Explaining GGU’s Academic Terms

Updated June 2023

When transitioning from the military to the civilian world, you're going to face a lot of differences. The terms you're used to using may not translate well to non-military, and the words and phrases you're hearing from others may not be making sense to you. When you couple that with the common phrases from the higher education world, you can end up very confused.

Understanding the academic calendar at GGU is important and doesn't need to be overwhelming. Here's the basic breakdown of the GGU schedule (terms) and why you need to pay attention to them.

Academic Periods

GGU has three academic periods, often referred to as trimesters, Spring, Summer, and Fall, and they each last 15 weeks. Some courses run the entire 15 weeks, and some last 7.5 weeks — or half of the trimester.

A Term courses are 15 weeks and start and end with the trimester.

B Term and C Term courses are 7.5 weeks. B and C terms run sequentially and start and finish during the 15-week period. In other words, the B term starts on week 1 and ends 7.5 weeks later, then C term runs from that 7.5-week mark through week 15.

A and B Terms start at the same time, and A and C Terms end at the same time. Here's a quick visual.

Why it Matters

First, it's important to look at the courses you need to take, and want to take, to take and figure out how they can be arranged based on if they are 15-week or 7.5-week courses. You need to build your schedule in such a way that ensures you are enrolled in the right courses and that they are spread out across the term correctly if you need to maintain a certain status as pertains to various benefits and eligibility requirements.

For registration deadlines and additional details on the Academic Calendar, click here.

Your Academic Advisor will be able to help you build your schedule, so don't try to go it alone if you're still not clear on this! They understand the unique needs of veteran students, so be sure to lean on them to help. 

If you have questions about your academic load, benefits, or specific programs, contact the Diller Center team.