<p>In each school year (let's say from August to May), how many times on average do students fly back to their hometowns? when do they fly back (winter break, IAP, Thanksgiving break, Spring break, etc)?</p>
<p>It's highly variable: how long is the flight, what else is going on, how motivated are they to return to their hometowns... We live in CA; my son flew back just before Christmas and returned to MA just after New Year's to spend IAP there. He also found a cheap round-trip for Spring Break in late March. That's it.</p>
<p>I'm from Ohio, and I flew home an astounding six times during my freshman year -- homecoming, Thanksgiving, Christmas/IAP, President's Day weekend, spring break, and after classes ended in May.</p>
<p>I now go home approximately twice a year.</p>
<p>Would you say that most people tend to go home for summer, or do they stay in the Boston area and do research/etc?</p>
<p>most go home. or go somewhere.</p>
<p>But a significant percentage stay on campus -- about a third of my dorm stays, and I assume that's relatively constant across dorms.</p>
<p>I agree with pebbles that most go somewhere -- often to an internship or a research job in some exciting city. I don't know that many who go home, unless home is somewhere like NYC or SF where they can get a useful job/internship. Or unless they are independently wealthy and do not need to get a summer job. :)</p>
<p>I really like the dorms in MIT; do I guarantee to have a MIT dorm for four years if I want to?</p>
<p>yessir. summer, too.</p>