<p>From your experiences with each, what are the pros and cons of the quarter system and the semester system? Which do you prefer? Is there a type of person who does better in one or the other?</p>
<p>I’ve been on both, and definitely prefer semesters.</p>
<p>Quarters have always annoyed me. The classes are longer, to make up for the short sessions. At the same time, professors will say that because it’s quarters, they don’t have enough time to cover certain topics. I’ve done the math, the amount of time per class is equal on the two systems, at least for the schools I’m familiar with. My other biggest issue with this is that classes in a series (like calculus or physics) require you to take more courses, despite already having longer classes to make up for the shorter sessions.</p>
<p>So, fewer classes at a time, more required classes, and classes are more rushed. I hated being on quarters. It also doesn’t work well to start on semesters, transfer to quarters, and transfer back to semesters. 
(By the way, I’m an EE/CS major, non-STEM majors probably have different opinions on this.)</p>
<p>Semesters are a marathon, quarters are a series of sprints. Taking honors quantum under semesters instead of quarters nearly killed me.</p>
<p>I loved the quarter system. More flexibility in the scheduling. Even if I despised a class I figured I could suffer the 10-12 weeks. The quarter system allows for many more electives than the semester does. Sometimes requirements only required two quarters of a subject rather than 3–leaving that last quarter open for another course (whereas the semester system would have taken the whole year.)</p>
<p>I’ve never had experience with the semester system, but I love quarters. For me, I like the fast pace and constant deadlines; it helps me to stay organized. I’m liable to get bored and unfocused if I don’t constantly have some kind of goal/deadline just ahead. Semesters sound like they’d drag to me, but as I said I don’t have personal experience with them to know for sure.</p>
<p>What gouf78 says about flexibility is also true. There have been a few classes where I only had a vague interest in them. For those classes, the only thing that convinced me to actually take the class was the idea of only having to suffer through 10 weeks if it turned out I disliked it. On the other hand, for classes that you’re really interested in that short duration could be a downside.</p>
<p>Another downside is that there’s another set of finals and textbook purchases in a school year. Whether that’s a huge downside or not depends on the person.</p>
<p>My dad had quarters when he was in college and I have semesters. I most certainly would have preferred quarters. Some classes such as calculus would be covered in four quarters instead of three semesters, which means that if you have 4 tests per class, you’d have 16 tests in a full-on calculus class for quarters and only 12 for semesters, which means you have to remember more material for each test in the semester system.</p>
<p>Quarters are better.</p>
<p>I like the quarter system. It’s harder because they try to cram a semester’s worth of material into a quarter. But that’s alright because by the time you’re burned out, the quarter is already over. Besides, you get to have more classes on your transcript for when you apply to grad school.</p>
<p>I’ve been on both, and prefer the quarter system. I don’t know about failure622’s experience with the quarter system, but in my experience, classes are actually shorter. At my university, most classes are only 50 minutes long, not including labs, whereas at the community college I went to that was on the semester system, most classes were 1.5 hours long, with some being 2-3 hours long (like the foreign language classes)! Shorter class times is better for me since I have trouble staying focused for more than an hour, but at the same time, I don’t like the quarter system in that it’s more rushed; by the 3rd or 4th week, it’s already time for midterms! This is disadvantageous if you have a learning disability or a slow learner like me.</p>
<p>Athletes who are serious about academics may prefer one over the other, depending on how much of the academic year overlaps with their sport’s season (during which they may have to take an easier course load and schedule around games and practices, compared to the off-season semesters or quarters).</p>
<p>For example, football season overlaps with either one semester or one quarter, so a quarter system would be preferable to a football player. But for a sport whose season in the spring overlaps with two quarters or one semester, a semester system would be preferable.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I don’t know where you went, but my (quarter system) courses are generally 50-minutes, three days a week.</p>
<p>Seriously though, how does anyone survive four months of the same classes!? After about a month I’m ready to move on… Quarter system for sure.</p>
<p>
Can you believe high school students are in the same classes for as long as a year??! Talk about brutal. </p>
<p>The length is of course dependent on the university you’re attending. My university is on a semester system and the classes that I have three days a week are an hour long.</p>
<p>I preferred the semester system. If you had to miss class for any sort of reason (sickness, family issues, travel for a group at school, etc) it was much easier to make up on semesters. For quarters if you miss a week you miss a ton of material, and it can be a really tough hole to dig yourself out of.</p>
<p>I liked how my undergrad school ran on semesters, but some courses were offered as a “mini.” They would last half a semester. My department ran a couple of them, and it was nice having a full-unit class finish during midterms, so your finals would be way lighter.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>High school courses are general overviews and not nearly the same as college courses. You’re generally changing subjects every few weeks, whereas in college you’re often studying the same material in depth for the entire duration. High school courses also move much slower, so it’s not like you’ve actually learned a year of college material after a year of high school. To compare it to college is pretty laughable.</p>
<p>But let’s be honest, do you really need 4 months to cover introductory psychology? Or 8 months to cover integrals and derivatives? In my opinion, the quarter system is just much more efficient.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I thought high schools were on a semester system, where they change classes halfway through the year…</p>
<p>
Your logic is filled with assumptions. </p>
<p>Say you have a high school chemistry class. So you’re saying they’re changing subjects every few weeks? I’d say they’re changing topics every few weeks. And…a college class does that as well. </p>
<p>
Do you really need 4 months? Depends on the topics covered. There’s nothing wrong with taking time with learning the different approaches of psychologists. 8 months to learn derivatives and integrals? Umm…I’m not aware of a semester system requiring 8 months of calculus not have I heard of a calculus class that only covers derivatives integrals.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Going by my friends on semesters, a year of calculus is a year of calculus regardless of what system you’re on. The difference lies in how the topics are divided. My understanding is that a quarter and a half of calculus covers about the same amount as a semester does. As for classes like introductory psychology, my guess is that the class either goes more in depth about the topics covered or covers some additional topics compared to the same class on a quarter system.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It depends. In the high schools I went to, that only applied if the class was explicitly said to be a semester class (such as economics, health, or typing). Otherwise, a class was two semesters. I have heard of high schools where what you said is the case, though.</p>
<p>@ Phantom: Ah, okay. My high school was like that (where we had different classes starting January), as well as the other high schools in my school district, so I had been under the impression that all high schools were like that.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The introductory psychology course at a semester system school may go into more depth, cover more topics, or be designated as a fewer credit course (of course, a high school AP psychology course may be a year long). Frosh calculus is generally a year (30 weeks of instruction); on the quarter system, it is divided into three 10-week chunks, versus two 15-week chunks on the semester system.</p>
<p>Many internships and summer jobs are based upon a traditional college schedule, where the student is available late-May to mid-August. Some students at colleges with unusual schedules have problems as a result.</p>
<p>I don’t have experience with the quarter system, but I always have thought that semesters are a month too long… (think quarters would be better in that case)</p>