Ucb, that is not true, sometime my kid only take 12 which is full time to satisfy for her major. She needs 128 to graduate, so divide it by 4, which is 128:4=32 which is less than 36 x 4 =144. The kid has some AP credits and skipped couple intro to CS andd that’s why she is a junior level.
I don’t know which quarter school you went to, but it does not seem right (a quarter school requires 6-7 classes?)
On the average both semester and quarter students have 4 classes per term (minimum 3). Semester students take 8 classes per year. Quarter students take 12 classes per year. I went to a quarter school. Only a small number of people take 5 quarter classes per term, especially in the STEM area. A tiny number of people take 6 quarter classes in some term, maybe one to three times in 4 years. I did not see anyone having 7 quarters per term.
Here is an example:
http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Programs/Notes/sample-curricula-no-math.pdf
My dyslexic child did not apply to any quarter system schools. He was afraid that in reading intensive classes that he wouldn’t be able to keep up with reading assignments bc he is a slow reader.
My older daughter has had both and finds that semesters are too slow with teachers “filling time” too often to spread information for a semester, and this is at Columbia in a very hard science. Her Northwestern quarter system is preferred by her. It’s also generally easier to take more classes and try new areas for the first year or two.
My younger daughter is on a trimester schedule which is more similar to a quarter system and feels the same thing. Mom2aphysicsgeek, she is also dyslexic but with audio downloads provided by the school she only rarely has problems and often that’s more due to procrastinating or participating in too many extracurricular activities.
As you can see from this thread, different students like different versions, neither is better or worse, it’s all personal as is any college choice.
The quarter system is the way to go, although having an intensive January term or break is intriguing.
One disadvantage of quarter system is its the summer schedule is off chart. The semester students go to work on intership jobs, take summer classes at different colleges or local community colleges, travel abroad,… in early June but the quarter students are still in class until mid June. The Christmas break for the quarter students is too long (Dec 12 - Jan 7).
Some colleges have the modified version of the semesters: they have 2 semesters plus a 4 week term in January. Students can take short class (with or without credit), participate in research,… during the short term.
both my boys attend semester colleges. Both are home well before the Christmas holidays.
Post #25, it’s not a problem for summer internship. Mine has 10 days between her final exams and the start date of her summer internship. Nice long winter break is also nice. The only problem I see is fitting summer vacation on top of internship and the winter vacation is usually mor expensive because it’s closer to Xmas/New year holiday.
“Nice long winter break is also nice”
It’s terrible if the student has no money to go anywhere, especially for foreign students.
Been there, done that.
It’s not terrible, stay home and visit friends is still nice. There is no need to go any where.
Semesters, quarters, and trimesters all have their pluses and minuses and each school’s schedule is a bit different as well. Really not a reason to choose a college.
My trimester daughter is off from Thanksgiving until January 2nd, talk about a long time! Freshman year she was mostly happy having so much time off but Sophomore year she went on Birthright and Junior year she was studying abroad and didn’t get home until early-December, Senior year she’ll go back to work at the place where she has her internship this summer.
My quarter daughter never had a problem getting internships (summer stock for her). The colleges and companies are accommodating as needed. My husbands firm has never turned a kid down for an internship because of start dates.