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Stuck in Quarter System Limbo

Kelly Engler
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Northwestern

Kelly Engler shows her Wildcat pride as she poses underneath the Northwestern University Weber Arch.

No, I’m not a senior at Bellaire High School. No, I’m not a New Age hippie who refuses to conform to the higher educational system. And no, I did not drop out of school to pursue my life ambition of working at a fast food chain restaurant. So why, you ask, am I still on summer vacation?

I’m actually a rising senior at Northwestern University, a higher-level institution that operates on the quarter system. To put it simply, victims of the quarter system start school in late September and end school in mid-June. This means I have to idly twiddle my thumbs at home for about a month while the general undergraduate population of America has already begun taking classes. It also means that when I’m at school, I have three sets of midterms and three sets of final exams, as opposed to only two.

And I use the term “midterm” lightly, as midterms don’t usually come in the middle of the term, as the name might imply. Midterms on the quarter system can actually take place between weeks three and eight, which means students’ stress levels are at a peak year-round. Doesn’t sound ideal, does it? But, like anything in life, there is a fine balance between the good and the bad.

Northwestern students are able to take a variety of credits, as we have not just fall semester and spring semester, but fall quarter, winter quarter, spring quarter, and an optional summer quarter. This means that we have more opportunities to boost our GPAs, we have the opportunity to take classes we’re actually interested in, and the prospect of double or triple-majoring becomes more of a reality. So although I’m stuck at home lamenting my incurable boredom for a month, the opportunities outweigh the negative costs of the quarter system, and I’m thankful to be stuck in quarter system limbo.

So for the next few days, I’m considering myself an in-and-out intern. As a rising senior majoring in both psychology and theatre, I figured that interning at The Buzz could be an exciting way to spend my last three days in Houston, as opposed to melting my brain from watching too much Netflix. Previously, I have contributed a Buzz Pics story called “Vacationing with Wolves” for the March 2014 issue. I’m looking forward to my three-day internship with The Buzz, and I hereby challenge myself to write three blog posts in the three days I have before moving back to Evanston.

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