Ok to take the whole week of Thanksgiving off?

<p>I went to school an hour from home. I went home on Thanksgiving morning, and was back before noon on Friday. Why? More fun at school.</p>

<p>^What DeniseC said earlier: Book the one-way return flight back to school on Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend NOW. That’s the hardest seat to find. Most airlines offer no real discount for booking round-trip on the same reservation anymore, anyway. We learned this was the way to go during our daughter’s 4 years on the other side of the country, in a location where there were no non-stop flights. </p>

<p>She can figure out when to fly home later, if at all. </p>

<p>On rare occasions a college will schedule the week off. As an individual choice, agree with all. Don’t do it. </p>

<p>D1 went to Cornell, a very large U that’s suppose to be very impersonal. But I have to say for 4 years she was there, she was allowed to make up work/test due to two major illnesses. I mean every professor (8 different ones) allowed her to make up work and didn’t penalize her for missing classes. We also had the tradition of traveling the week of Thanksgiving, and D1 was able to turn in her papers remotely and get notes from other students. D1 was a math student, so most of her exams were midterms and finals, so she never had an exam the week of Thanksgiving.</p>

<p>I think in some ways, professors should get over themselves a bit. Of course, you don’t care if some of those students need to travel because YOU are home already. You know way ahead of time when Thanksgiving would be every year. How hard would it be for you to have a lighter schedule for that week? But I imagine it is a bit of power trip with some of those professors. One of D2’s professor told them that students who showed up Thanksgiving would get extra points, and students who missed it would have to write an extra paper when returned. D2 opted for the extra paper. </p>

<p>Thanksgiving is one of the most important holidays for Americans. Growing up, our kids got used to be around their families on that day, so I think it is ridiculous to take a stand against college students about wanting to be with their families on that day. For D1’s first Thanksgiving as a working person, she didn’t know if she was going to get the Fri after Thanksgiving off, we were living overseas at that time, so we flew back to be with her. She thanked us profusely for making the effort. She said another analyst’s parents (father was a doctor and on calls often) also flew in to NYC to surprise him.</p>

<p>^ There is a world of difference between a “major illness” and vacation… </p>

<p>I talked with my daughter about this and I was surprised at how sad she was when I said that I would encourage her to stay at school for Thanksgiving. That doesn’t mean she should take time off classes, though, and I still think a weekend two weeks before finals would be better spent studying. We decided that if she couldn’t get home easily, we’d come to her. </p>

<p>My guess is that after the first year, she’d be fine staying at school, though. </p>

<p>@oldfort - you are SO far off base from the professors I know. It is not a power trip. Maybe it is at Cornell, but certainly not among the professors in my circle. So you think professors should not care if students skip class to travel? Ok, but should those professors be required to spend extra time with your special snowflake helping them catch up on what they missed? Because I’ve seen students ask the professor to provide them with notes from the classes they missed. And spend extra time outside of office hours tutoring them to get them caught back up (note, most of the professors I know are in the physical sciences, and missing one day of PChem class can set you very far behind). H now has students asking to miss classes the Friday before Thanksgiving because they can get cheaper plane tickets on Thursday. Where does it end? Once you set the precedent that it’s OK to skip for travel, then students start asking to have finals moved around so they can go home at Christmas earlier. Should professors be required to give the same exam 10 times just because it’s more convenient to the student’s schedule?</p>

<p>And maybe, just maybe, the professor would like to travel at Thanksgiving as well - but guess what, they can’t because THEY have to be their to teach! We’ve never spent Thanksgiving with our families because of H’s teaching commitments. We live 800 miles away from family and would love the chance to see them, but H’s job comes first. What would be your response if professors started cancelling classes because they wanted to take vacation or visit their families? You would probably protest that you weren’t getting your money’s worth. Even asking professors to “teach a lighter schedule” is ridiculous. There are only a certain number of instructional hours in a semester and a lot of material to cover. You’re basically asking the professor to throw away teaching hours by not covering anything that would be difficult to make up. That’s unfair to the professor, and to the students who value educational hours and make the effort to show up for class.</p>

<p>Your final paragraph is especially interesting. You’ve just said that college classes are not important enough to bother attending every day, but a job is. Because you expect the professors to allow kids to skip at Thanksgiving, yet you’ll make the effort and travel to her if your D can’t get time off for a job.</p>

<p>The professors I know are professionals and take their jobs seriously. They don’t choose to teach part of Thanksgiving week - their employer tells them they must. And they’ll get penalized if they cancel classes. College students get 3 weeks off at Christmas. Three months off in the summer. They can surely manage to show up for classes on the days classes are in session!</p>

<p>As said above, working with a student to make up work due to a major illness - or a family crisis, or other significant issue, is a different story. Expecting a professor to work with a student to make up work for classes missed purely for the student’s convenience is a completely different situation.</p>

<p>oldfort has one point. Realistically, a 4-5 day break in continuity is something a professor must consider. I teach English, for example, and I know better than to start discussing a novel before the break and pick up the discussion after the break. I make sure the unit ends before they leave and the next one begins on Monday.</p>

<p>But that is not the same thing as making the schedule “lighter.” On a MWF schedule, we get 43 days of instruction in the fall. We can’t afford to waste a single day.</p>

<p>That’s why many professors will give exams or quizzes that Mon/Tues. Because they are ending a unit, and figure the students are not likely to study over break if they delayed the test - by closing out one unit with testing, they’re ready to start something new the following Monday.</p>

<p>I know H puts a great deal of time into ensuring all necessary material is covered in a logical fashion. He may spend many hours revising his lesson plans if there are changes - for example, if a course goes from M/W/F to T/Th, you have to change to accommodate fewer but longer class periods. He uses every instructional hour he has to make sure his students master the material. If students choose not to be there for class that is a choice. But those same students should not expect the professor to take his/her own time to make up the lost work. And they shouldn’t blame the professor for “not caring” when the professor cannot reschedule quizzes for a dozen or more students, none of whom are available at the same time. </p>

<p>

If you read my post carefully, I said Cornell professors were very accommodating. They have a lot of students from out of state, so they were not stick in the mud about students leaving early. D1 couldn’t take Fri after Thanksgiving off because she was going to be the only person on her desk, everyone else was taking the day off. The following year, she was able to get the Fri off. I am sorry, but to have quizzes or exams the week of Thanksgiving is a power trip to me. I bet you, the exams wouldn’t even be graded until after the holiday. I know at work, the week of Thanksgiving, things really get slowed down and I would let people who need to travel to go home to take Wed/Fri off.</p>

<p>Elliemom…we had this discussion with our daughter BEFORE she sent applications to far away colleges. Folks here think I’m a bit unreasonable in that I set a geographic criteria for college choices…either within a three hour drive from our home OR near a close friend or relative. DD spent every Thanksgiving with her favorite aunt and uncle…and that was a bonus of attending college nearer to them. She also went there for spring break twice…both times toting friends along from far away. </p>

<p>And like I said…my kid had the whole thanksgiving week off. </p>

<p>And as an FYI, the flights the weekend prior to Thanksgiving aren’t any cheaper than the week OF Thanksgiving.</p>

<p>To the OP, your daughter needs to check her college schedule. Every college I know if has classes only until noon the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We flew our son home on an early evening flight that day…and back in Sunday. And yes…it was not the cheap seats! </p>

<p>I should add…DD’s college began having the full week off the year she started there. They have a lot of students who live far away. This college also has the Monday after Easter off…same reason.</p>

<p>But they did require students to return just after New Years…and that wasn’t a bargain flight either!</p>

<p>ETA…our DD’s school WAS accommodating for extenuating circumstances. We had a family wedding on the opposite coast from the school. DD asked her professors for,the Friday off so,she could travel for the wedding, and they gave it to her. But you know what…her flights got all screwed up and she had to get herself rerouted to make connections…or she would have missed the whole event. She arrived on Friday night and left Sunday morning. A quick, but doable trip…and it was in the winter too!</p>

<p>oldfort you don’t know what being a professor is like. Others here are trying to explain. When I taught I revised and re-revised my schedule a dozen times to accomplish a variety of goals. To have quizzes or exams at a logical point, to allow time for review before the final, to make sure material was properly covered before a project was assigned… to allow time for that project before the final push to finals… (I taught a STEM class) . Most college classes are taught only twice, or sometimes, three times a week (mine was once a week-- 13 classes in a semester, one of them the Tuesday before Thanksgiving). I have no idea what “a lighter class” that day would have meant in that case. I am doing a disservice to my students if I just figure that 1/13 of the semester is disposable. And it’s rather rude to suppose that those exams weren’t looked at until after Thanksgiving. </p>

<p>Having a quiz or exam right before a break is a common, logical occurrence - as WasatchWriter said, it doesn’t make sense to start new material at that point. In many classes each unit ends with a quiz. In H’s classes, the students use these quizzes to study for exams. I can guarantee you he has those quizzes back to the students Monday when they return, as their is very little instructional time left between then and finals, and students need to know what problems they are having issues with before the final. Skipping a class for convenience is different from taking a paid vacation day to which you are entitled at a job where you work 48 weeks a year. As your D found, even then employers can tell you you can’t have certain days off. If college students want to pick and choose the days they will attend classes, they need to realize it is not the professor’s responsibility to take his/her own time to get them caught up on the work.</p>

<p>Interesting topic. Oldest went to W&L where they do get an entire week off for Thanksgiving. I think it is in recognition of the fact that many students are from far away and travel is not real direct. Any flight you take pretty much has to connect or you have to drive several hours to get to major airport. But the Fall term, including exams, often stretches to third week of December.</p>

<p>Other D has friend at Dartmouth. Apparently they recently changed their fall term to end completely at Thanksgiving in part because of students traveling for holiday and then almost immediately turning around for winter break.</p>

<p>Youngest D at university with standard Thanksgiving holiday of Wed-Friday. Classes seldom canceled on that Mon and Tues. One reason is that, depending on the year, the week after Thanksgiving is the last week of class before exams and university policy is that no exams/tests can be given the last week of class (so professors can’t give finals early instead of during exam week). So the final regular test or quiz for a class may need to be given on that Monday or Tuesday.</p>

<p>I have friend who teaches - she is often frustrated by students who act as though they didn’t know when exams would be. By the first day of class you can look at the published exam schedule and see when they are - I already have my D’s on my calendar for the fall term. And the policy is to not allow students to take exam with another section of the class.</p>

<p>Definitely the issue of coming home for breaks should be part of decision in picking a college - costs can add up.</p>

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<p>How gracious of you. (Yes, this is sarcastic)</p>

<p>The idea that profs should give students exams whenever the student wants is astonishing. In addition to the inconvenience, there are academic integrity issues. Or do you expect the prof to make up separate exams for each student, too? </p>

<p>OF, it’s interesting that you “understand” when your D has to work the day after Thanksgiving but get into a huff that profs don’t let student take off those extra days. Your posts have an air of looking down on academics. </p>

<p>If it is possible, why not give the exam before or after Thanksgiving? I don’t schedule major system/business roll out the week of Thanksgiving due to half staff.<br>
My company decided to close the Fri after Thanksgiving because it was a worthless day to keep it open.</p>

<p>My apology if I came across as not being respectful to professors, especially CC professors (or spouse). I guess what I am trying to say is if you know there are students who may need to travel a long way to go home, why not try to make it easier on everyone. D2’s professor, I mentions upstream, he knew there were students who needed to travel, so he “penalized” them by having them write an additional paper, and he “rewarded” students for staying by giving them few extra points.</p>

<p>When classes are held is determined by the University, not individual profs. If the University decides to give the whole week off, then that is great. But I teach my classes according to the official schedule, which does not designate some classes as important and others as OK to miss. </p>

<p>FWIW, my S came home the first year. After that he preferred to stay at school and use the time to work on his papers and prepare for final exams. He always had a nice thanksgiving dinner, either a group of friends got together and cooked, or he was invited to someone’s parent’s home. </p>

<p>I think this has gotten somewhat away from the original question. Many students miss a class or two during a semester, often judging if they can by how well they’re doing in the class, if they’ve missed already when they had no choice (eg, sick), what’s going on that day, etc. So a student might look at a pre-Tday class and be willing to take the absence and deal with what’s missed, and any consequences, after an honest assessment of the situation.</p>

<p>That’s a world of difference from assuming it’s okay to write off these classes now, in May, for a first year student who doesn’t even know her schedule yet, much less if missing classes that week is wise or doable for her.</p>

<p>I think that this assumption, especially by a parent, is my real red flag here.</p>