My daughter’s professor just let them know that next Tuesday afternoon class is cancelled. Great! Except for the fact that her flight home was booked long ago, for Wednesday, due to this class. Now, she could have come home two whole days earlier! Changing a 3 day break into a 4.5 day break. That’s a huge difference when it’s so short!
This exact thing happened last year and I complained and didn’t get a response. IMO, this is really a crappy way to treat those of us out of staters whose kids have to fly in. It’s way too expensive to change a Thanksgiving flight last minute. And my daughter will be on campus, missing home, with no one else around except for the others who fly to and from!
Have any of you dealt with this? Is there any resolution? Even if I book changeable flights, the change will be really expensive this time of year.
You complained last year? Why wouldn’t your daughter be the one to do that, if it bothered her. One idea is to wait until the first week of class and ask ( meaning your daughter) the prof what his or her usual practice is so that she can make arrangements.
Our parents’ FB page has had hundreds of posts on this issue in the last few days. Definitely sucks for students who have to fly home. Lots of parents with older students say it happens every break but there is no rhyme or reason as to which profs cancels what and when, so not predictable. It was the same at my alma mater back in my day too though so I don’t think it’s anything new.
I think there are many in the same boat as your family so I doubt you daughter will be all alone on campus.
My son will also be flying home, and we played it safe and booked a flight for Wednesday. If he ends up being free on Tuesday, I’ll encourage him to use it as organization time to get some laundry done (like sheets which probably need washed!). Since you can’t control the professor’s schedule, be thankful for the 3 days she’ll be home and enjoy them! Christmas is around the corner, so it won’t be long until she’ll be back!
@CheddarcheeseMN , I complained because I was the one who had to tell my freshman “no, sorry, I can’t pay $600 to move your flight up and have you home for an extra day. Yes, sorry, you have to stay, even though half of your friends are heading home.” This is a financial issue, and I do think I retain the right to communicate with the college on all things financial. Yes, she could ask, but isn’t that the point of the dates on the syllabus?
It just feels insensitive to the out of state students, and the parents who pay for the flights. My DD is a responsible student so we scheduled her flight AFTER her classes were over. It feels like we are being penalized for being responsible, planning ahead, and being out of state.
@chercheur you have a much better attitude than I do about it. I will try to adopt yours.
@MaterS Haha! When I visited his dorm last month, his laundry hamper was full. I was very proud of myself for not commenting. He could probably use a day off just to clean a little bit and get organized before finals.
No @bluebayou that is exactly what happened last year. And if this had been planned, she could have come home Monday afternoon instead of Wednesday afternoon. When you’re talking about a five day break with cross country flights, 1.5 days home is significant.
@TS0104 My attitude has softened a lot over the years. For the first time ever, my oldest child won’t be coming home for Thanksgiving. He is far away in grad school doing research and writing a thesis. He is tired and really wants a few days to relax and get some writing done. He has some friends who are international students, and they have planned a dinner together. He’ll be home for Christmas, though. I guess I’m just happy for any time I get with my kids these days!
It’s definitely tough OP! Lots of my daughter’s friends are just blowing off M/T entirely and going home Friday evening. My daughter has an engineering class she absolutely doesn’t feel she can’t miss Monday afternoon so even though she would have love to come home this week, it’s not happening. 2 of her 3 classes were officially cancelled for Tuesday and the one remaining gives two sanctioned skip days and the prof told them they were free to use one for that day, so no one will be there (it’s a small class of only 20 students).
Some of the other schools near hers don’t have a fall break and instead give kids off the entire week of Thanksgiving. That certainly makes it easier for out of stat families.
There was also discussion on our group about booking tickets on Southwest because there are no change fees. Don’t know if that’s feasible for you going forward but something to think about.
My S had the same thing happen when he was in grad school. The annoyance was exacerbated when weather issues both at college and home caused all kinds of travel issues the Wed. before Thanksgiving – he didn’t get home until well after midnight and was pretty frustrated. Not sure what can be done about it – but it made me grateful that he did his undergrad closer to home.
Professors don’t always know how far along they’ll be in their lesson plans since so much of the pacing depends on the students. Sometimes they intend to hold classes (since parents are paying for them) right up until break, but if a lot of students express the intention of not attending then they might call it off and offer a make up day later. If it’s happened 2 years in a row and there aren’t repercussions for skipping, next year have her come home early.
My kid was always the last one out of the dorm for almost every break. We made her reservations far in advance, using the school calendar and finals schedules. It was just less expensive to do so.
She didn’t mind being there at all…and there were always a few of her friends there.
On the flip side…one year, she had THE very last exam before winter break, and there were no flights leaving as late as the exam was ending. She had to petition to stay until the following morning. Oh well.
Maybe it’s just me…but we told our kid who was far away that this kind of thing could happen…and she should be prepared for it.
I have had 2 daughters through college, being 5 years apart meant 8 years of college for me to deal with. I’ve scheduled to have them take the week of Thanksgiving off every year (a week of family vacation or just to chill out). They would let their professors know they would be out the week of Thanksgiving and more often than not their professors have cancelled their classes. The ones who didn’t would excuse them. If they had papers or problem sets due they would either do it ahead or email it. Thanksgiving is so close to the final period, most professors wouldn’t give tests that week. Of course, my kids made sure they didn’t skip any classes so they would be in good grace of their professors. If a lecture was very important, my kids would ask their classmates to share their notes (they did the same at other times for their classmates).
D1’s roommate/best friend lived few thousand miles away and she also took a week off for Thanksgiving every year.
While there isn’t a change fee on Southwest, you’d have a tough time getting a ticket next week right now, and it would be more expensive. That said, we do usually book SW so it can be changed if we have some notice (just changed D2’s post-winter break flight about a week ago). I will say, a kid can stay one night on campus without their friends - I’d have rolled my eyes at my kid if they’d griped about that.
