<p>i'm choosing between washu and nortwestern, and although i really do like northwestern, the trimesters bother me. Any comments, remarks on the trimester issue?</p>
<p>technically it's trimesters, but they call them quarters here. Anyway, I happen to prefer the quarter system; its two biggest flaws are a bad yearly calendar and a "rushed" feel to school (one midterm after another), etc. I think that it makes the year fly by. You get to take less classes than at other schools, because you switch classes three times, not twice, a year. If you don't like a class, it's over fairly quickly, and you don't have to deal with it for half a year. If you do, there are always options to take other classes taught by that professor. On breaks, you never have to do any work at all because our breaks are simply time periods between quarters, so classes are not in session. Some schools will have you studying for midterms/finals during spring break- who wants that?</p>
<p>You get more done in a year than at other schools, or at least it feels that way, and for most majors (especially if you come in with AP credits) you will be able to take a few quarters of only 3 classes, which is SO nice. I did this last quarter, and this was my schedule:</p>
<p>M: one class, done by 11
T: one class, done by 12
W: two classes, done by 3
T: one class, done by 11
F: no class</p>
<p>So it really does have its perks. It just sucks being home later in the summer when no one is around. You are also at school much later than everyone else, but I actually don't mind because I like being here and the weather is amazing this time of year.</p>
<p>I transferred from WashU to NU. I liked trimester system. It's at faster pace but you don't take as many courses simultaneously (4 (even 3 sometime) instead of 5). You do get to take more courses in the end and have more flexibility in scheduling. You can squeeze an internship during the academic year without having as much impact to your schedule since a quarter is only 1/3 of your academic year whereas a semster off is equivalent to half year off. The flexibility also makes double-majoring easier.</p>
<p>Why did you switch from washu to northwestern?</p>
<p>I really like it. The pace is definitely overwhelming at times, but I don't know what I'd do if I didn't get to take this many classes. I already feel like I won't get to take enough to sample everything I want/need to.</p>
<p>Mainly because NU has better engineering program.</p>
<p>great, my mom said that I wouldn't like the quarter syytem, but i guess it's okay, i'm deciding b/w washU and NU too...</p>
<p>FYI if you are premed/science major, the intro 1-yr science courses would cover just about the same amount of materials as those in semster system. So they are not taught at faster pace at NU (unless you take the accerlerated/honors ones). Although you'd have 3 finals instead of 2 finals, each final is a little more manageable since it'd test you 1/3 of the material instead of 1/2 which can be kinda overwhelming for subjects like bio or orgo (way too many things to memorize).</p>