<p>Re: #3 and the quarter system</p>
<p>The Dartmouth D-plan does allow the student to set up which 12 quarters s/he has “on” and which 3 quarters s/he has “off” (instead of the usual all summers “off”), but with the restriction of not expecting to get a plan with four fall quarters “on”. This is likely for load balancing, since fall quarters (or semesters at other schools) tend to be more heavily enrolled.</p>
<p>Other schools use spring admission for the same load-balancing purpose.</p>