<p>Is it just me or has anybody noticed that the dates in the UCLA academic calendar quite different from the rest of the universities? Doesn't that make it a bit inconvenient for us to meet up with our old friends?</p>
<p>How is it different? What are these “rest of the universities”? Are you sure you’re not comparing against a semester-system school?</p>
<p>UCLA is on the quarter system. Many other universities are on a semester system. Quarter system schools typically begin late Sept. for fall, winter quarter is after Christmas until mid March, then spring quarter is April until mid June. Semester schools have fall semester beginning in late Aug. and spring semester ends early May. My daughter is about to graduate from UCLA. Friends at other quarter system schools (UCSB, UCD, UCSD, University of Denver) were basically on the same schedule. Berkeley and many privates are on the semester system. It is a bit odd when all your friends have left for college by the end of Aug. and you don’t begin until late Sept. Then everyone is out by mid May and you are in school until early June. Not really a problem as everyone has Thanksgiving off and Christmas break is always similar. There are pros and cons to both systems. My daughter liked the quarter system as there are 3 regular quarters per year so you get to take more classes (great if you have varied interests), and the quarters, at 10 weeks, go by quickly. You will get used to whatever system your school has.</p>
<p>UCLA’s schedule is almost identical to all the other quarter schools on the west coast (all of the UC’s except Berkeley and maybe Merced, Caltech, Stanford, and UWashington, just to name a few).</p>
<p>Ah I see where I faultered. I was unaware of the quarter and semester systems. And as it turns out, most of my friends’ universities follow the semester system. Oh well, thanks for clearing the confusion. :)</p>