Thanksgiving question for experienced USC people

<p>With rising airfares, I am interested in booking my son's plane flight home for thanksgiving. There were two academic calenders on the USC website which had conflicting information. Does the vacation begin Tuesday night before Thanksgiving or Wednesday night? Thanks!</p>

<p>Another question: Is it even worth going home Thanksgiving or do a lot of students stay on campus?</p>

<p>Here is the official 2011-2012 academic calendar: [Academic</a> Year 2011-2012 | Academics](<a href=“http://academics.usc.edu/calendar/2011-2012.html]Academic”>http://academics.usc.edu/calendar/2011-2012.html)</p>

<p>Many students stay on campus, especially if they are from far away. It does get noticeably quieter though, as pretty much all the local students go home. Also next year we play notre dame away, so people aren’t staying for that. When we play notre dame at home it is always thanksgiving weekend and more people stick around.</p>

<p>My experience has been that many times my D’s Wednesday class has been canceled fairly last minute and I’ve had to change her flight to an earlier one. So you can go ahead and book now but do it on an airline that allows changes without any big penalty. That’s why I love Southwest.</p>

<p>No classes the Wednesday before Thanksgiving beginning this year: <a href=“http://www.usc.edu/academe/faculty/private/1011/Thanksgiving_Holiday__Memo__December_2010.pdf[/url]”>http://www.usc.edu/academe/faculty/private/1011/Thanksgiving_Holiday__Memo__December_2010.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>glad to see that USC is moving toward a longer TDay break. My advise is to book [ which I don’t think you can do on Southwest yet] as soon as your son has registered [ he is an incoming Freshman, yes?] and knows what his class schedule will be. Give him no less than 2.5-3 hrs between when his last class finishes and his flight out of LAX, just to be on the safe side.</p>

<p>^ yep, definitely take into account the inevitable traffic jam at LAX thanks to the thanksgiving holiday. I’d say a four hour window just in case; getting to LAX from USC takes a while</p>

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<p>Not really. I basically make the Downtown to LAX area commute every day for work. When I’m driving alone and can’t use carpool, it’s about a 30-45 minute drive depending on the time of day. </p>

<p>A Super Shuttle takes longer in the beginning because you have to pick up other students around the USC area; once you’re on the shuttle (or if you have a friend drive you in their car) you’ll be able to use the carpool lanes on the 110 and 105. From USC, the drive in the carpool lane takes around 20 minutes, 30-40 minutes on a bad carpool day.</p>

<p>Does USC require students to leave their dorms during thanksgiving break?</p>

<p>^^ no they dont. there are quite a few international students to whom TDAy is just another Nov day.</p>

<p>@Zelda - haha yeah… i’m used to taking the shuttle so I guess it just feels like it takes a while because of all the picking up other kids and whatnot :)</p>

<p>My d is a soph & we live close enough to get her home for Thanksgiiving dinner – BUT she has wanted to return to school if the football game is home. She’s invited a few out-of-state kids home with her, but many students do stay at school for this shorter weekend. It is by no means an empty campus at Thanksgiving. The cafeteria/food service all do turkey dinners and the fres/soph tend to go in groups from their dorms. </p>

<p>question Hawkings? - on the USC 2011 online Football Schedule - the Notre Dame game is listed as 10/22, while USC plays UCLA on 11/26/11 HOME game?</p>

<p>My mom came out to California for Thanksgiving and we went to Arizona to visit friends, but my roommate stayed in the dorms over break. Only EVK was open, Parkside was not. But Nikias hosts dinner at his house, which is apparently pretty nice. </p>

<p>I’m going to be super bummed if the UCLA game is over Thanksgiving weekend! I don’t have class on Tuesdays, so I’ll have almost an entire week and probably won’t be in LA for it. Bummer!</p>

<p>Here’s the official 2011 USC Football schedule: [University</a> of Southern California Official Athletic Site - Football](<a href=“http://www.usctrojans.com/sports/m-footbl/sched/usc-m-footbl-sched.html]University”>http://www.usctrojans.com/sports/m-footbl/sched/usc-m-footbl-sched.html)</p>

<p>notre dame is away, and ucla is at home this year, on Thanksgiving weekend.</p>

<p>Thanks for advice!</p>