<p>I would like to know the advantages and disadvantages of a quarter system at Northwestern as opposed to Semester system at other universities.</p>
<p>One thing I noticed was the summer break starts much later than other school. That may affect the internship opportunity.</p>
<p>^Not much actually. Most internships start in June and since they typically last 8-10 weeks, there’s no reason for companies to start in May and make themselves unable to tap into talents from schools like UChicago, Stanford, UCLA, Dartmouth, etc.</p>
<p>For those that start in early June, you can make arrangements with Prof to take the finals early.</p>
<p>Pros: Classes you don’t like end quickly, longer first summer break (whoop whoop!), you have a chance to take more classes so easier double majoring/minoring, only 4 classes on average</p>
<p>Cons: Fast paced, higher stress, you work until June (Although, at least that lets you have the nicer Spring weather in Chicago, rather than only experiencing cold)</p>
<p>Those are the ones that I’ve heard</p>
<p>From talking with the kids…
Plus = More varied classes, not “stuck” with a bad prof, or bad schedule as long, if you do get one.<br>
Minus = It’s always Mid-terms!</p>
<p>Another pro: finals are lined up with breaks, so fall quarter ends right before winter break, and winter quarter ends right before spring break. This means you’ll never have to do any studying over breaks, which is a huge advantage over other schools.</p>
<p>Flyingfish, never thought about that. That’s a great point!</p>
<p>On the other hand, you can stress about the grades during the break! Just kidding ;-)</p>
<p>The internship thing actually has been a problem in my experience, and I’ve talked to several other people it’s been a problem for, too. Many jobs/internships do start in late May/early June, and you might not be able to convince a professor to let you take a final early. Many of them will say it’s not up to them, that it’s University policy that they have to give finals during finals week.</p>
<p>You should know, however, that although NU always gets out much later than semester schools, it’s not always QUITE as late as it is this year. This year, we started school a week later because there was a Jewish holiday the week we normally would have started school, so we’re getting out a week later, too.</p>
<p>Pros, as other people have said, are that you can take more classes, which makes it easy to add other majors/minors (especially if you want to add something relatively late in the game). Cons are definitely that it’s high-stress and more fast-paced. After the first couple weeks, midterms start, and then they pretty much don’t stop until Reading Week. The quarter system also means you might not get to go as in-depth with the material, because you have so much to cover in a short time. I once overheard TAs who went to a semester school say that they felt sorry for us, because we weren’t getting to really “learn” the material thoroughly.</p>
<p>But it’s a mixed bag. You’ll see people here who love the quarter system and people who hate it. There are definite pros and cons, so you just have to decide what’s important to you.</p>
<p>For the big structured summer programs (at investment banks and the like), the quarter system is not an issue for summer internships - the firms have late start dates for the kids coming from NU, Stanford, UChicago and Dartmouth. I think the late end date can make it challenging to find a job your first year though.</p>
<p>My son liked the quarter system, but he did say that some quarters he felt he was always in mid-term mode. He also didn’t like some of the early math classes he took for the reason siempre curiosa mentions - he felt that the class ended up touching a number of subjects quickly but there wasn’t time to go into depth on any one. This improved with upper level math classes.</p>
<p>As an observer of the quarter system (and a parent who was always on semester system myself) I can absolutely say the quarter system is far more challenging. I think combined with challenging academics at a school like NU, it IS a stress, but could be sold in future by a grad (of such a system) as training for a fast-paced, deadline-laden career position!
Semester system students have it east compared to quarter system students…</p>
<p>I haven’t checked this in a while, but I forgot to mention what jrpar did last time, and it’s a great point. I’m pretty confident that most internships and such gladly work around the schedules of students from schools like Stanford, NU, Dartmouth, UChicago, etc.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that this year is a bit of a fluke and given the less than enthusiastic response from just about everyone, I doubt it will be this late again!</p>
<p>Oh and my daughter never had a problem with an internship - the school and her summer stock internship was very willing to work around the two NU kids; my daughter took her finals early, the other got to summer stock a few days late. No problem. My husbands firm also accommodates late starters.</p>
<p>The quarter system sucks…Everyone I speak to dislikes it…</p>
<p>I’m glad that some people have been able to get around the late-start issue with summer internships, because I have definitely had problems with it, and so have other people I know. Last summer, I wanted to apply for an internship that began during finals week. I asked the people if it would be possible to start the program a few days late, as it conflicted with finals. They told me no, that I would have to ask my professor if I could take the final early. The professor said that Weinberg set the final exam dates, that it was against policy for him to allow a student to take it early, and that I would just have to ask the internship people if I could start late. It was a no-win situation. It’s great that other people have not had this problem, but I just don’t want the OP to have the impression that it’s not a problem at all, because it definitely can be. Maybe it depends on the field the internship is in; I don’t know.</p>