The only time I didn’t schedule to have my kids home early was at semester end because of finals.
Last year, D had one class on Tuesdays so that summer I went ahead and booked her a flight home on Monday night of Thanksgiving week, before school even started. However, I told her to talk to the professor the first week of school and ask if it was a problem for her to miss that class. He said no, not a problem and eventually canceled the class anyway. While I might be a little miffed in your situation, I also realize it was our choice to send D across the country to attend college and would never complain to the school about it. No one forced us to pick a school so far away. She’s not even coming home this year for Thanksgiving - for some reason, even though I looked super early for flights, it was almost double what I paid last year so she’s taking a train to her uncle’s house about 90 minutes away. Had she not had that option, she would’ve gone home with a roommate who lives a couple of hours from school.
I’m actually more disappointed about Christmas than I am Thanksgiving. Her last final is Friday, 12/21. She’ll finish around 1:30 and go right to the airport for a 4pm flight home. Thankfully she’s only 10 mins from the airport so she will be able to make that flight. I was happy to find that flight because She normally takes a red eye and gets home at 6am the next morning. That would’ve meant getting home on 12/22 and basically wasting most of that day sleeping. At least now she’ll be home around midnight and can get a regular night of sleep. She will only have a couple of days to shop for Christmas so getting the earlier flight was a big plus.
But this is what we signed up for choosing a school that was a flight away from home. No complaints from us-it’s a direct flight, her airport is super close to campus and we are only 30 mins from our home airport. Much easier logistics for us than some of her friends who stayed here on the East Coast for college but have long drives or difficult logistics getting to public transportation that gets them home.
One year, I wanted to visit my boyfriend at Thanksgiving, halfway across the country. I had an exam scheduled the Wednesday before. I got brave and asked my prof if I could take the exam early and he said yes! So I flew to Boston and had Thanksgiving at MIT. Then BF came home at Christmas and dumped me, ha.
Having seen 3 kids through college this happens all the time. For my far away college kids, they simply didn’t come home from college for the long weekend holidays which Thanksgiving really is. For us, a really bad snowstorm could have stuck the kids in Denver or Chicago for the entire 3 days and would have been it’s own nightmare. And yes, I had one freshman Christmas like thumper1 where kid had to crash at an off campus friend’s apartment because he had the last exam and no more flights out of the little airport and the dorm was closing at 5:00. I had one who never made it home for Christmas due to snowstorms and cancelled flights so turned around and spent winter break in his off campus apartment and skiing with local friends. It’s great you can get your D home for thanksgiving, OP. But I will say my kids loved their Thanksgivings on campus with the internationals, the locals and the far-aways who did not go home for the long weekend. I think they really enjoy the memories now that they are older.
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I ran into an acquaintance last month whose daughter is a freshman at my D’s school out on the west coast. She mentioned she was picking her D up at the airport later that day as she was coming home for fall break. I was embarrassed to say I didn’t even know it was fall break! Not that I would’ve flown D home, but would’ve offered to send her to MIL’s (a very cheap hour flight) for the long weekend, which is what she did last year. When I talked to D later that day and apologized that I didn’t even know it was her fall break, I asked her if she had plans. She said she was SO excited to have her apartment to herself all weekend. Her roommates had all gone home and she was looking forward to the peace and quiet! So yeah, I don’t think she would’ve been bothered having to stay an extra night. Last year, her roommate didn’t go home at all for Thanksgiving, she stayed in the dorm the whole break except for two days when she went to other roommate’s house for Thanksgiving dinner.
I feel for you! My S decided to drive 10 hours home this year instead of fly. He is lucky that he has the entire week off. At the last minute he decided to stay Sat to watch the football game and drive home on Sunday. Looks like the weather won’t be too bad so I’m glad about that. It is so frustrating when they have to wait!
My kids both went to schools with short Thanksgiving breaks. One never came home, sometimes went from FL to NJ to her boyfriend’s home, but she found that too hectic so preferred to just stay at school. We could look at the schedule before we picked the school and knew it would be a short break. The school has a lot of international students who don’t go home for American holidays. If they closed for the entire week, they’d have to tack those days on to the end of the semester, making the Christmas break shorter.
My other daughter even has classes on Wed, and she drives home after her last class. She had one teacher give a quiz, for extra credit, on the Friday before, and many kids missed it because they want the whole week off. They should have picked another school if they wanted that week off.
I think profs should teach the classes as scheduled. If the school wanted to give a week break, they should schedule it that way. It bothers me more that the profs all cancelled. That is not respectful to the parent’s paying for the courses. If a class is supposed to meet 30 times, it’s not fair to only provide 28 or even 26. I had a prof in law school who cancelled the Friday class 4-5 times - for funerals! How many people did he know that were dying and having their funerals at 10 am on a Friday? He did not get a high grade from me as I felt cheated out of those classes I paid for.
My D1’s college FINALLY got their act together and officially cancelled all Wed classes this year for the first time (after she graduated, of course). I had complained to the Dean of Faculty once about Wed classes and the issue for students who were not local (met him on campus and took advantage of it 
). Maybe it finally seeped into a policy change.
Re: #27
Did the college add another day of class at the beginning or end of the fall schedule?
one word; Southwest!
@ucbalumnus I don’t think so. It is Harvey Mudd – they already spend more time in the classroom than most other colleges, I suspect (I was always amazed at how many hours a week my kid was in class or lab her first couple of years, with all the homework on top of it).
Our son has made his own flight arrangements on Southwest since sophomore year of high school as he knows his class and exam schedule and airport transpo options; we don’t. He just sends us his itinerary when he finalizes it, and he’s had to make several changes due to classes/exams being rescheduled over the years. His travel plans and issues are on him. We’re just happy to see him whenever he gets here for as long or as little as his schedule allows.
It would never occur to me to complain to a teacher, prof, or school, and I think it would be inappropriate to do so. Student travel plans are not their issue.
After my experience on Southwest this summer, I would NEVER count on them for travel at an important time like Thanksgiving. When every other airline is flying and they cancel because of “bad weather” and cant rebook us for 3 days … we switched airports/airlines, paid extra money (but less than 2 days hotel) and got home more or less on time.
Thanks all for your input! To be clear, I would be complaining about a last minute class cancellation, not about the fact that my daughter has to fly far to get home and flights are expensive, which is clearly our choice. But anyway, it sounds like my options are to suck it up, or schedule an earlier flight and have her work that out which each class in advance. And I do realize that this will all change as she gets older…it’s already much easier on her this year than last. Good to know when we have the next freshman starting…since this first fall stretch of school is the longest (for schools with no fall break), I think maybe for certain freshman, the reality of “losing” 1-2 extra days at home hits hard.
I’m not a complainer or lawnmower parent; apparently I have a sensitive spot with this. Even though it’s common, it still doesn’t feel right. I guess I think that if late cancellations are common, then absences that week should be excused. And maybe they are, DD just has never asked.
Honestly, I would file this under “stuff happens.” And it happens a lot.
She can get organized, work on her resume or apply to a few internships, whatever. It’s frustrating, but she’ll be OK.
I teach at a college which has classes through Wednesday. Mine are only on Tuesday next week, but I’d be in trouble with my department if I canceled.
But if I did, I can’t imagine a student complaining. After all, it doesn’t change their circumstances in any way except give them an extra hour plus off.
And as others have said–is every Tuesday class in the entire school suddenly canceling? I’d be surprised if that were so. I expect there will be someone around to keep company with. Otherwise, finals and last assignments are right around the corner. She can use the time to get ahead. I know my students all have a million big projects (including for me) in the works.
And I say this as someone who attended college a plane ride away, and gave up going home for TG after the first year–too expensive and not enough time. We had Wednesday classes as well.
Depending on frequent flyer status (we try to have ours stay with same airline so they now qualify) you can go standby. Not sure if it is only on the same day as original flight. A lot of changes to rules since I frequently flied. I would check with the airline.
Personally, I’d file under “first-world problems.”
From what I am told, this is not the first year in the history of the universe that Thanksgiving has been on a Thursday, and that a college had classes or cancelled classes the day before. As one who has not traveled home for Thanksgiving for 4 years due to the expense and the short period of time, families should be grateful (sticking with the meaning of the holiday) for whatever brief period of time they have together.
For the students “stuck” on campus, they are not alone. And if they are looking for something to do other than HW and laundry, I can suggest a myriad of places that would welcome volunteers to help prepare/serve/deliver Thanksgiving meals to the less-fortunate.
My DD doesn’t live super close to school and has to rely on public transportation to get home. She asked her Wednesday professor in advance if he was having class and he said he wasn’t sure and not to worry, that she should just head home. Next year have your daughter ask in advance of making the flight if the professor is likely to cancel class. Many won’t mind if they miss that day even if they do miss class. Also, don’t call or email professors. Doesn’t matter if it’s financially related, it looks really bad for your daughter. I’m not surprised that no one responded to you.