<p>Can someone please tell me the difference between the 'quarter system' and the 'semester system'??</p>
<p>the quarter systems seems kinda hectic from the look of it, but i want to know from those who've personally experienced it. Is there really no time to do stuff i want to do?? i mean, like full-time??</p>
<p>I did the quarter system in undergrad and the semester system in grad school. Other than having another set of finals, the quarter system didn't seem like more work. Counterbalancing the extra finals, however, you have the ability to sample more courses. And the finals seem to be a bit easier, because you aren't going as far back in your memory banks to the beginning of the term.</p>
<p>There are three (3) 10-11 week quarter terms -vs- two (2) 15-16 week semester terms in an academic year.</p>
<p>Either way, it all works out to be 30-32 weeks of academic instruction a year.</p>
<p>besides an extra midterm and final, the other real difference is that a semester student will take 5-6 classes each semester whereas a quarter student will usually take 3-4. Note, however, that Dartmouth's quarter system is designed for 3 classes a quarter, so the material is compacted.</p>
<p>This may differ among schools, bluebayou. At my undergraduate school, everyone took the same number of classes each term as those on the semester system did. There was just less content. So a year's worth of a subject would be covered in three quarters rather than two semesters.</p>
<p>This meant I had all sorts of opportunity to take quirky little courses -- I had an extra five a year I could fit in.</p>
<p>So it seems really strange to me now to have my daughter at Brown, a semester system where the expectation is that the average number of courses each term is 4. Occasionally, people take 5, but they need the advisor's permission. And you can't take 6, because only a maximum of 5 courses is covered by tuition. Only 30 courses are required for graduation. (No, they don't let you take 5 courses a semester for six semesters; you have to pay for eight semesters.) From what I can tell, each course is just more intense and has more packed into it. She doesn't have much opportunity to fit in the quirky stuff.</p>
<p>diane:</p>
<p>absolutely correct. There are approx 600 schools on a quarter system, and probably 600 different academic years. LOL</p>