<p>What is the difference between the two? What does someone, with experience in both systems, think of each system? Is one more challenging than the other? </p>
<p>I am looking at Stanford (which has a quarter system). My current LAC follows a semester system.</p>
<p>I've had both, and for academic purposes, I like the quarter system. Less stuff to keep track of, as you only take 3 classes/quarter. The way the breaks are structured sucks though. For instance, I go back after winter break on Jan. 2nd. And I don't finish 'til mid June. And then you sit around until now waiting for the fall quarter to start. It def. sucks if all your friends are on the semester systme.</p>
<p>Semesters are cool because they allow you to catch a breath during the term (i.e. not talking about midterms the first week). An advantage to quarters is getting stupid/hard classes out of the way faster.</p>
<p>So, is a semester's work basically stuffed into a quarter at schools like Stanford?</p>
<p>Also, with the numbering of Stanford's courses, can anyone explain it? I am used to Intro courses being 100, intermediate 200 and advanced above 300...</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>class in quarter system = 5 credits, semester = 3 credits. It's the same amount of work, just broken up differently</p>
<p>Well I'm only a freshman at the University of Denver (quarters) so I can't give you much but so far I love the quarter system because its more convenient (I live 25mins west of Boston it is nice for the winter break) and they are less classes to worry about. However, the materials seems to go by quickly so you have to stay on top of your stuff.</p>