What is the difference between quarters and semesters?
What is the difference between quarters and semesters?
My school runs on quarters. We started on September 22, and I took my last final on December 10th (although some people had them on the 11th too). 12 credits is equal to full time, although 15-18 credits is common. Classes like ENGL 101 are 5 credits and meet for 5 hours a week. It seems like your schedule is about the same as mine, more or less. Any good things about being on semesters?
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TheAnswerIs42
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- Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:13 pm
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My brother went to Ohio University, which was on quarters and (at least at the time) started in August and was out by Thanksgiving. They always got the run on Christmas jobs before anyone else got home. Then they had another quarter from New Year's until spring break, and the third quarter went into the summer longer than we do at BYU.
As I see it, semesters means two major semesters a year with different school coping with the summer portion in different ways. Kinda makes each part a third of a year-August to December, January to May, May to August. Quarters seems to mean they divide the whole year up in four segments (I know, this is the brilliant math teacher in me coming out there!), and most people take three of the four each year. The part that doesn't make sense to me is that the hours to credit ratio is exactly the same (3 credit hours is 3 hours a week, 15 is a common load), but it would seem that you don't have the class as long in a quarter system as you would in a semester system. I wonder how the quantity of content varies from a semester class to a quarter class. Are many of your classes 5 credits? Most major classes in BYU are 3 on average, with religion classes 2 credits and PE classes a half. A five credit class is rare and usually really difficult. How many credits do you need to graduate in a quarter system? We need 120.
Feel free to correct me on any of this, given that I have been out of school for a while. But the quarter thing always fascinated me.
As I see it, semesters means two major semesters a year with different school coping with the summer portion in different ways. Kinda makes each part a third of a year-August to December, January to May, May to August. Quarters seems to mean they divide the whole year up in four segments (I know, this is the brilliant math teacher in me coming out there!), and most people take three of the four each year. The part that doesn't make sense to me is that the hours to credit ratio is exactly the same (3 credit hours is 3 hours a week, 15 is a common load), but it would seem that you don't have the class as long in a quarter system as you would in a semester system. I wonder how the quantity of content varies from a semester class to a quarter class. Are many of your classes 5 credits? Most major classes in BYU are 3 on average, with religion classes 2 credits and PE classes a half. A five credit class is rare and usually really difficult. How many credits do you need to graduate in a quarter system? We need 120.
Feel free to correct me on any of this, given that I have been out of school for a while. But the quarter thing always fascinated me.
Yeah, I take 3 out of 4 quarters a year, as it seems most people do.
Our quarters are 10 weeks long plus finals (well, fall is 11 weeks+finals if you count the 2 days you have to go on the week of thanksgiving as a week).
There are a lot of 5 credit classes. Introduction to History, Psychology 100, POLS 111, French 101, English 101, basically any math class (well for calc you have to take 3 semesters of a 5 credit class) basically all your GEs are 5 credits each. The only classes that are more than 5 credits are things like automotive technology classes (which vary in credit amount, but a lot are worth like 11 credits, I guess you spend serious time learning about brakes and stuff) or in some of the intense majors. All PE classes (actual ones where you are working out, not the kind where you are learning about how to treat athletic injuries) are 1 credit, with the exception of Scuba Diving which is 2 (and I look forward to taking it in the spring, that will be a fun class). I don't know about how many classes you need to get your Bachelors on the quarter system, but to get your associates you need 90 credits (so maybe we would need 180?)
Our quarters are 10 weeks long plus finals (well, fall is 11 weeks+finals if you count the 2 days you have to go on the week of thanksgiving as a week).
There are a lot of 5 credit classes. Introduction to History, Psychology 100, POLS 111, French 101, English 101, basically any math class (well for calc you have to take 3 semesters of a 5 credit class) basically all your GEs are 5 credits each. The only classes that are more than 5 credits are things like automotive technology classes (which vary in credit amount, but a lot are worth like 11 credits, I guess you spend serious time learning about brakes and stuff) or in some of the intense majors. All PE classes (actual ones where you are working out, not the kind where you are learning about how to treat athletic injuries) are 1 credit, with the exception of Scuba Diving which is 2 (and I look forward to taking it in the spring, that will be a fun class). I don't know about how many classes you need to get your Bachelors on the quarter system, but to get your associates you need 90 credits (so maybe we would need 180?)