Are there advantages/disadvantages for student athletes regarding a school’s academic calendar? Is Semester vs Quarter vs 4-1-4 better? Is it sport dependent?
Depends on sport, school, program. I’d look more at team travel schedule and discuss that with the coach.
Depends on the sport and the student. My fall sport athlete was intrigued by trimester schools – where fall athletes arrived mid-August for pre-season but classes didn’t begin until mid to late Sept. He was interested in the possibility of reducing the period of time in which he was going hard in-season and in class, especially as a 1st year when there is so much adjustment to both college level sports and academics. But, at the end of the process, it was really just an interesting twist and not a significant factor in this decision. I’m not sure how it might work for winter season sports, say, basketball, when a trimester school would be on winter break from Tgiving to early Jan, and presumably those BBall players come back after Tgiving and are training and competing when there aren’t other students on campus.
If you are at a quarter school, it’s possible you’d have finals in Mid March, right when a lot of sports are at their peak.
My daughter’s school ran on an ‘early’ spring semester, so while her coach could set all the regular games before finals week happened, coach couldn’t control the playoffs of NCAA championship. They had to have practice during finals week and they had to stay at school longer than the school year because of the NCAAs (made it her jr and sr years).
Weather can also have an influence. Schools in the south can schedule their outside games in jan and Feb, while northern schools often don’t have their first games until late March. Daughter’s coach could heavy load the beginning of the semester and then only have one game each week in April, during finals.
Depends on the sport. Winter sports athletes tend to like 4-1-4. I can think of a school that had 4-4-1 and it was perceived as a huge advantage to the spring athletes that were not juggling classes and final exams with the most intense part of their competition schedule.
You really need to see how the competition schedule lines up with the academic calendar as well as how the team uses breaks for training. If a school has a long break between semesters and teams travel to train, it can work out well for winter athletes, for example.
I would do a quick check at each school you’re considering of the academic calendar and the game schedule.
The biggest disadvantage of trimester/quarter schools is for summer internships. Most of the semester students are out by early May, and the trimester/quarter students are done by early June. This is a significant disadvantage for summer jobs/internships.
For spring sports, trimester is probably easier, since exams don’t happen until after the season is over. Same with fall, since most fall sports are done by the time of exams for the fall term. As noted by @Midwestmomofboys, winter sports might be different, but I think there is some competing without fans for winter sports even at semester schools. The 4-1-4 or 4-4-1 school athletes probably have the best of all worlds.
The advantage to trimesters is that its easier for athletes to study abroad. If they’re at a school, like Dartmouth, with 4 quarters, they can do internships in non-traditional quarters - like winter. While its true that getting out in June can be an issue for internships, companies that recruit at the school will usually have appropriate plans in place for the later start.
Except for those exams for winter quarter which usually happen in March - smack in the middle of the spring season.
And fall athletes at quarter schools have to start up in August, so their internships or summer jobs are cut short anyway.
No perfect choice.
What other schools are 4-1-4 besides Williams College?
@MrsJayBird Middlebury and MIT off the top of my head, but I know there are more. Bates and W&L have a 4-4-1 offering.
Colby is 4-1-4.
Oberlin has a January term, during which students can take an “Experimental College” class or a mini term class, I believe.