughter is considering has the following schedule:
Quarter 1- Mid September to Mid December
Quarter 2- Beginning of January to Mid March
Quarter 3- End of March to Mid June</p>
<p>She will have a regular Thanksgiving break, two weeks at Christmas, and a week near the end of March. Her schedule does NOT have the long break that Bigdaddy's daughter has. My daughter's school has three quarters as part of the academic year (instead of two semesters) and then an additional summer term as well.</p>
<p>I suggested that those true trimesters, that Bigdaddy describes, would be a good idea - especially for a kid with a long plane ride home - but I got nowhere :(.</p>
<p>My daughter is on a 10 week qtr system but she started in Aug like all her "semester" friends and was done a week before Thanksgiving. She went back the weekend after Thanksgiving like all her "semester" friends (but she began qtr 2 at that point). My d had the same 3 week Christmas break as her "semester" friends (but they were done at that point and she was in the middle of her qtr). My d will finish qtr 2 the end of Feb/beg of March and have a week off before qtr 3 begins. She finishes for the yr by Memorial Day weekend (and already has a summer job lined up so it doesn't matter if she comes home a week or two after her friends). To her, the qtr system seems more like HS marking periods. Unlike HS, though, she gets a week (or more) break when one qtr ends before the next one begins. </p>
<p>While I expected her to only have 3 classes a qtr, it turned out she had 17 credits (7 classes). This qtr she has 18 (7 classes). I thought this was because she's a graphic design major (3 studio classes/2 credits each in addition to LA classes), but her engineering friends have the same 17-18 credit course load. It is certainly a hectic pace with papers/projects due every 1-2 weeks. She's in class 28 hrs/wk and then there are the endless projects & papers. Unfortunately, she's always been (and continues to be) a procrastinator so there are lots of late nights. In the end, she expects to have more work for her portfolio because of the sheer # of classes she'll take and # of projects assigned.</p>
<p>My son is just beginning to look at colleges and I suspect he will end up at a semester school (unless Stanford goes on his list). I think he's better suited for a qtr system but the schools he likes just happen to be on the semester system.</p>
<p>My niece was on a trimester system and hated her long break between Thanksgiving and the 2nd trimester (began in Jan). None of her friends were home and she had trouble finding a summer job/internship because she ended in June. She only took 3 classes per term. I went to UDel (semester system) and we had a 7 week winter break. None of my friends were home so by early Jan, I went back to school to work & take a class. Being at home that long was boring.</p>
<p>My S is on the quarter system, takes 4 courses (against my advice) and is always working. Most classes have two mid terms, which means big-time tests start in the 3rd or 4th week and last until, well finals. His classes are all three quarter sequences, so there is no change in topic from quarter to quarter. The courses have no link between credits and time. That is, one course = one credit, no matter how often the class meets (one class meets 9 hours per week or more). Having said all that he loves the pace and the opportunity to have more and different professors, and finds some time for a social life.</p>
<p>These quarters or trimesters only pertain to the school year, right? Not the full year? In other words, they don't factor in a summer session?</p>
<p>So, on the trimester system, you would have three terms between Spet and (approx) June? And with the quarter system, you'd have 4 terms between Sept and June?</p>
<p>My D's college is quarters and she loves it except her quarters are divided up as two 12 weeks sessions , and two 3 weeks sessions . She leaves at the standard time that most of her hometown freinds go back to semester colleges ( last week of August ) and she is home by second week in May . What happens at Hiram is they only have 10 days off for Christmas/Winter break , and only 10 days for Spring break . I believe Kalamazoo is broken up like this too ( K-Plan ) .</p>
<p>A lot of kids do intensive study abroad during these three weeks sessions ,</p>
<p>Weenie,
I can only speak for my daughters college. I don't know why they call it a quarter system because they do not offer a summer session (maybe they used to) and there are only 3 quarters to a school year. </p>
<p>As others have pointed out, the biggest perk is that when the break comes, whether it's the winter break or Spring break they are done the quarter at that point and will be able to take a true break in the off time.</p>
<p>Quarters are gradually losing out as a calendar system at universities and colleges, but I can tell you that the transition itself is a horrendously costly process (we did it about 15 years ago).</p>
<p>However, quite a few quality colleges still have the quarter system including (inter alia) Caltech, Stanford, UChicago, Northwestern, most of the UC system (not Berkeley), and UDub.</p>
<p>Many schools do offer some sort of summer quarter, but not all. S begins in late Sept. and ends in early June. He plans on summer school (at another school) that begins almost 3 weeks after the Spring quarter ends, and ends in mid August, which allows him a month at home. It works out very well this way.</p>
<p>This seems to match with U Chicago's "quarters" but this is definitely trimesters.
It was nice to only bring him home once for both holidays, but it about killed him to be home that long, particularly after just getting there.</p>