<p>So yes, it's still a very long way's to early September, and I know that housing forms were only due what was July 20th after the extension, but just a question of wonder: Does anyone from previous classes remember when they learned about who their roomates would be, just anxious, that's all?</p>
<p>Also, I was looking at the calendar and I saw that the winter break is only from I believe December 20th to January 2nd or somewhere around that and then the following two weeks are reading periods. Exactly how do reading periods work, and is the winter break as unfortunately short as I expect?</p>
<p>In mid-to-late-August, students receive rooming assignment packets which include the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of the roommates in each group. Please do not call the FDO to request this information. We will mail it to students as soon as it is available. Many freshmen call or write to their future roommates before the opening of the term. If no telephone number is included, the student has asked us not to release that information. Your son or daughter must therefore write those students rather than phone them.</p>
<p>Reading Period. At the end of each term, a period of 12 calendar days prior to the start of final examinations is designated as the Reading Period. During this period, faculty members may choose not to meet with their classes. Faculty members who exercise this option often do so in order for students to work independently, exploring special topics or integrating the material covered in the course. Students often use this time to complete term papers that draw on the work of the semester and to reexamine course material in order to integrate the various strands of a course in preparation for the final examination or other final exercise in a course. Those courses that have a final exercise other than a regular three-hour final examination schedule these activities during the Reading Period.</p>
<p>Some courses continue to meet on their regular schedules during much of the Reading Period. Even in these cases, many instructors suspend classes during the last two weekdays of the Reading Period to allow students a few days of uninterrupted preparation before the start of final examinations. Regardless of whether or not a class meets during the Reading Period, the time is an integral part of the term.</p>
<p>My four person suite had the same breakdown (if you count canadiens as internationals)</p>
<p>Language classes tend to meet through reading period. If you won't be taking a language, you're pretty safe booking a flight that comes back to Harvard the fourth or fifth... maybe even later. Reading period is fun though, because the first week is a party, and then the second week is a Lamont "party."</p>