<p>^No it did not. The article focuses on three issues:
curbing binge drinking by eliminating 'thirsty Thursdays" preparing students for the world of work; making more efficient use of classroom space.
I had not thought of the Saturday sports connection. Interesting.</p>
<p>lol this reminds me of a little experience I had last year. </p>
<p>So during the end of orientation week I went into the computer cluster and I saw a sight to remember. The computers were all filled with upperclassmen furiously checking classes and planning out stuff. I asked one of my upperclassmen friends what it was about and he replied casually: Oh they're all trying to find a schedule that gives them friday off. From the amount of cussing I heard I doubt too many of them were successful. Personally I've always had classes on friday and I consider it just like any day of the week...</p>
<p>Glad to see such a trend.</p>
<p>I remember being nonplussed when DS, never a partying type in hs, announced that he was aiming for a freshman schedule free of Thursday OR Friday classes. Nice trick if you can pull it off :D. I think he conceived the notion from chatting on facebook or whatever in the early glow of college acceptance or maybe after his admitted student overnight.</p>
<p>Anyway, being an Engineering student, nothing like his "dream" schedule was possible. Classes every day of the week. Now at Hopkins, they have a MTW scheduling approach (vs. MWF). So he has had Fridays off some, but usually labs on Thursday (and sometimes Fri). </p>
<p>Because of his field, somewhat who he is and a success rate much like superwizard observed (post #22) when he did try, he's joined the "Friday is just like any other day" mind set described by many above.</p>
<p>Still, an acculturation process which facilitates binge drinking is definitely a downside of the "no Friday" thing. Hopkins has announced a return to the more traditional MWF/TTh blocking... starting next year? Don't know if this is part of the motivation.</p>
<p>Actually, I'm worried that S has too many T, Th classes, but it can't be helped. The problem? Two weekly problem sets that will be heavy duty, plus weekly reading assignments that I suspect will all be due on Thursday. He tried to get more classes on M, W, F, but the choices were not great. It would not be so bad if profs posted accurate problem sets on time, but in the past, profs have posted them late or have made corrections (after students banged their heads for hours trying fruitlessly to solve incorrectly posed problems).</p>
<p>My d's Fellowship group (both faculty and students) meets for required lunch every Friday, and then they present papers to each other. Since she is paid for it, it is lieu of a campus job, but she has to make sure that language labs and etc. don't conflict. </p>
<p>I've often said that the best day to overnight on a campus is on a Thursday night - you can tell more about a college on Thursday/Friday than at any other time.</p>
<p>(Amherst has been trying to rein in TAP (The Amherst Party) on Thursdays for several years now - I don't know how it's going.)</p>
<p>My d ended up with no Friday classes, but not on purpose. These were just the classes she wanted. With any luck, though, she'll be able to avoid "thirsty Thursday."</p>
<p>I'm a senior in college and have been doing everything I can for the last few semesters to avoid Friday classes. As an upperclassmen, it's pretty easy-- most upper-level classes meet for 2 longer periods on MW or TuTh rather than 3 shorter periods on MWF.</p>
<p>When I had a full-time internship this summer, only having a 2-day weekend was a shock to my system!! I'm glad to be back at school for another year with Fridays off before having Fridays "on" for the rest of my life!</p>
<p>DD has Friday classes from 9 AM through 5 PM with an hour break for lunch. They apparently do not believe in Friday off. All 3 sons loaded their schedules T& TH one year and were definitely not as successful. They tried to party or play on-line games from Thursday-Monday and that left no time for getting the work done.</p>
<p>The problem is that when friday classes are scheduled, it is usually as shorter MWF classes. This is not really good for math/science/engineering, because 50 minutes is a ridiculously short amount of time to get anything done. </p>
<p>For example, last fall in one of my MWF classes, the professor worked an example problem that took up almost two whole classes - meaning he had to stop and restart, setting up the problem over again, and generally taking up more valuable time than necessary for something that could have taken up half of the week, rather than 2/3.</p>
<p>Also back in the dark ages, during one semester my weekly class load was essentially over and done with by Wednesday afternoon. I must say that all that free time didn't do much to enhance my grades.</p>
<p>I had thursdays off my whole senior year, which was great because i could go to the neighboring city and volunteer at a legal aid place (thursdays were "eviction day" in housing court so a good time to go).</p>
<p>in grad school I've only had friday class one of the first 4 semesters. since students in my program often fly all over the country for job interviews in the fall, it's a huge plus to have a no-fridays schedule--means so many fewer classes to miss!</p>