The University of Chicago runs on what's affectionately (?) called the quarter system, which is somewhat different from your usual semester system schedule. The year is divided up into four academic periods (autumn, winter, spring, and summer quarters), although summer quarter is not required and few people take classes then, so in reality it functions like a trimester system. (We still call the normal academic terms autumn quarter, winter quarter, and spring quarter however.) Each quarter is eleven weeks long, and weeks are identified by number; the first week of the quarter is 1st week and so on and so forth. Pretty logical so far.
U of C does one quarter before winter break and two after; again, pretty logical. However, in order to fit exactly 11 weeks (no more, no less) in before winter break, while still actually giving students some semblance of a winter break before winter quarter classes start up immediately after new year's, the school year must start approximately 11 weeks before mid-December, which means starting the last week of September. Thus autumn quarter is from late September to early-mid December, winter quarter is from early January to mid-March, and spring quarter (after a week break) is from late March to mid-June.
Well, today is Sunday the 5th and tomorrow, December 6th, is the first day of the 11th week of autumn quarter, aka finals week. Last week, 10th week, was, like every 10th week, composed of 3 days of classes and two days of reading period--no new material introduced, just review sessions, and a lot of studying for finals. Hence I've been pretty busy the past week studying, or at least pretending to study, and generally trying to avoid the fact that finals are rapidly descending upon us all. They are finally here, though, and there's not much any of us can do anymore besides hole up with books and computers and ride it out.
You might ask how classes work with the quarter system. Well, you can take either three or four classes a quarter, and a lot of classes, particular in the core/general education, are what we call sequences--you take two or three quarters of them in a row. The core at Chicago is infamously large and mix-and-matchy, but it consists of three broad groups: humanities/civilization studies/arts, mathematical and natural sciences, and social sciences. You have to do at least two quarters of humanities class, at least two quarters of civilization studies class, and at least one class in the dramatic/musical/visual arts, for a total of 6 classes from that group. You have to do at least one math class (two quarters of calculus, if you use calc for that), at least two classes in the biological sciences, and at least two classes in the physical sciences, for a total of 6 classes from that group. And everyone, without exception, has to do three quarters (a full academic year) of a social sciences core class, which is basically a giant mixture of classic social sciences texts, from the economic (Marx and Smith) to the philosophical to the psychological (Freud) to the anthropological. There's also a foreign language competency requirement (basically a year of a language if you can't test out of it) and even physical education and swimming requirements, if you don't test out of those.
Last year I took two quarters of humanities (basically a small Englishy seminar type class that all first-years take), two quarters of calculus, and two quarters of biological science, to get rid of hum (as we call it), bio, and math. This year I'm taking the full gamut of sosc (as we call the social sciences core sequence), two quarters of physical science (I'm taking an astronomy/astrophyiscs for nonmajors sequence), and an art history class next quarter to finish that. I already have full PE and swim credits and language competency, and I'll be doing civ (as we call the civilizations studies core requirement) next year. So I'm sort of, almost done with the core.
What else do I take? Last year and this year I've taken Italian for the fun of it. Last year I also took a Shakespeare class, an English theory class, and a basic intro to linguistics class. This quarter I'm taking a social psychology class in addition to sosc, Italian, and my astro class. Next quarter I'll be taking sosc, Italian, the second part of my astro sequence, and an art history class on Islamic art and architecture from 650 to 1100 CE to complete my requirement in the arts. In spring quarter I'll finish up sosc and Italian and probably take some sort of English class and possibly developmental psychology. After this year the only core I will have left is civ (basically equivalent to the history of a particular world region); I'm considering doing civ as a study abroad thing (which is very popular) in Rome or Athens, where you go abroad for a quarter and get three quarters' worth of civ, but otherwise I will do my three quarters of civ, a glorious full academic year, on campus next year.
This is all a very long-winded way of saying that it's finals week for autumn quarter 2010 and I'm not crazy-happy about it. My finals week is back-loaded; I have nothing tomorrow but then something every day Tuesday through Friday, and I'm not going back to New England until Saturday. On Tuesday I have my social psych final from 10:30am to 12:30pm. On Wednesday I have a five-page paper about Max Weber for my sosc class due at 5pm. On Thursday I have my Italian final from 8-10am, and on Friday I have my astro final from 10:30a-12:30p. So far I've organized tons of notes about psych and planned out my Weber paper, quotes and all (although I haven't actually begun writing it yet). After I finish this blog entry, I'm going to study psych until dinner and then maybe start actually doing some legitimate paper-writing, although I have a secret santa party-type thing to go to at 8, as well as some other random social obligations, and that all won't be done until probably 11pm. At which point it's back to the grindstone for a few hours before bed. Tomorrow is going to be finishing a draft of the paper and hardcore psych cramming for Tuesday.
There's a vague sort of schedule in there, somewhere. It's hard this close to winter break to care about a lot of this stuff, but this is the most important part, when my focus is supposed to be the strongest of all. With that, I'll leave everyone to their own schedules and start in on some social psychology for a few hours. Hurray!
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