Opinion: Sometimes underdogs are projected to lose for a reason.
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Along with just 14.7% of American colleges, the University of Oregon operates on a quarter system. This means our academic year is divided into four 10-week sessions each season. The large majority of schools reject this plan, instead opting for two 15-week periods and an optional third in the summer.
By my calculations, the quarter system represents a sort of underdog here. Yes, it’s the lesser-picked option. Beyond that though, consider the job market a competition and a college degree the entry ticket. If a majority of American college grads start running three to five weeks before quarter-system students have the chance, is it really that fair of a race?
The answer, of course, is no. But we knew that. In fact, there’s something else a bit unfair we should know about the job market right now. Are you sitting? Maybe you should sit. As of this year, over 40 percent of recent college grads have jobs that don’t require a degree. I know that’s tough to hear, but at least we’re all in the same debt — uh, did I say debt? Sorry I meant debt. Sorry. Debt. No, boat! We’re all in the same boat!
So, yes, maybe my quarrel has less to do with academic quarters as it does the silvery ones. Seriously, why are we paying this much to go to school? No wonder degrees are becoming less valued.
Let’s get back on track, though. Towards the end of the academic year, college seniors compete nationally for coveted underpaid jobs they overpay for. Oops, I meant over-qualify for. (This education is failing me.) It is a ruthless race — one where any upperhand can mean the difference of an opportunity that could effectively change the course and quality of your life forever. It’s why nepotism exists. It’s why inequality exists. And, on a much smaller scale, it’s why I now have a quarrel with the quarter system.
It wasn’t always this way. In fact, there is still much about the quarter system to appreciate. Our 10 week-long courses don’t have the time to become excessively dull. We are able to take a larger variety of classes than students elsewhere, and spend more time focusing on them. I like these things. I like the quarter system and I like that I’m able to be at college a lot, actually; I guess it hadn’t even occurred to me all that I could dislike about quarters.
Until now.
I don’t like that the better paying jobs for college kids on summer breaks are typically for semester-system college kids who finish school weeks earlier in May. I don’t like that housing options may become more limited the further into summer your term ends. I don’t like that we have to plan and prepare these things as we’re trudging through spring term. And I don’t like that no one told us this is how a quarter system works.
To make matters worse, I’ve just discovered the 2023 commencement ceremony is on June 20 and I am livid. Livid! June 20. It’s nearly a Cancer sign (no wonder I’m so emotional). What about post-grad summer internships? Or travel? Or, I don’t know, a job? Doesn’t July seem a bit late to start living your post-college life?
A quarter system requires its students to play catch up. And who wants to do that? Some sick masochist with the odds against them, that’s who!
Of course, at the end of the day this is all rather silly and subjective. In fact, this is just a list of things I like and dislike about the quarter system (hence the title, opinion columnist). For you, though, the good days may outweigh the bad on quarter system calendars. Maybe you like that our summer breaks have better weather than the PNW semester schools. Maybe you haven’t felt the effects of the late start or don’t really mind. They say everyone loves an underdog story, after all. I just hope that includes next year’s hiring teams when I apply for jobs weeks after every other college grad.
