There are a number of colleges that employ a trimester schedule as opposed to the semester schedule (which NIU uses). While some people may want to switch, I don’t see any benefit that would come from it.

Knox College in Galesburg, IL uses a trimester schedule where students take three courses over a ten-week term. The academic calendar page on its website describes the system as “giving you time and energy for a deeper level of study than you might have with a semester calendar.”

This is one of the main reasons that some people prefer the trimester system; they believe that, with the semester setup, they don’t have enough time to devote to each of their classes. They say that when they have to take five classes at once, work from one class always seems to get pushed aside because there is just too much to do.

It is true that students would be taking fewer classes at a time. Each of those classes, however, would move at a much quicker pace. In a ten-week trimester schedule, like the one used by Knox college, you would be covering the same amount of material as you would in a semester, but in a shorter amount of time.

For students having trouble with the amount of coursework from five classes in a semester, I don’t see how a trimester system would make it any easier. There is not going to be any less work to do. The work is just more concentrated.

You will be taking fewer classes at one time, but you will also have to dedicate a lot more time to each of those classes.

That might be fine with general education courses. But if I was taking in-depth, difficult courses like the foundations of calculus or organic chemistry, I would want as much time as possible to make sure that I could learn all of the material, regardless of how many other classes I was taking.

Another problem to consider is that midterms would be after five weeks of class and then finals would be just five weeks after that. That is not a lot of time between them. You would basically have a week or two after midterms before you would need to start writing final papers or preparing for exams.

This is one of the main benefits of the semester schedule; the work load is spaced out better. On a semester calendar, if you fall behind or get sick and have to miss classes, it is much easier to relearn material and make up the work because classes move at a slower pace than those on a trimester schedule.

One of the best things about NIU’s current system is that it lines up with the calendars of most other schools. When the semester finishes in May, my friends from back home are basically all finishing too. It’s nice to be done and go back home with everyone from high school.

However, schools with trimesters like Knox College and Lawrence University, both start the year in September and then don’t end until June, with smaller breaks in between each trimester. By switching to this kind of schedule, NIU students would miss out on going back at the same time as their old friends.

Also, a lot of students rely on summer jobs to help pay for expenses throughout the school year. The more time off during the summer, the more time students have to save for the upcoming year.

So, while some students may think that a trimester schedule would be good for NIU, I don’t really see how it would benefit the students.