start of semester summary

[katiesaur]

i think a good bedtime for me during the term would be 1:30. if i could get nine hours of sleep a night, i would be most happy. and it would still give leeway for staying up later working on homework and getting 7.5 hours or even 6 if necessary. but i would never get too sleep deprived

Comments

[mooseking]

UCLA is on the quarter system. (Well, basically, it is a trimester system, but then they presumably have summer classes.) I don't know if it's a difference between us or a difference between our disciplines, but I much prefer the semesters. I am massively concerned that, as soon as I finally start to adjust to a class and understand the interests and biases and etc. of the professor and students there, it will end. On the other hand, graduate classes are usually really small, and there are maybe a hundred students in the department (some of whom are just working on their dissertations and don't really count), and so I will probably see a lot of the same people from class to class.

I woke up after 5 PM today. This is what I call "victory". If it is still like this when classes start in two and a half weeks, I also call it "a pretty serious problem".

[katiesaur]

i'm sure i could complain with either system, i just long for the trimester system because i've never tried it and can therefore assume it far superior. we do have a january term here, and taking a full class in four weeks is certainly too intense. but surely something in the middle would be ideal. i think i would prefer trimesters for my undergraduate experience, although once in graduate classes maybe it wouldn't even seem ideal anymore.

how many weeks does a class end up being with your system?
our classes last around 13 here.

i remember not too long ago when i was waking up at 5pm. those were the days. *sigh*

Oh, I thought you were going to sleep?

[mooseking]

Well, classes here are ten weeks, so it really does not make much difference either way. I suppose this way, I am taking fewer classes at a time, so if one of them is bad, and (as has been the case in the past) that class' badness disrupts my general enthusiasm for school and my performance in the other classes, I am at least only sabotaging one-third of my year, rather than a full half.

Oh, sorry, forgot to say...

[mooseking]

...that taking all my classes in the form of one three-hour session per week is probably going to be a much larger adjustment for me than the trimesters are. That was my point. I forgot to mention it.