Univ of Wash - why not aligned with Wash State Univ (LOCAL question, much more so than educational)

[Neerwhal]

Originally Posted by Andy

The quarter system works great. I am glad I had it. The best part is that the primary three quarters line up with the crappy weather season up here. Those poor souls in Idaho at Wazzu miss out on half of the nice part of summer stuck in a classroom/wheat field.

I am pretty sure Western Washington Univ. also uses the quarter system.

All of Western WA uses quarters to align to UW.

And it is nice that it lines up.with the seasons.

[GraceKrispy]

Originally Posted by robertpolyglot

It's a matter of opinion. I've experienced both. I like semesters way more. I've spoken to others who have experienced both (i.e. UCLA qtrs. vs. Berkeley sems.) and they like semesters more. I even did a poll on it on the Education sub-forum, and semesters were preferred.

However, I just asked about UW and (a) whether they've ever addressed it, and (b) what the decision was and why.

I don't know the history and I don't agree that they should go to semesters (so I don't feel they've ever needed to address it).

I have always experienced both semester and quarters-- four years of each, in fact. They both have their pros, but I really do like the quarter system. The only time it annoys me is when I need to do some conversion to figure out how many semester hours I have

My undergrad did two semesters and then the month of January was an accelerated class (between semesters). I really liked that a lot, too. It made for a shorter winter break and a slightly longer school year, but it was a great way to allow for study abroad that were shorter, intensive immersion in a particular course (more opportunities for "field trips"), and overall was pretty cool.

I don't think UW needs to change their policy. Quarters work.

[fnh]

I moved from semesters during my undergraduate years (UT Austin) to quarters during my graduate school years (UW). I much preferred the forward momentum of the quarter system, semesters are sooo loooong with the doldrums in the middle.