>Yes. It's based on the real WPI's calendar, which is unusual by the
>standards of American universities. Most US colleges and universities
>operate on a semester system. At the University of Maine, for
>instance, there are two 16-week semesters per academic year, one
>starting the week before Labor Day (which is the first Monday in
>September in the US), the other in the third week of January. (There
>are also completely optional classes offered during the winter and
>summer breaks, but those are outside the scope of the discussion.)

Which does indeed sound much better than our semesters; I wonder why our semester-based institutions didn't copy that.

>WPI's seven-week terms are a high-compression academic environment,
>because there is very little margin for error built into such a
>schedule. If you get sick and miss a week's worth of classes at a
>normal university, you're out three class hours of the nominal 48
>there will be that semester, which is 6¼ percent of the available
>class time. At WPI, with the same length absence, you've missed more
>than twice as much class time: five hours out of 35, or slightly more
>than 14 percent. And that's only for one course; if you're a
>full-time student, you'll be carrying at least three. It's very
>difficult to come back from any significant stumble under such an
>unforgiving calendar. Ask me how I know!

Having also been to a high-compression academic environment I'm sadly aware - I burnt out in my third year of undergrad, in hindsight for reasons probably neurobehavioural and inevitable although it didn't feel it at the time.

L.

>* Note that US public schools are what I think you call
>"comprehensive" schools over there: government-funded and
>non-exclusive. More or less the complete opposite of what a public
>school is in the UK.

It's all got messed up over here, but the weird definition of 'public school' still exists (originally as opposed to guild or church schools). But now comprehensive includes Academies (can get funding and influence beyond government) and Faith Schools (can restrict half their intake to appropriate faith) which doesn't really match the original vision. I'm glad I'm not navigating it as either pupil or parent really.