<p>In general, do people enjoy the quarter system, or do they find it to be far too stressful?</p>
<p>There is big upside (sophomore summer, multiple study abroads, feels like you have more "experience" as each term is unique. It seems to make for greater opportunity. The downside is more work (3 midterm/ finals periods as opposed to two), but its not too stressful at all and you have to worry about less classes.</p>
<p>what is the "sophomore summer"?</p>
<p>Students are required to be in residence their entire freshman and senior years.</p>
<p>In addition they are required to be on campus sophmore summer, which is the summer between sophmore and junior year. It is a 10 week term which begins this year on June 22 and ends around august 29. This year 08s will be on campus sophmore summer</p>
<p>do people generally enjoy this or resent it?</p>
<p>From what I have heard students enjoy it because during sophmore summer, the rising juniors are pretty much the only students on campus. It also gives the class an opportunity to bond in a way that has not happened since the DOC trips/freshman orientation.</p>
<p>I think Sophomore summer is the best term at Dartmouth - people are always going on road trips, jumping off the river ranch into the connecticut (a 40 ft jump!), tubestock (when the entire class gets together on rafts in the connecticut, with kegs of course), the general laid-backness (people are always randomly playing pickup football or frisbee on the green), all combine to make it a pretty amazing experience. You get to know most of your class which is also pretty cool.</p>
<p>Yeah, sophomore summer is definitely seen as a good thing: since everyone is going to be away for one term during the regular school year (fall/winter/spring), it's a chance to reunite and see everyone again. Besides that, most students only are taking two classes (Dartmouth requires 35 credits, which works out to 11 terms with 3 classes, and one term with only 2), so it's a lot more laid-back.</p>
<p>My daughter, who is a first year, was initially somewhat hesitant about the quarter system, but now loves it. She actually finds it much LESS stressful than many of her friends at other schools. She only has 3 classes she is juggling at a time, 3 sets of midterms and 3 sets of finals, instead of 4 or 5. Even though she spends as much time in class each week as friends at other schools it's set up differently so she seems to have more free time to do other activities. And she isn't trying to remember material from months back for exams, since the term is shorter. She had two finals and one final paper at the end of fall term and did not find it to be stressful at all. Yes, you have to go through this 3 times during the year instead of twice, but she likes it this way.</p>
<p>Don't forget, that there is little difference for certain subjects, the sciences in particular. For example, Frosh Chem is Frosh Chem, regardless if it is taught over three quaters or two semesters.</p>
<p>I'd disagree especially with chem (and other physical sciences) I'd say the quarter system makes a huge difference as that is the type of thing that needs time to sit on your brain before you fully understand it.</p>
<p>Despite, most students at Dartmouth seem to prefer the quarter system. I am one of the very few who hated it.</p>
<p>dcd:</p>
<p>how is ~34 weeks of education different if it is broken up in two 17 week semesters or three 11 week quarters...the material is the same. On the plus side, a student has an extra mid-term and final on which to recover. On the downside, a student has an extra mid-term and final on which to mess up. But, Frosh Chem is Frosh Chem -- the material is the SAME!</p>
<p>If you were to still take 8 or 9 classes throughout the year, but one at a time -- do you think you could fully understand Frosh Chem in three weeks, even if it was the only thing you were doing? This is the type of material that needs time to sit and ferment in the brain.</p>
<p>It is true that the material is the same. But for some things it takes longer for the brain to process, and on top of that chemistry (as well as math, physics) is the type of subject where things build off of each other. You need to fully understand one concept to move onto the next, and if you get stuck somewhere, then you're pretty much screwed for the rest of the term. With less time and a faster pace, it's that much easier to get stuck. The quarter system was what killed my physics major and then later my math major.</p>
<p>i was hesitant when i first heard about the sophomore summer... but it actually sounds like fun!</p>
<p>dcd, did you feel this way with ALL your classes, or just the science/math ones?</p>
<p>Hmm. I'd say, to a lesser extent, it was like that with some other classes, but it didn't make them impossible in the end. True, everything goes as fast regardless of whether you're taking humanities or sciences, but for humanities classes, even if you don't fully understand one part of the class, it's not going to mess you up for the rest of the term. I think the root of the problem, for humanities as well as sciences, is that they assigned too much work for the time you had. However, in humanities classes you don't really have to do all the work. You don't have to read an entire book to write a paper on it. You don't have to read every word of every article to get the point. If you have to write a paper using various concepts you've learned from the course, then you can simply pick the ones that you've understood. But for math/physics classes, you do have to understand every formula and every equation and figure out how to derive them. Lesson 16 builds on lesson 15 builds on lesson 14 etc., so if somewhere down the line you got lost, there's less of a chance that you'll have time to recover and therefore you won't understand any subsequent material.</p>
<p>
[quote]
how is ~34 weeks of education different if it is broken up in two 17 week semesters or three 11 week quarters...the material is the same. On the plus side, a student has an extra mid-term and final on which to recover. On the downside, a student has an extra mid-term and final on which to mess up.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Blue,</p>
<p>I have to agree with dcd, that is not as simple as you are making it out to be. It is one thing to see it from the outside, or even as a parent have to hear it and set the alarm to call them because they need a nap to start the next project, but it is another thing to be the student going through this.</p>
<p>If you are taking a science class your class meets 3 times a week
Your professor is very likely to use his X hour so your class actuall meets 4 times a week
You have 2 hours or pre-lab each week where you are setting up your labs/ reports
You have a 4 hour lab (6 hour labs for O-chem and upper level sciences)
You have a 2 hour post lab where you are writing up your lab reports
this does not include the outside class time reading, doing problem sets, studying for 2 sets of midterms because on the quarter system you have your first midterm, 3 to 4 weeks into the course, a second midterm 2 to 3 weeks later and a cumulative final.</p>
<p>It all does happen at a break neck speed and the faint at hear will get left behind.</p>
<p>So this one class does take a lot of your time, none which you have the luxury of skimping on.</p>
<p>I know my D first term took Bio at the same time she was taking math (another class which can take up a lot of your time) and a classics class where the professor used his X-hours each week, assigned at least 200 pages of reading a night, gave a quiz at the beginning of each class (short answer questions) and a weekly paper. It was a term where a lot of sleep was lost. </p>
<p>Sometimes it is a luck of the draw, but if there is a professor who gives a lot of readings and paper, my daughter can find em.The term that she had first year seminar, another class where there was a 20 book book list (and they read every book, not snippets)</p>
<p>The other side of the coin is this term she is taking 3 courses (2 fulfilling her major) and an english class. All are heavy reading classes, in english they read books a week with papers due each week.</p>
<p>One of her good friends was taking O-chem with spanish so this person had drills at 7:45 each morning and labs that met from 4-10 pm in the evening.</p>
<p>She had friends who started out as bio-chem majors, science majors/math minors and the multiple sciences taking at the same time has caused a few changes in majors.</p>
<p>hi sybbie:</p>
<p>Actually, there are at LEAST two answers to the OP's query....since each college may implement a quarter system differently. The UoChicago points out that ~20% of all colleges are on the quarter system, which means ~600 in the nation. Thus, there are probably 600 different ways to provide an education in a quarter system. :)</p>
<p>My post, related to the UC's which have been on the quarter system since practically inception; Berkeley went to a semester system ~1980. If we examine a typical premed regimen, the UC's teach inorganic chem over the whole year, regarless of whether its UCLA's quarter system or Berkeley's semester system. Calculus for life science students (i.e., Calc-lite, according to math and engineering majors -- lol) is taught over two quarters at UCLA or a semester at Berkeley. So, for the UC's and others that follow a similar pattern, the material covered and the time period is roughly the same regardless of academic calendar.</p>
<p>However, based on Dartmouth's quarter system, its premed program moves faster. If I understand correctly (still learning to how to dig thru Hanover's website), premed inorganic chem is completed over two quarters, and premed calc is completed in one quarter. Thus, the pace of these classes ARE accelerated. While my earlier response was correct in a generic sense, since the OP posted his/her query on the Dartmouth board, my response was off point.</p>
<p>Note, however, one other difference exists between the quarter schools....the typical Dartmouth student takes 3 classes a quarter to be on time for graduation (ignoring double/triple majors); 35 classes required. But, to graduate from UCLA in four years, a student will need to take 4 classes nearly every quarter since the previously mentioned Inorganic Chem class is only 4 units per quarter, and a student needs to average 15 units per quarter to graduate (180 units required). In contrast, students at U of Chicago (also on quarter system) need 42 (yikes!) classes to graduate, but their course pacing is similar to UCLA's with Inorganic chem being taught over the whole year. However, the UofC and the UC's are much more generous with AP/IB credit.</p>
<p>In summary, a student in Hanover DOES have to work at an accelerated pace per course, while taking three courses per term, while a student in Westwood can work at a more "leisurely" pace per course, while carrying a larger class load. </p>
<p>Incidentally, for timing comparison purposes, UCLA's inorganic class has the following weekly in-class schedule (all year): Lecture = 3x1 hr + 1 hour recitation; Lab = 1 hr discussion + 3 hr lab time; excludes hw, prep and write-ups. Depending on professor, class typically has one mid-term (week 5), two major quizzes (weeks 3 & 7), and one final (week 11, since classes end Friday of week 10); UCLA offers no Pre-Exam break.</p>
<p>btw: I've always concurred that the quarter system is really felt in the humanities, since a student needs to absorb enuf material in a short time to be able to research a topic and crank out a term paper by the end of the 10 week term.</p>
<p>Blue,</p>
<p>As you already know while the school is on a quarter system, your student will be in hanover:</p>
<p>3 quarters freshman year
3 quarters senior year
Sophmore summer and every thing else is up for grabs depending on study abroad, leave terms etc. </p>
<p>One of D's best friends will be in mexico this spring, on campus for sophmore summer, london in the fall, and home next winter. D was "on" all this year and will be in scotland in the fall and doing an internship next winter. But you know what? It now seems to be going by fast.</p>
<p>Even if they choose not to study abroad they will be programmed in for leave terms when they are not on campus (probably the main reason you cannot drop under 2 classes because they do get you out in 4 years :) )</p>
<p>On the premed track is math is the pre-rec for chem first year is likely to be:</p>
<p>fall - math
winter Chem 5
Spring Chem 6</p>
<p>sophmore year </p>
<p>fall/ winter Chem 51/52</p>
<p>or </p>
<p>spring /summer Chem 51/52</p>
<p>Daughter has # friends with ($$) who have taken organic chem 1 & 2 over the summer at Harvard beacause they said the it was an easier course :wink:</p>
<p>Now a whole different animal is if decide to double up on your sciences take physics or bio during the same term as your chem classes or if you know that you want to plan time off for study abroads and internships. </p>
<p>She knows a lot of pre-meds who have not had the opportunity to study abroad (when you know that out of 35 classes you have to take 9 off the top, but then students usually take bio 2, and a few biochem courses it make scheduling difficult) is the reason why last year she decided that she would do a postbac year because she really wanted to have a lot of choice of classes while in school. Now she said she wants to try out an IB internship (in the event she needs a break after school) and is thinking about law school (it will all be over soon)</p>
<p>Sybbie - Investment Banking isn't exactly a "break" from school lol!</p>
<p>Hey I know that.</p>
<p>Slipper, ya making me go there with the parent's mantra:</p>
<p>but do they listen to me :D</p>