<p>Do any current students (or their parents) have any info you can share as to when students typically leave to fly home for Thanksgiving? Southwest has opened up their November flights and I want to book a flight for my son, but I'm not sure when to expect that he can get away. I know there's no classes on Wednesday, but my son's Tuesday schedule has a class from 4-6 pm. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>Some people skip classes on that tuesday, or the last class of the day. What class does your son have scheduled?<br>
I flew out of a wednesday last year, but my 1-4pm class on that tuesday was optional anyway (since the teacher knew how many students were leaving that day).</p>
<p>Otherwise, when is the latest flight available? If your son has to be in that class until 6, he could easily make a 9pm flight, a little earlier if pushed and a cab is taken.</p>
<p>Hmmm… the last flight out leaves at 6:45, so there’s no way he’d make it if he went to his last Tuesday class. It’s the beginning Management class in business school.</p>
<p>We booked flight for mid-to-late Tuesday afternoon. Son has some classes Tuesday afternoon, so he may need to skip a couple.</p>
<p>This goes back to my rant on another thread regarding lack of days off at Thanksgiving on college calendars. They’re off for Christmas for like 5 weeks. They’re off for the summer for like 4 months. Hey, would it really put a major crimp in the 12-month calendar if we could pretty please get an extra day or two at Thanksgiving??</p>
<p>This is always a hard call without knowing the expectations of the Tuesday classes. Freshman year D wasn’t able to leave until Wednesday am. Last year it was wonderful - her early Tuesday classes cancelled and her late class was a conversational language class she felt she could skip, so she came home on Monday! It was great having her here for close to a week for Thanksgiving!</p>
<p>We have always waited until she has attended class, has the syllabus, and gets a feel for what it is going to be like before booking flights. We do the same thing for Christmas - we wait until she has her finals schedule before making reservations.</p>
<p>WashU only had 3 weeks at Christmas D’s last two years. If your student is enrolled in any of the January programs - the holiday is reduced to two weeks. I have noticed on the future calendars that there is a 4 week break at Christmas. Have also noticed that they have added a week at the end of the year. D always liked getting out the first week of May - guess there are trade-offs!</p>
<p>Another note for anyone interested (doesn’t apply to the op)- if it’s a lab, chances are you can’t get out of it (unless you use it as your drop lab). However, lab might not even be scheduled that week. Unfortunately, I don’t think the department even has the schedule finalized until they let you know the schedule in the first week of classes.</p>
<p>^what’s a drop lab?</p>
<p>Some professors, especially it seems in the sciences, allow students to drop their lowest grade on a test or a lab before they compute your final grade. I think what Johnson was referring to was if you have done really well on all your labs up to the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (should you have a lab that day), you just don’t go to that lab and it becomes your “dropped lab”. I also seem to remember that there are no labs Thanksgiving week.</p>
<p>We’ve always waited until D has the schedule from each of her classes the first week of school before booking flights. We’ve never had any trouble getting the flight she wanted at a good price.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to threadjack, but since there’s already an ongoing dialogue regarding flights, I’m wondering if any current students (yes, and their parents) have any suggestions as to how best to book plane reservations in advance. I’ll be arriving in St. Louis on August 16th for a pre-orientation program (incoming freshman), and I’m not sure as to whether or not I should purchase a one-way ticket (and then reserve round-trip tickets for vacations home thereafter as the dates get closer) or a round-trip ticket in advance (assuming that the return date will be the Tuesday/Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving). Thanks!</p>
<p>^I just did one way for my pre-o, and then reverse round trip. </p>
<p>Also, studentuniverse.com has really cheap tickets for students, fyi.</p>
<p>Slightly off topic - but do kids share rides home for breaks as an alternative to flying? Are rides needed/riders wanted posted anywhere? My son won’t have a car, but might be willing to share driving and expenses with someone going to Milwaukee. Just wondering how or if this is done?</p>
<p>caffeine, I did same as J181. Booked one-way for pre-O from home. Then booked round-trip for Thanksgiving from St. Lou to home and back to St. Lou.</p>