College Choices

The United States has a lot of variety when it comes to the types of colleges people can to attend. An important factor in choosing a college might be the amount of time an individual wants to spend taking classes, but because of the different academic systems colleges provide, some complications can arise. There are three different types of academic terms schools or colleges can adhere by and they are a semester system, a trimester system, and a quarter or quadmester system. Usually, a semester system divides the year into two terms, mostly around 15-18 weeks. This system is very common for most American colleges. A trimester system cuts the academic year into three terms, generally around 10-12 weeks. Lastly, the quarter or quadmester system cuts the year into four ten-week terms and also counts the summer as one of the terms in the academic year. The hours earned is the biggest difference between semester and quarter system schooling. As said before, the semester system roughly cuts the school year in half, usually around 15 weeks each. When the two semesters are joined together they constitute 30 weeks of teaching. So if you look at the quarter system, and then the semester system you will find that three academic quarters are equal to two academic semesters. As a result, credit earned in quarter hours converts to semester hours at 2/3 of its value, and semester hours converted to quarter hours are actually worth 3/2 of it’s value. In other words, three quarter hours are equal to two semester hours. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_term#United_States. Another difference would be the amount of time spent taking classes. The quarter system can keep you more alert and you’ll be able to finish classes you do not like much faster. When taking semester classes, you have to take the classes, such as general education classes that may have nothing to do with your major for the entire sixteen weeks. On the other hand, you get longer breaks while on the semester system stretching out the classes, and giving professors more time to assess the class and maybe make adjustments to students who need more help. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/660798-semester-system-vs-quarter-system.html. Another difference I think is important would be the amount of breaks each system has over the school year. The semester system has a general Spring, Winter, and short fall break whereas quarter systems have breaks almost every three months. Also, when most students attending a semester system college are done with classes in the winter, quarter system students are still enrolled in classes and have a significantly less amount of break time. So of course when visiting friends it is sometimes difficult to be on the same break schedule if one was in a quarter system school and another in a semester system school. http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=65275. Personally, I think that I could attend either one. Quarter systems seem to be easier when looking at the class load, and break times between each quarter, but not many people attend these colleges as well as it is hard to transfer credits going to a semester based system.