U.S. flisters help me out?

[scrollgirl]

A few years ago, ann1962 explained to me that elementary and high schools in the U.S. started in August, which I hadn't known before. And now I find out that might be true for colleges and universities as well? Ugh, the U.S. university/college system is confusing me right now! Would someone on my dwircle/flist kindly explain it to this poor Canadian?

Comments

[pocky_slash]

When schools start in the US depends on what part of the country they're in for elementary/high school and college alike. In the northeast, we start after labor day. In the south, they tend to start in mid/late August. Same for colleges. Classes at my college (in NY) started after labor day, though we moved in the week before. Some of my friends went to schools that started in mid August. Some school on trimesters don't start until mid September. It's generally up to the school--it's not really standardized

[jcase]

Part of it depends on where you are. I'm at a high school in Texas -- we start about the 3rd week of August, and our first semester ends about two / three weeks into December. Spring starts up in January & we go all the way to end of May / beginning of June. (Yes, our semesters are unbalanced. It makes no sense). The colleges here start at the very end of August & go till about the first week in December. (Colleges tend to have shorter semesters than high schools due to requirements set by the state

[cactuswatcher]

Like everyone is saying, the school schedules are all different dependent on where you live. Here in AZ school starts in August and ends in May. In St. Louis school started immediately after Labor Day and let out early in June. My university in Missouri had a similar schedule, but that may have changed. Going home for Thanksgiving for those who lived in the state was no problem. Those who lived farther away usually stayed in town. The semester didn't end until a few weeks *after* the Christmas break. (Yes, that was a mess.) There was a break after finals and again a break in the spring in the middle of the second semester about Easter time. Ohio State U. was on a quarter schedule instead of a semester schedule. The fall quarter started later in September and ended before Christmas. There was a winter quarter starting after the New Year and ending in March. After that there was about a week of spring break. The spring quarter ended around the beginning of June and there was a Summer quarter of the same length that ran till

[atpolittlebit]

Ohio State (and all the Ohio colleges now, 2 and 4 year, I believe) went to a semester system this academic year so fall classes started in August.

But for elementary and secondary schools it does depend entirely on location and school systems. When I went, it seemed that all the area schools started the Wednesday after Labor Day. Now most of the school systems here are starting in mid to late August. And how long it lasts can vary. Most schools in Northern states build in 'snow days' to accommodate the potential closinga due to weather. But if there are more closed days than snow days, the school year can be extended so that the mandated number of days is met. (And boy howdy do the parents pitch a fit if this cuts into the vacation plans, heh).

[cactuswatcher]

I hated the quarter system. It seemed like every time we turned around, we were signing up for classes.

[dlgood]

As others have said, the schedules vary wildly by location.

In Maryland, grade schools used to start immediately after labor day -- in part because the state wanted to prolong the tourist season at the Ocean City beach. University of Maryland classes started at the end of August and ran until late December. There was a six week winter break - so spring classes started at the very end of January. (with an optional mini-semester class schedule during that break) and then ran into late may.

At the University of Michigan, there was only a two week winter break, so classes started almost right after New Years. We actually had spring breaks that started in late February. And the semester and finals were done in April.

[wesleysgirl]

New England, school almost never starts until the beginning of September in my experience. Thanksgiving break is usually just a long weekend (Thanksgiving on Thurs, go back to school on Monday.) And then finals before Christmas, yes.