<p>Trying to decide how many round trip flights there might be if S picks Grinnell. I imagine that most kids go home for this week? If not, generally what do they do?</p>
<p>Some kids go home, some do alternative break trips, which are service-oriented trips. Others just hang out on campus and relax. </p>
<p>I know you asked about Fall break, but I think it’s similar to Spring Break (which is two weeks long). During Spring Break this year, the Grinnell Singers toured the Northwest and the track team went to Myrtle Beach, S.C. for training. There were alt. break trips to Taos, New Mexico and to the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations in South Dakota.</p>
<p>Your S would find lots to do, even if he did not come home.</p>
<p>My son came home for breaks the first year, probably for our sakes, because we missed him so much. The next year, he did great Alt-Break activities, one at an urban organic farm in Milwaukee (Growing Power) and one rebuilding in New Orleans (Re-New Orleans). Junior year, he was in Morocco studying abroad in the fall and took a road trip with a friend for spring break. The Alt-Break activities are amazing. The college takes care of most, if not all, of the costs, in our experience. Love this school!</p>
<p>I should add, they are keeping the dorms open now during breaks, though the dining hall closes. They can learn to cook! Most of the international students probably can’t go home, so any student staying on campus will have company. If your student is like mine, time on campus is a lot of fun.</p>
<p>Bethievt, I keep saying that there’s no need for my S to go to Grinnell when he’s got good choices in driving distances, but your posts keep bringing me back to the conclusion that he just can’t write Grinnell off! And, he doesn’t want to…we do have our reservations for an Accepted Student Day visit.</p>
<p>I was curious about Thanksgiving break. I think it will take my son about seven hours door-to-door to get home, so although he could come home for the week-long fall break, it doesn’t really make sense for him to go home for a break as short as Thanksgiving. (It is also much less expensive as we can use frequent flyer miles mid October but not near holidays.) Do most of the kids go home Thanksgiving? What do those who cannot get home do?</p>
<p>I will be interested what you hear on this. My Mom is in the Great Midwest, so we have travelled to IA, picked up DS and driven to and from WI for Thanksgiving. Last year, he was in Morocco. Next year I expect we’ll go to IA and get him again to go to my Mom’s, but I have to believe that many, many students stay on campus for Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>We visited the day before Thanksgiving–there were a surprising number of students on campus (classes meet that day) and I overheard several conversations among students who were staying and didn’t observe much of students getting ready to leave. FWIW.</p>
<p>We live about 7 hours from Grinnell, too. Our family hosted three of son’s friends for Thanksgiving this year. Would have been more, but some of the expected guests found they had schoolwork or other things they needed that time to finish.</p>
<p>now this is what I find tough. I can’t imagine my S not home for Thanksgiving, nor that he would want to miss it either. Oh boy, this decision-making process is not easy!</p>
<p>I think it’s very individual, SDonCC. S has flown home for all the breaks for his first two years (although sometimes he comes with friends-international students, etc…). I suspect in coming years, he may make other choices, as he visits other friends’ homes and is less tied to friends here. </p>
<p>Of course, in the fall is family weekend as well, so, at least for the first year, we were seeing him every 5 weeks. We started joking that we were seeing more of him now that he was at college than we did in his senior year.</p>
<p>M’s Mom–I agree! Those frequent visits really helped the first year.</p>
<p>SDonCC–you could make a Thankgiving dinner when he DOES come home…Now that I think of it, my son’s roomie chose to stay on campus that first year over Thanksgiving break “to catch up on work” and he lives a 4 hour drive from Grinnell. I imagine the kids manage to have a good time together.</p>
<p>We are thinking that our S will have to stay there over Thanksgiving or visit a relative in the midwest. I like bethievt’s idea about having the turkey when he is home for the winter holidays.</p>
<p>My daughter came home for Thanksgiving her first year but decided it was not worth spending all day in the airport for two days (coming and going from NC to Iowa) for what amounted to a long weekend. This year she stayed in Iowa for Thanksgiving, had dinner with friends and was back on campus for the weekend. There were lots of kids there and many willing to take on an extra group of students for Thanksgiving. For spring break, she did a service trip to Galveston and came back to campus from Galveston to participate in a social justice training event. She plans to do an alt break or service trip this coming fall. We spent no money and she had a great time with her friends.</p>
<p>The first year, she came home for every break. She is still in touch with HS friends but everyone seemed to have different fall and spring breaks (she was a bit bored on those breaks at home her first year and spent the time glued to the computer conversing with Grinnell friends).Contact with HS friends seemed to be best at winter break and during the summer. This summer she will be doing a residential internship at Duke (at least it is close) and she will not be with us (sigh)! Growing up is hard on parents!</p>
<p>One thing I do love about this day of technology is that we have a web-cam and use it frequently and there are cell phones, facebook and myspace. These really do help. We are planning on flying in at least once in the fall as he will be in fall sport. I have heard that many kids stay over Thanksgiving and team up with other kids like hornet mentioned. It’s probably harder on us than them. We will survive. :)</p>
<p>The other factor for Thanksgiving travel is the weather. One could end up being stuck at the airport the whole break. Better to stay on campus. They are a very entertaining bunch and I’m sure they know how to have fun on a break! It was different for us, because we had relatives in the area, so we could join him. I would not have recommended he try to come home to VT for those few days.</p>
<p>^ There were two more Altbreak-Trips, South Texas and San Francisco Bay Area, not to mention ReNew-Trips to Galveston, TX and New Orleans. </p>
<p>In generally quite a number of students stay on Campus, more for fall break than spring. I stayed for fall break and I was bored to be honest, because I didn’t care for a job in time. Thanksgiving I went up to the Twin Cities with a friend and Spring Break I spend in San Francisco with the Altbreak-Trip. Altbreak and ReNew are fantastic ways to spend Spring-break if your budget is limited btw.</p>
<p>I live in New York, so cost of airfare to and from Iowa is a budget buster. My freshman son came home for Thanksgiving break this year. While I was thrilled to have him home, it was a big haul (and expense) for a “long weekend.” He stayed on campus for fall break. The dining hall was open on a limited basis and he got by fine. He stayed on campus for spring break too. By this time, he was very comfortable in his surroundings and really enjoyed the time with the other students that stayed on campus. Since the dining hall was not open at all, they found their way to the local stores to load up on food. They ate meals together, had bbq’s, and got by quite happily. No one starved!!!</p>