Do students feel that Stanford’s quarter system works well in terms of workload? I’ve heard that Stanford tries to fit a semester’s worth of work into a quarter, which can make things difficult and, at times, too fast-paced.
Yes, the quarter system is very fast paced, and it is difficult. But, it’s really NOT that bad. Unless you overload and take 20 or more units, I think you will find you have plenty of free time to do clubs, sports, activities, etc and keep on top of your school work as long as you manage your time well.
There are simply pros and cons. The pros are that you get to learn “MORE” or at least a larger variety of material because you take MORE classes. The con is that it’s faster paced.
The biggest difference for me between quarter and semester is honestly the timing of the breaks rather than the actual workload. I don’t feel that Stanford is so much harder or easier than the other ivy league schools my friends are at. The worst part is simply that our winter and spring breaks aren’t at the same time and I can’t see them when I go home 
Thanks again, @guccigirl! As usual, this is very helpful. I do really like that students get to take more courses—especially for undergraduates, I think that’s a really nice feature of the quarter system. I went to a school years ago that was on the quarter system, and that allowed me to explore many more areas than I would have been able to on the semester system. Overall, I think I prefer it for undergrads—I’ve just been worrying a bit because we did hear something at a local Stanford presentation some months ago about students doing a semester’s worth of work in a quarter. I don’t want it to be too stressful of an experience!
The timing of the breaks is an interesting aspect of this that I hadn’t really considered much before. I always liked that fall quarter exams were over before Christmas break, but I’m wondering now, actually, about how the relatively late end of the year in June and late start in September affect summer employment, internships, special programs, etc.—is that a negative?
@guccigirl
Is 19 units considered not overloading? I thought 15 was average? How does that work if many classes are 3-4 units (except many of the intro level courses which are 5 units)?
You need 180 units to graduate, which averages 15 per quarter, graduating in 12 quarters. Freshmen are advised first quarter to take between 12 and 15 credits. There are also one and two credit classes that are available (and fun), such as sand volleyball, tennis or cooking) that can give you an easier credit or two. It’s just important to plan and balance your schedule so that you aren’t taking three or four classes at once that are especially challenging for you.
20 units is the maximum allowed for freshmen. Upperclassmen may petition for 21 or 22.
This link may prove helpful:
https://undergrad.stanford.edu/advising/student-guides/how-many-classes-to-take
@Planner I wouldn’t worry about getting internships for your son especially since he is planning on CS/tech…as noted in this recent article: http://www.businessinsider.com/life-at-stanford-in-2015-2015-4
Moreover as @pacnwmomof2 has noted one only needs 180 units to graduate. For many coming into Stanford as freshman…they have already accumulated on average about 24 units already from AP, IB or SAT2 language exams…and many come in with 34 or even the max 45 units…as you can see from the AP credits chart, IB credits chart, and SAT2 language credit chart:
https://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/registrar/students/ap-charts
https://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/registrar/students/baccalaureate-credit
http://web.stanford.edu/dept/lc/language/requirement/index.html
For example. For those planning to major in CS…many come in with at least 24 units or more…180 minus 24 gives 156 units to graduate…
156 divided by 12 quarters (4 years) equals 13 units per quarter (if one wants to take it easy even as a CS major)…but, most Stanford students like to challenge themselves regardless of their major and take other outside the major courses that interest them whether they want to have fun or broaden their perspective…
At worst those coming in with absolutely NO credits (which is very rare) will need to just average 180 divided by 12 = 15 units per quarter…still easily doable.
And remember…most students will vary how many credits they take each quarter depending on how they mix and match their major requirements with general ed requirements with fun low pressure elective classes…
To end…many CS majors who do come in with lots of credits will have plenty of time to have fun working on their side “personal” projects with their “buddies”, become student assistants, do research with CS professors, and extracurricular activities…whatever they find pertinent…
@gravitas2
That is what I thought which I was wondering about the comment that overloading is 20 or more units.
For many of the more advanced CS classes, they are 3-4 units (like CS154 and CS254) and those are challenging courses. So it seems that CS/engineering majors taking 16 units are already overloading (e.g. 2 CS courses is only half of the credits so you would have 2-3 additional courses to get to 16 units).
That doesn’t even take into account some of the incredibly time consuming courses like CS140, CS143 or CS145 that are only 4 units - only one quarter of a 16 unit schedule.
As someone who has been a student under both the quarter and semester systems (at Stanford), and as someone who has been a professor under both systems (not at Stanford), I believe that the quarter system is clearly superior. I think more kids should consider this when choosing a school.
There are three quarters in a normal academic year system, each lasting for 10 weeks of classes (plus final exams). In theory each semester is 15 weeks (plus final exams). Thus, in theory there should not be much of a difference. In fact there are many important differences.
First, there is a problem with the calendar for semesters: It is the combination of Labor Day and Christmas. You just can’t get 15 weeks in plus exams between these two dates. Won’t work. There are three options: start school in August, have exams in January, or shorten the semester. Schools have opted for all three. The problem is that the faculty doesn’t like to teach in August. In many instances it is vacation time for their children. The students hate going home for Christmas and studying for exams in January. This used to be the practice at Harvard. Just ask some who studied under this system. That leaves the third option: shorten the semester to something less than 15 weeks. That is what many schools have opted for, including Harvard. The problem is that there are fewer classes than under the quarter system. If you don’t want to be in class, don’t go to college. When my son was choosing a school, we did the comparisons. For some schools it makes a big difference. I would encourage others to make this comparison.
One thing about quarters is that they are always 10 weeks (give or take a little), and there is always a vacation after exams. That’s nice. You really can’t study during vacations with a quarter system.
With a quarter you take more courses, albeit of a shorter duration. This is good on several accounts. If you like a subject, you can take more courses in that area. If you don’t like a subject (or a teacher), you have invested (wasted?) only 10 weeks not 15 weeks (or however long the semester is). Moreover, after about 12 weeks both professors and students tend to get tired of each other. I’ve seen this from both perspectives and so have my colleagues. It is almost universal.
As one poster mentioned, under the quarter system things happen faster than under the semester system. I remember visiting Yale with my son. The tour guide made a big deal about “shopping for classes” during the first two weeks of a semester. I asked him what happened if you didn’t join the course until the end of the second week. He said, “It’s fine. Nothing really important usually happens in the first two weeks.” Excuse me? That is a significant portion of the semester and “nothing important usually happens.” At Stanford with quarters, you hit the ground running.
You may ask, “Fred, if the quarter system is so great, why don’t more schools use it?” There is a simple answer: The faculty have prepared their courses around a semester, and they don’t want to change. College professors, especially those with tenure, have certain features in common with young children.
When my son was looking at schools, I informally polled professors at a variety of schools about the merits of quarters versus semesters for students. Many had a very strong opinion that quarters are superior. A few didn’t have any opinion. Inevitably, these were people who had never experienced quarters. No one had a strong preference for semesters. Again, this was from the perspective of being a student, not a professor.
Having said all of this, my impression is that most Stanford students work hard. Some of it is probably the quarter system, but most of it concerns the courses you take. If you major in CS or economics or math (among other majors), you will be putting in some pretty long hours. There are a few majors at Stanford that frankly are easy (STS is one that comes to mind). Often students with major extra-curricular activities (that is, sports) gravitate to these majors. But they are also working hard—it just tends to be on the playing field rather than the classroom (obviously there are exceptions). My impression is that Stanford is a pretty intense place today—more intense than in the old days.
Yes, they work incredibly hard, but they learn a tremendous amount. Even with the grueling amount of work, when the quarter is over, they get a vacation. Then they go back for more, ready to learn something new. it is very gratifying to witness.
Thanks very much, @gravitas2—I’ve seen that article, and it’s truly amazing! And thanks, too, for posting those links to credits/placements.
@skyoverme This sounds a bit worrisome for CS students, but I guess some courses are just going to be very time-consuming. Maybe that’s the time to follow @pacnwmomof2’s suggestion and take a course like sand volleyball! (Thanks for the link to the page about how many courses to take, by the way.)
Thanks, @fredthered—I agree with you about the curricular benefits of the quarter system, having had that myself in college. I was just concerned that if the quarter-long courses contained a semester’s worth of material, that might be a bit too much.
More than 15 units a quarter is considered more than average, but not necessarily “overloading”, because alot of people like to add a few one or two unit classes just for fun on top of 15 units. Once you hit about 19-20 units, that’s usually 4 main Academic classes, as compared to 3 main academic classes which is typical for 15 units a quarter. People usually find 15-17 units relatively manageable. Regardless, units are often not as indicative of the difficulty of a quarter as the specific classes. 14 units for one person with hard classes can sometimes be harder than 20 units for another person with different classes.
I have taught and studied in a quarter system at another well-regarded university, and I have taught and studied at other major research universities on the semester system. I must say, in all honesty, that I much prefer semesters. It did feel like there tended to be more burnout, and less in-depth inquiry on a quarterly basis – and this, precisely due to the nature of the schedule, and not the caliber of the students nor the faculty.
That said, I would not let the quarterly system dissuade you from an offer from Stanford, if you feel it is the best fit for you. It is also true, as stated above, that certain majors may lend themselves better to a quarterly schedule, and that there are ways of turning it to your advantage if you are prudent with your course selection and time management.
In many courses that is absolutely the case.
The issue comes down to fit. If you find it exciting to be in fast paced classes that may have your first exam in week 3, then next in week 7 and then a final - or ones in which the first hw assignment is due in the beginning of week two, then it is great. As someone pointed out earlier, the students work really hard, even in the first week of classes.
Thanks, @skyoverme. I’ve heard a range of opinions at this point, and I guess my hope is that even if the courses are fast-paced, students still have time—hopefully, plenty of time (except maybe before finals)—to pursue outside interests and enjoy themselves. What I definitely would not want for my son would be a place where he’d have to study during almost every moment he wasn’t in class, eating, or sleeping. It would be nice to have at least a couple of hours free every day for outside interests, having fun with friends, exercise, etc. Do you think that’s possible at Stanford, given its quarter system with, in some cases, a semester’s worth of work?
@Planner
Absolutely yes.
No doubt.
It is a really vibrant campus with lots of students engaged in a wide variety of activities. Read the stanford news or other sources and you will see all of that.
With some planning and the ebb and flow of assignments and midterms there is more than enough time to have a great time.
Congrats on your son! It is a great place.
@skyoverme Thanks—this is great to hear and very reassuring!
Medical school prerequisites of one year of Bio, Chem, and Organic Chem are fulfilled
with 3 Stanford quarters of each subject – 2 quarters are insufficient. 3 quarters would have the equivalent amount of material contained in 2 semesters, rather than 50% more than 2 semesters.
My experience with the quarter class scheduling system at Savannah College of Art and Design.
I attended SCAD from 2001 to 2004 studying architecture in the Master of Architecture program. Since I was a student with an undergraduate degree in a related discipline, I needed to go for 3 years to meet the requirements. For anyone considering to go to SCAD I can provide some first hand experience that can help anyone make their own decisions of where to go to college. I am going to list the major things that someone should consider before going to SCAD.
- SCAD has the quarter scheduling system. A quarter system class scheduling system is a lot different than a semester system class schedule. A quarter system academic year is three quarters: fall, winter, spring. A full time class schedule is 3 classes. This sounds reasonable but each class is 2.5 hours long. Studio classes are 5.5 hours long. If you schedule a studio class and a regular class back to back you are in class all day. In architecture studio classes. we spent a lot of time discussing our own projects or other students projects with the class which limits your own time of getting your own projects completed.
To make up the time, students have to spend long hours into the night to get their projects complete. Eichberg Hall where the architecture department is located at SCAD was open 24/7 when I was there. Students had to do a lot of all nighters because the quarter system class periods are too long.
I personally did at least 100 all nighters in 3 years while attending SCAD. I look back and consider that torture. I would never go to a quarter system college again. All nighters become a very painful experience after a while. I still suffer from all of the sleep deprivation. I did not waste time going to parties. I worked on my projects as much as I needed to do to do my best considering the time constraints of the quarter system. I managed to get straight 'A’s my last year and my GPA was over 3.7.
- Another downfall of the quarter system is that professors have difficulty maintaining a class for 2.5 hours. I had some professors at SCAD cancel class after about 1 hour of teaching. But I paid for 2.5 hours of class time. SCAD is very expensive.
I also think the quarter system is not flexible. You cannot take extra classes over full time like you can a semester system.
I went to a semester system college for my undergraduate degree. Class periods are only 50 minutes long 3 times a week or 1.5 hours long 2 times a week. Since the class times are shorter I had much more time after class to do my work. I only needed to do 1 all nighter and that was because I was taking extra classes over full time. I was able to take 1 or 2 classes over full time each semester in order to study business classes outside of my major and complete the required elective classes for my major.
- Quarter systems are designed to prevent you from taking free classes like at a semester system. At a semester system, you pay for a full class load of 12 credits. Since the class times are shorter, you can easily take an extra class a semester. Since you only pay for 12 credits, that extra class is free. The quarter system at SCAD is virtually impossibly to take an extra class. So, no free classes. I paid for my own college education. I greatly appreciate being able to take an extra class a semester at the semester system college.
- The scope of classes at SCAD is limited compared to a college such as Penn State University. Do your research on what classes a college offers before choosing a college.
To any student considering going to college, I highly recommend going to a semester system college.
I think the quarter system at SCAD is a fundamentally flawed educational system.
Since I graduated from SCAD, I have finished the Architecture Registration Exams and became registered. I passed all of the exams on the first attempt. Most importantly, I have not experienced an all nighter since 2004. I do not miss the all nighter life at all. I would never ever consider going to a quarter system college again. If I take any college courses in the future, I will certainly go to a semester system college.
That may be true at SCAD, but at Stanford my son has had no problems taking extra classes. The average units for a quarter are 15 and he has taken 20 units on average. That is not atypical.