I'm doing my undergrad in Ohio and we are on a semester system and I'm looking into UW for grad school. Is UW based on quarters? How does that work exactly? Thank you!

We’re happy to hear you’re interested in the University of Washington. Thanks for the question. 

The University of Washington operates on the quarter system. Most students attend three, 10-week quarters.

Advantages of the quarter system include:

• The opportunity to sample a greater number of classes during one’s academic career
  
• Shorter classes — 10 weeks in length
  
• The ability to focus on a select number of classes (usually 3) each term
  

We hope this helps, please let us know if you have any further questions. 

from
http://uofwa.tumblr.com/post/140234703211