<p>Does any former or perspective student know the vacation schedule for the university, or the normal vacation schedule of the college. ie..christmas break, summer break, thanksgiving</p>
<p>christmas break, the worst case scenerio, that is depending on when you have your last exam, is from the 21st of december to jan 2nd. reading week, feb 22 to mach 3rd. summer break, from may to september.</p>
<p>what is the best scenario?</p>
<p>when do we start school? mcgill calendars are kind of confusing... if i'm not mistaken, 2007 school year started sept 4? so should we expect a date around then?</p>
<p>School "starts" last week of August for new students (classes don't start until early September, varies by year, 3-4 usually). Best scenario for Xmas is having all your exams early in the exam period. The earliest I've finished is December 15th, but I've seen "luckier" (like December 11, at the price of very clustered exams; McGill won't give you a break unless you get 4 exams in 2 consecutive days). </p>
<p>Reading week is always the last week of February, and holidays consist of Labour Day (1st Monday of Sept), Thanksgiving (the canadian one, first Monday of October, Columbus Day for the Yanks), and Good Friday and Easter Monday (the days around the Sunday following the first full moon of after the Vernal equinox). For those taking courses in the summer, the Journee nationale des Patriotes (last Monday before May 25, aka Victoria Day, aka Fete de Dollard, aka Queen's birthday) is also off, and so are the Saint-Jean-Baptiste (June 24, or the Monday after if it falls on a weekend) and Canada Day (July 1st, Monday after if it falls on weekend) for those rare summer classes that are scheduled in June or July.</p>
<p>There is no break given for American Thanksgiving. In the very unlikely event of extended school closure due to weather (the only time McGill was forced to close was during the Ice Storm of '98, for 6 days), the exams will be squeezed by a day or two, and whichever regular holiday left in the semester may be sacrificed (Easter Monday of 98 had classes; from a government perspective, I think employers are only required to give a 3-day weekend at Easter, the choice between Friday and Monday left open, schools usually give both days off).</p>
<p>ugh, no (american) thanksgiving. but ill deal.</p>
<p>anyway, does anyone know when spring break is this year? im planning on visiting during my own spring break to make sure i absolutely, truly want to go to mcgill and my parents and i want to make sure mcgill isnt on their own spring break then.</p>
<p>this week (school begins monday)
finals begin april 14th i think</p>
<p>Yeah, "spring break", or rather its equivalent, is reading week. And a number of American students, in their later years, do go home for US Thanksgiving anyway.</p>
<p>The best case scenerio for First Year students is if you are in the Arts Legacy Program. They have a couple of take home finals and I think one final that is done very early on in the exam period. My Arts Legacy friends first year were all done by the some ridiculously early December date and got a month off.</p>
<p>For the rest of us, it's really hard to determine what the normal break period is. McGill does seem to have some logical pattern to their exams though. For core courses, the lower numbered ones tend to be first (ie: Calculus 1 is always before Calculus 2 which is before Calculus 3), so first years tend to get a pretty decent break.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that a long break might be preceeded by a brutal exam schedule. I had some friends with stretches of 3 or 4 exams in two days last year. In that case, I'd rather have my break shortened by a week if it gives me a couple of days in between exams.</p>