<p>It's bad that the students have to go back from Christmas break to take finals.
Any chance that it will change? I know Harvard has changed.</p>
<p>It’s because of fall break. I also vote we move finals before winter break, start two weeks earlier, start winter break a week earlier, make winter break 3 weeks long (instead of having it alternate between 2 and 3 weeks), and start the summer earlier.</p>
<p>As I remember, years ago this schedule was fairly typical for most colleges, but most have adjusted their schedules to align the semester break with Christmas and New Year. My college made this switch when I was a freshman (back in the late 70s). They called it a switch to “early in/early out”. It makes more sense to me.</p>
<p>Although a lot of people disagree with me, I actually like this schedule. Starting later forces us to spend a little time at home doing nothing. Having finals after Christmas makes finals period much more relaxed (even with doing hardly any studying over Christmas) - it enables us to have a week and half after we get back to school to write essays and study before exams start. This wouldn’t be possible if we were trying to squeeze in exams before Christmas. Most students agree that the fall semester is more relaxed than the spring semester, and this is primarily due to the extra breaks. </p>
<p>However, I do think that our schedule does make it hard for international students - when you’re paying for an expensive plane ticket, one long break is definitely better than multiple short breaks.</p>
<p>Not only for international students, but for west coast students, fewer longer breaks are better than more shorter breaks. I guess east coast students might prefer moer shorter breaks.</p>