<p>I am trying to book the return ticket for Thanksgiving recess for my D who is an incoming freshman. It looks like they have the Wednesday before Thanksgiving free. From past experience, do most students wait to leave on Wednesday or do some leave earlier that week? Do some kids stay behind? She might want to return late Saturday to get things in order but we don't know if there will be anyone in the dorms.</p>
<p>We want to book far ahead because these flights tend to get sold out or become extremely pricey.</p>
<p>I would hold of until the first week of classes is over. Prices might go up, but your daughter will definitely know what her schedule will look like then. If she ends up with a schedule that gets her out of class by noon on Tuesdays, she could easily come home that day instead of waiting until Wednesday. Just my two cents.</p>
<p>Agree with packerfan plus she may also have a M-W-F schedule which would allow her to leave late Monday or early Tuesday. Plus, once she gets her student ID number she can look on Student Universe and other sites as well…we often found much lower fares there.</p>
<p>Thank you for the replies. I guess we will wait as it makes sense, although that gives me much anxiety, knowing how the airlines are these days.</p>
<p>I am surprised that the dorms actually closed. Some of the other schools we visited indicated that their dorms were open for those students who could not go home for Thanksgiving for whatever reason. We were thinking about her flying back Saturday eve to avoid the craziness that is Sunday after Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>A word of warning if you do that(fly back on Saturday), I don’t think the dorms open until 9 am on Sunday.</p>
<p>UNC is kind strange about not letting people stay over breaks, but it is a public university, and most public universities do close their dorms for major breaks, I think. Probably because the vast majority of students plan to go home. You can apply to stay at Chapel Hill over breaks, but you would have to stay in a different dorm room.</p>