<p>My son is looking at two schools as a freshman in Fall 2014 that are now on the QUARTER SYSTEM. The most recent newsletter for the school stated that starting Fall 2017, the school will be converting to the SEMESTER SYSTEM. </p>
<p>What will this mean for students, availability of classes, costs, amount of classes they can take per year? Did anyone go through this with the CSU system already?</p>
<p>I am wondering if this will extend his time in college or will it all balance out for a graduation in 4 years (or as close to it as possible)?</p>
<p>So a lack of response means that it probably is not a big deal to go through a switch from the QUARTER SYSTEM to the SEMESTER SYSTEM during your senior year of college?</p>
<p>Cal Poly SLO studied the options a couple of years ago and ultimately decided not to convert. There were issues with cost, reduction in course offerings, timing of internships for agriculture students, and students preferring the faster pace of quarters vs semesters. The administration pretty much kicked the can down the road and decided to wait until other CSUs did the conversion.</p>
<p>My guess is that there will be a path to compare coursework so that current students will have the courses available that they need to graduate. It’s possible that there will be some disruption.</p>
<p>The school will likely have policies about how they deal with the switch for continuing students during the time. I’d recommend contacting the school about it if you have any specific concerns, but I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Their advisors are probably well aware of the switch and will likely have a lot of good information about what students should do to deal with it. I’m sure you could ask someone at the school if they have any information about potential concerns about the switch.</p>
<p>The one thing I can think of that your son might find annoying is that the summer between his junior and senior years might be shorter because the semester system starts earlier in the fall than the quarter system. That could interfere with any internships or summer plans he has.</p>
<p>Cal Poly Pomona is the one starting the conversion Fall 2017. He also applied to Cal Poly SLO, but this conversion is not supposed to take effect until after everyone else, so he might be ok there unless he goes into a 5th year there.</p>
<p>I think it will be a consideration when he ultimately makes his decision on where to attend. Thanks.</p>