<p>I know it goes by quarter semesters. My older brother goes to Penn State Univ and the fall semester is from the first week of Sept to the first week in DEC. Then, he is off until about the 2nd week in JAN, which is when the spring semester starts and that ends the first week of MAY. So the summer ranges from the 2nd week of May until the last week of August.</p>
<p>I have a few cousins that are in grammer school in Cal and they go to school all year around( no summers off), i think their vacation is their off for about a 3 weeks to a month every 3 or 4 months but they dont have a 3-4 month summer like students have on the east coast.</p>
<p>Is the colleges out in Cal, like the UC schools have semesters structured like this, do they have no summer, when is their vacation.</p>
<p>Basically, can someone break down how a students schedule is if they go to one of the UC campuses. I heard its quartely??</p>
<p>From what I remember, all UC's are on a quarter system. There is summer vacation, though you could always take classes during summer quarter. Exception: Berkeley which is on a semester system.</p>
<p>The only two UCs not on the quarter system are Cal and Merced. Quarters involved three ten-week intervals of classes. Something like Sept-Dec, Jan-Mar, Mar-Jun, summer. This is a rough estimate, of course, and doesn't take into account the highly variable and beauracratized system of assigning vacation time.</p>
<p>Flopsy, remember that it's always subject to change.</p>
<p>UCLA faculty wants to go with semesters because it's better for instruction and supposedly research. Students like quarters because you get out of a class quicker.</p>
<p>I don't know why Merced went with semesters. Maybe to be like Berkeley?</p>