<p>What is the length of each academic year at Cornell? ie- holidays, study year, etc. Are there ever occassions where you have to stay when school's out?</p>
<p>school year's pretty normal. we have class on labor day but we have a fall break (4 day weekend), we get off for thanksgiving, and classes end beginning of december with a 3 day study period (5 if you include weekend) before a week and a half worth of days for final (if you get done with finals early, you can leave then). I was done with finals last fall the first two days (horrible, but still) and thus had 6 weeks of winter break. some who had finals and papers up until the last day of final week only had 5 weeks. like most places, we also have spring break, same cycle in may as december. hope that answers your question (oh, you can't stay in dorm over winter break, but you can leave your stuff there, but you can stay during the other breaks, there just won't be any dining halls open during breaks)</p>