<p>Puh-leeze! I think my kids ultimately liked the quarter system. Not at first, for the reasons given by hyeonjlee. But they ultimately appreciated the faster pace of courses, taking fewer courses at a time but more courses overall, and the sense that every class really mattered and represented a meaningful percentage of a course’s total class time. That’s a sense I never had with my 15-week semesters in college.</p>
<p>The internship thing worked itself out fine. And apart from Wall St. internships, a college student can make nice money in late August/early September if he or she doesn’t have to go back to class yet.</p>
<p>The thing that is going to make it nigh impossible to do away with the quarter system is the particular mix of Core requirements. The two clusters Hum/Civ/Arts and Bio/PhySci/Math would have to be completely restructured. Right now, those two clusters represent 12 quarter-courses, averaging two quarters per subject, but giving students the option to take three quarters of some and only one quarter of others. Cramming each cluster into four semester-courses would do a lot of damage and reduce flexibility; expanding them to five would crowd out other options and still not be as flexible as things are today.</p>