I am 99% sure I know this campus well. Note that there are typically very few upperclassmen PNMs with GPAs that low. While those might be absolute minimums, I also know how incredibly high the all-sorority and all-women's averages are in the campus so I would not assume anything from a published minimum in a PNM handbook as to how that is put into play in membership selection in individual houses. (I was shocked at how low some of those published minimums were!)

I know where the OP goes, it was a no brainier. She's also competing against transfers, and that is gonna work against her. Plus they are switching to quarter system in August 2014, and that is a killer for grades (I went through on quarter system, found semester system a piece of cake in comparison when in graduate school).

I haven't gone anywhere with a quarter system. Do you think it hurts grades because there isn't enough opportunity to bring a bad grade up? Just curious.

There are different styles of quarter systems. Some use quarter hours and therefore you end up taking more quarters of a class - say French for example. Some use the quarter system with semester hours - and that one's a killer. When I was at UAB (undergrad and grad) they used this system. Try getting a semester's worth of Modern British Lit in a quarter's time frame....ugh!

It's time intensive, the quarter system, irishpipes (channeling my inner Yoda, today I am). I couldn't believe how much time I had to study on the semester system, and how much more I learned, because I could pursue tangents instead of mastering the material and attending class four-five days a week.

As an instructor, I hate it. I feel like I barely get time to get to know my students.

So how many classes would typically be a full load?

On the quarter system, I took three classes for a full load.

Went to a community college that was on the quarter system. I enjoyed it, but things somewhat backfired when I transferred to my current school and units for major and minor came across as credit amounts ending in .33 and .66. Strange to say the least.

At my alma mater, a typical course load for one quarter was 15 credits, which usually consisted of 3 5-credit classes. A full time student could take between 12 and 18 credits, with classes that mostly ranged between 3 and 5 credits.

On a quarter system? That was a standard load for a semester for me! And anything over 15 was A LOT.

For my alma mater, yes, 15 credits a quarter was pretty standard. It was rare for people (or at least people I knew) to take over 15, but it did happen. Particularly as an upperclassman if there was a class you needed to graduate that was only offered once during the year.

I'm assuming there is a difference in the amount of work between a 5-credit semester class and a 5-credit quarter class. At least I hope there is because otherwise I should have gone to a college on the semester system.

At UCLA I typically took 3 classes per quarter, and only twice took 4 classes in a quarter (but I did take several classes during summer programs). If I remember correctly, each class was 4 units, and 40 or 45 units a year was considered standard progress.

ETA: "Quarters" were more like trimesters, as there were three terms during the regular school year. Summer session was considered the fourth. I believe some quarter schools don't play that game, though.

I believe the conversion of units between quarter and semester was 1.5 = 1.

Sounds correct/familiar to me.

Back in the dark ages Florida State was on the quarter system, and 12 hours was a full schedule.