I feel that being on the semester is such a huge advantage compared to the quarter system because all of the community colleges are currently on the semester system and you get more time to have a break during the summer, which results in having more opportunities for summer internships and summer jobs.
I think it will be the other way around and eventually all UC’s will be on the quarter system. I personally like the quarter system (went to Cal Poly). You do have to hit the ground running and be extremely organized but you also get a chance to take more classes giving you more options.
The summer is not shorter on the quarter system vs. semester system. Semester system classes usually end in May but your start up in August for Fall. Quarter system ends in June but you do not start up until September for Fall. Basically the time is shifted one month between the 2 systems. No difference on summer internships and jobs since many are filled long before the school year ends.
Everyone has their likes and dislikes but does not make one system better than the other.
UC Berkeley was on a semester system until around the late 1960’s. It subsequently changed to the quarter system until the early 1980’s and then switched back to the semester system. The law school, Boalt Hall, was always on the semester system. I believe all the UC law schools are also on the semester system. UC Merced, emulating UC Berkeley, began and still is on the semester system. The unit conversion is 1.5 times a semester unit = a quarter unit. For example, for a normal school year (2 semesters vs. 3 quarters, no summer classes) 30 semester units x 1.5 = 45 quarter units.
I’ve heard (unofficially) that this is the most likely scenario. Consider the following points:
(1) the competition for a slot in the UC system is getting more intense every year;
(2) the UCs are under heavy political pressure to squeeze in more and more CA residents;
(3) there are currently no plans to significantly expand any of the existing campuses (except Merced);
(4) there are currently no plans or funds to create any new UC campuses.
Where is this going to go in the next 5-10 years? The State is relying on a report by the Legislative Analyst’s Office, which predicts that demand will peak in 2023-24 and then start to drop, due to demographic factors. But even if that’s accurate, things could get increasingly ugly before then.
One point that the LAO likes to make is that UC campuses are greatly underutilized during the summer. OK, so maybe it would make sense to have more students enrolled during the summer term. But in that case, maybe it would also make sense to borrow an idea from the Ivy League: the Dartmouth D-Plan.
At Dartmouth, there are four terms per year, and students are only enrolled for three. That’s normal enough, but the difference is that Dartmouth students get flexibility as to which term they take off – it could be the fall or winter or spring, not just the summer. In practice, this means that the campus operates at pretty much full capacity during all four terms. Furthermore, it means that Dartmouth can admit more students than they actually have room for, because they know that a large fraction of the student body will be off during every term.
The D-Plan has been described as a way to “fit 4,000 students into 3,000 beds”. Well, that’s exactly the kind of thing that UC campuses need to do. I could see a staggered entry policy, with one cohort of frosh entering in the fall term with the expectation that they take summer terms off, another cohort entering in the winter term with the expectation that they will be on-campus during the summer terms but off in the fall terms, etc.