<p>Carleton seems like a great school in so many ways, but I have a hard time with its use of a trimester system. I just strikes me as undesirable -- you start later, you have exams at (what seem like) odd times, the spring semester ends later, the time spent taking a class seems short and rushed.</p>
<p>What has been the experience of those of you who have actually experienced it? How does it really work?</p>
<p>Benefits:
- You can feel invested in every class you take a term. With more than three or so, there tends to be one or two that get blown off more than the others, in my experience.
- Breaks are not dominated by needing to study for finals or finish a paper. At Carleton, you won't have to do any academic work over the 6 week winter break, 1.5-2.5 week spring break, and 2 month summer break, with the possible exception of comps (depending on your major). My friends at semester schools typically had a bunch of papers due right after spring break and were no fun. Some semester schools even have you go on winter break and THEN come back for finals after you've gotten academically rusty over the weeks. I always thought that schedule sounded miserable.
- One of your classes a dud? It's over in 10 weeks.
- Profs (for the most part) won't waste your time with review or slow introductions to the subject, since there's just not enough days of classes to screw around.
- Distinct seasons. Fall term is gorgeous and not very cold when you leave for winter break. Winter term is...what it is, but then that makes people all the more excited and energized for spring term.
- Because of the long winter break, you can easily do a semester study abroad program fall term and come ahead in credits without missing winter or spring terms. You can't really do a quarter or trimester study abroad program from a semester school without losing credits.</p>
<p>Downsides:
- Winter break feels a week or two too long. You can work holiday retail jobs all the way through the busy season and make extra cash, but you can't really expect much else in the way of employment unless you have a high school job you can return to any time. If you're not employed during the break (or loaded enough to be taking fancy trips), you're going to have too much time with the fam.
- Summer break is awkwardly timed, and it's hard to do non-Carleton formal internship or research programs that have start dates in May or early June, as many do.
- The only day off each term you'll have is the Monday of 6th week for mid-term break, and you'll probably spend it hung over writing a paper. That, or Mall of America.
- Sick for a couple of weeks with mono? You're basically ****ed.
- Assignments aren't given as far in advance as at a semester school, and you really are doing the amount of work you would for a semester class on a compressed schedule. It's intense and not for everybody, though I wouldn't describe it as rushed.</p>
<p>Added positives:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>You can get a job working the Holiday season ... from Thanksgiving through New Year. Very important if you need the money. </p></li>
<li><p>Winters, at least where we live, are often pretty rugged in January. Carleton gets a few extra weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, which is much better than getting a couple of more weeks off in early to mid-January.</p></li>
<li><p>Although others will disagree, three courses allows for more focus. As a college professor, I often find that my advisees are choosing to take 4 courses instead of 5 during our semester for exactly this reason. They then take the 5th course over the summer.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Trimesters allow for all students who want to study off campus the opportunity to do so. The math and science departments at Carleton have set the schedule for required courses so all students can go off campus and not miss any classes. This is not the case for schools on the semester system where it is much harder for the math and science majors to study abroad and still meet requirements without overloading their schedule. Many other schools have trimesters (e.g., Stanford, U of Chicago, Dartmouth) and it seems to work for them, as well.</p>
<p>You get 9 course slots each year instead of 8, so you can take more than at a semester school.</p>
<p>You can be home for Thanksgiving and Christmas without double airfare and double holiday airport hassle.</p>
<p>Department stores are thrilled to have smart kids who can work the whole Christmas rush (and that eases the "too much time with family" if it's a problem)</p>
<p>Is there a publication or online source that offers a listing of U.S. Colleges/Universities that offer Trimesters?</p>
<p>Not aware of any complete listing of trimester/quarter schools.</p>
<p>Others include Caltech, UChicago, Northwestern, Dartmouth, Stanford, most of the UC system (other than Berkeley), UWashington, UOregon and Oregon State, Union, Lawrence, Kalamazoo, College of the Atlantic, Knox, etc. </p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>