Semesters in the USA

[bookbard]

Just writing a story set in the USA & trying to work out how the university year goes. Starts September and goes straight for a semester and breaks in December? Then a new semester in January and goes through to June - is that correct? You don't have terms at all, just semesters? Do you have holidays halfway through the semester at all?

[vonfirmath]

13 minutes ago, bookbard said:

Just writing a story set in the USA & trying to work out how the university year goes. Starts September and goes straight for a semester and breaks in December? Then a new semester in January and goes through to June - is that correct? You don't have terms at all, just semesters? Do you have holidays halfway through the semester at all?

Depends to some extent on the state, etc.

In public schools here, Starts August and goes through mid-December. 1 wk break at Thanksgiving. Starts up again January and goes through to May. 1 wk break in March for Spring Break.

 

Semesters in college are often different.

(And some colleges have quarters instead. University of Washington goes on quarters. Seattle Academic Calendar | Campus Calendar (washington.edu)

 

 

Edited April 7, 2022 by vonfirmath

[Arcadia]

15 minutes ago, bookbard said:

 You don't have terms at all, just semesters? Do you have holidays halfway through the semester at all?

Thanksgiving break and spring break are the norms. Some colleges are on the quarter system instead of the semester system 

[bookbard]

OK, thanks. It's just for a fanfic so doesn't have to be super accurate. 

4 minutes ago, vonfirmath said:

Depends to some extent on the state, etc.

In public schools here, Starts August and goes through mid-December. 1 wk break at Thanksgiving. Starts up again January and goes through to May. 1 wk break in March for Spring Break.

 

Semesters in college are often different.

(And some colleges have quarters instead. University of Washington goes on quarters. Seattle Academic Calendar | Campus Calendar (washington.edu)

 

[Farrar]

So, like all things American, there is no absolute standard. Each school does it differently. Some schools don't do semesters at all - they do quarters or trimesters. And the specific dates vary. A lot of small private schools have a short term - either a January term or an end of spring semester term. It's like a monthlong term where students can take mini-courses if they want.

But I'd say the average is starting at the very end of August and going straight through to December but with a break for Thanksgiving. Sometimes Labor Day, Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples' Day, Veterans' Day are breaks. Private schools in New England often have a Mountain Day - it's a random day off proclaimed by the school in autumn (sometimes in spring as well).

Then for second semester, usually starting in mid-January and going through May. There's a spring break in there for a full week, usually in late March, though it really depends. That's different from K12 schools, which usually have their spring breaks around Easter, though that's highly regional. Days off might include MLK Day, but usually that's about it. The spring just has fewer federal holidays.

[vonfirmath]

Here is the Calendar for University of texas: Academic Calendar 2022 - 2023 | Office of the Registrar | The University of Texas at Austin (utexas.edu)

 

[bookbard]

Thanks everyone for mentioning Thanksgiving - I forgot about that! Is it just one day or do they get a bit longer for it?

[vonfirmath]

6 minutes ago, bookbard said:

Thanks everyone for mentioning Thanksgiving - I forgot about that! Is it just one day or do they get a bit longer for it?

Thanksgiving was at minimum Thursday adn Friday. Often Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

Lately it has turned more into a full week holiday.

 

[Ellie]

1 hour ago, bookbard said:

Just writing a story set in the USA & trying to work out how the university year goes. Starts September and goes straight for a semester and breaks in December? Then a new semester in January and goes through to June - is that correct? You don't have terms at all, just semesters? Do you have holidays halfway through the semester at all?

Well, depending on everything, a semester will have two 9-week report card periods, or three 6-week report card periods--IOW, 18 weeks. Yes, we have holidays in the middle of semesters: Labor Day (first Monday in September, which makes a three-day weekend); Thanksgiving, sometimes Veterans' Day, in November; Christmas, of course (although many public schools now say "winter break"); then what is commonly now called "spring break" (which we all know is Easter vacation); Memorial Day in May (last Monday, which makes it a three-day weekend).

Wouldn't a semester be the equivalent of a term? We don't usually have a summer term/semester, though; it's just summer.

When I was growing up in Virginia, we started school the day after Labor Day (so, September). Last day of school was in June. We finished the first semester before Christmas vacation. In California, school started earlier, in August, but somehow the fall semester wasn't over at Christmas. I moved from South Carolina at Christmas, having taken semester exams and everything at the high school there, to California, where semester exams were after Christmas vacation. I had two weeks of classes there and had to take the exams again. What the actual heck?? Because even though the course titles were the same, they were really different classes, and I only had two weeks to catch up. Exams were a dog's breakfast for me. o_0 Anyway, the school year ended at the end of May.

[Katy]

I’m pretty sure mine had a full week for Thanksgiving. You were forced to leave because dorms close. 

Some colleges & universities have an optional January term and Spring classes start in February.

[mom2scouts]

All of the colleges and universities around me (a lot of them both big and small) use semesters. They start in September, take a break of at least Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving, and end in December. The second semester starts in mid-January and goes until May with a week long spring break. Spring break is usually around the end of March or beginning of April. I don't know of any local university that goes into June.

[cbollin]

8 hours ago, bookbard said:

Just writing a story set in the USA & trying to work out how the university year goes.

You said for university year.  Then make sure you don't bother with the "report card periods" that someone mentioned up the thread.  That is not typically part of university year.  That's elementary and high school that was described.  If you're writing fan fiction about a university setting, that would be weird to most readers to hear about report cards in college/university .  (By the way, when talking about experiences from student point of view, we use college and university interchangeably.   When talking about specific place attending, then proper name is used of course.)

agreeing with others: no standard one size fits all.  either start the year in August or September to start. some fall breaks at some places (can be one day, can be longer...)  Thanksgiving (full or half week). Done in mid December.  Restart in January... get spring break week,  some places may do time off at Easter. semester done in May.  Quarter systems tend to finish in June at least where I've worked.

note about summer:  Summer terms vary in university schedules - even within the same university.  Around here there are some courses done in the First Summer (starts late May after the "memorial day weekend" and goes into June for about 5 weeks total) and Second Summer is July (but not on July 4th, a national holiday).  But then some of the courses are 8 or even 10 weeks and overlap and are part of a different Summer schedule.  confused?  me too.    However, most students and even faculty are not in those courses.  Much smaller number of people than fall and spring.  Not a full working number of courses.   So if you write about summer make sure it feels different on campus that way with fewer people. fewer courses, shorter terms, longer class times each day.   Or, ignore summer for the story and it will also be normal.

[Terabith]

6 hours ago, Ellie said:

Well, depending on everything, a semester will have two 9-week report card periods, or three 6-week report card periods--IOW, 18 weeks. Yes, we have holidays in the middle of semesters: Labor Day (first Monday in September, which makes a three-day weekend); Thanksgiving, sometimes Veterans' Day, in November; Christmas, of course (although many public schools now say "winter break"); then what is commonly now called "spring break" (which we all know is Easter vacation); Memorial Day in May (last Monday, which makes it a three-day weekend).

Wouldn't a semester be the equivalent of a term? We don't usually have a summer term/semester, though; it's just summer.

When I was growing up in Virginia, we started school the day after Labor Day (so, September). Last day of school was in June. We finished the first semester before Christmas vacation. In California, school started earlier, in August, but somehow the fall semester wasn't over at Christmas. I moved from South Carolina at Christmas, having taken semester exams and everything at the high school there, to California, where semester exams were after Christmas vacation. I had two weeks of classes there and had to take the exams again. What the actual heck?? Because even though the course titles were the same, they were really different classes, and I only had two weeks to catch up. Exams were a dog's breakfast for me. o_0 Anyway, the school year ended at the end of May.

This is true for public K-12 schools but not for most universities.  Semesters/ trimesters/ quarters, but semesters is most common.  

[Wheres Toto]

I think you could probably do whatever works for your story.    Besides the variation from state to state, a lot of schools offer extra short sessions.

My sons community college has a regular 15 week Fall and Spring semester (off for Thanksgiving Week, then done the week before Christmas, Spring starts a week or two after New Years and has off a Spring Break, ending in May or early June).  They also have some classes that do 13 weeks in the Fall or Spring, a 2 week or 4 week Winterim Session between the Fall and Spring, shorter options that are 2/4/6 weeks during the beginning or ending of Fall and Spring, and about 4 different options for ways to take Summer classes ranging from 2 weeks to 12 weeks.  

[elegantlion]

Another consideration besides semesters is the terminology surrounding education. I'm not sure where you're located, but terms like studying for exams is used versus revising or we take breaks (like Thanksgiving and summer) not holidays. 

That may not applicable to you but wanted to point it out just in case. 

[gardenmom5]

9 hours ago, bookbard said:

Just writing a story set in the USA & trying to work out how the university year goes. Starts September and goes straight for a semester and breaks in December? Then a new semester in January and goes through to June - is that correct? You don't have terms at all, just semesters? Do you have holidays halfway through the semester at all?

Some colleges use semesters and of the ones that do with which I am familiar -  start in late August.  They run to mid Dec, Jan - april/may.  some schools - re: my daughters - didn't offer summer semester at all.  Others do, but it is shorter.  My daughters college had a month off at Christmas - because of the weather - mid dec- mid january.  They were done the end of apr/1st week of may.  They did have a week off for spring break.  graduation was mid May. (Their warnings about graduation weather was: it could snow, or it could be 80 degrees.  The year 2dd was supposed to graduate - but she was on a break in south america  - they had a tornado warning.)

Other colleges use quarters and start in  mid/late Sep - mid dec, Jan -  mid mar, end march/1st week April - june.  a week off between winter and spring quarters. Again, summer quarter is shorter than the quarters during the year.  (one refused to do summer quarter because of it) My sons were back the beginning of January.  Graduation was mid - late June.

If you know what college your character is supposed to attend, I would suggest looking it up their academic calendar and what system they use.

And especially look up location - I recall reading someone's fic that had a very urban setting (like easy walking to places off campus, or ease of access to mass transit) for a real school that was remote.  It was a place I'd actually visited so it grated.

 

[gardenmom5]

oh - universities have colleges within the university.  Some schools require an applicant to apply to the college they wish to attend.  (and if they change majors, they have to apply to the new college they wish to attend to be able to change their major.)

Other's it's just one application to the entire university.

Edited April 7, 2022 by gardenmom5

[cbollin]

31 minutes ago, elegantlion said:

Another consideration besides semesters is the terminology surrounding education. I'm not sure where you're located, but terms like studying for exams is used versus revising or we take breaks (like Thanksgiving and summer) not holidays. 

That may not applicable to you but wanted to point it out just in case. 

and another on with exams: in the USA we "take exams" (or take a test) instead of "writing" exams.   First time I saw someone posting about "writing exams" on a homeschool forum, I thought the person was asking about how to write out questions from the chapter to give to her child.  LOL.  learn new stuff every day, right?  LOL

[lmrich]

I think it will depend on where the ficitional university is located in the States. A lot of the colleges in The South (where I live) start in August, have a Thanksgiving holiday (a week or three days), exams in December and then out for 3 weeks. They return in January, have a week off for spring break, and get out first week of May. 

Some schools have a January break where students can take one class and many schools offer a May-memster - where just one class is taken. 

A lot of college students refer to tests as exams and the final exam just as 'finals' 

And you would want to know about the fraternity/sorority life and football and sports in general... 

If I were conducting research for a book, I would pick a fictional school and just use their schedule.  

[VickiMNE]

Also, one other little thing to note: many colleges start their second semester in mid-January, and for all of my five kids at five different universities, they started AFTER Martin Luther King day--the actual date of said celebration moves around a bit from year to year.  (This always caught me by surprise because that holiday didn't exist when I was a student).

Edited April 7, 2022 by VickiMNE

[Faith-manor]

Our youngest son's college begins the week before Labor Day, usually around the 23/24, and then ends the end of the second full week of December for 1st semester. The 2nd one begins around Jan 3-8 just depending on where the holiday falls, and goes to the last day of April.

There isn't any consistency. None of the other universities in that same region started and ended on the same day for most of his first three years. This year they all managed to schedule commencement on the exact same Saturday.

[Tanaqui]

Where exactly is this school supposed to be? While there is no nationwide standard, what is more and less common will vary by region - and if you're setting this in either an actual school (like NYU) or a bland name expy version of an actual school  (like, idk, University of New York) then we could be more accurate.

[Dmmetler]

My piano terms are

 

Fall term-August-December, week break in October (fall break) and Thanksgiving .  

2-3 weeks off in December/Jan

Spring Term-Jan-May, week break in March (Spring Break) Week break in April (Easter Break). These sometimes flip flop names depending on when Easter is. 
 

(I do summer camps, etc in June/July)

there are a few one day holidays, too. I’ll often use a couple of days over one of the break weeks as a makeup for one day holidays because the schools are in session-otherwise, my Monday students end up with about 2 fewer lessons than everyone else.