<p>Why does USC (University of Southern California) have short vacation breaks, when compared to most other colleges, and such a long academic calander.</p>
<p>bump.........</p>
<p>bump....bump</p>
<p>Arbitrary historical decisions.</p>
<p>bucky:</p>
<p>I'm lost to the question. 'SC provides a 25 day winter break, and 170+ academic days per school year. Which schools have longer breaks, and/or shorter academic years?</p>
<p>btw: longer breaks only mean that school goes until June...so what?</p>
<p>I had three and a half weeks off in the winter, which isn't huge, but isn't awful. We also get out the earliest, in the second week of May. That rocks.</p>
<p>In general, most schools have summer breaks that last 13-14 weeks. Some schools, like those that follow the quarter system, start their summer break a month later, but resume classes a month later too. Their school year usually starts around September 20 and ends around June 10. However, most schools in America (including USC I believe) go by the semester system. Those schools usually start their fall term around August 20 and end their academic year around May 15. Their summer is therefor a little over 3 months long. That's pretty typical. </p>
<p>Some schools have slightly unorthodox academic calendars. For example, some schools, like MIT, follow the 4-1-4 calendar. In other words, they have a 4-month semester, 2 weeks off for christmas, followed by a month for independent study and then another 4-month semester. As such, MIT ususally breaks for summer in late May, but they do not resume classes until early September. </p>
<p>Harvard generally starts in September, but its fall finals are 2 weeks AFTER the christmas break! Imagine, going home for the break only to have to go back to school to sit for your finals! </p>
<p>Cornell Christmas breaks are 5 weeks long, but their semesters are slightly shorter, so classes resume for the fall term in late August and finals for the regular academic year are finished by May 20. </p>
<p>I personally love Michigan's calendar. Fall semester classes resume in early september (always the Tuesday after Labor Day) and finals for the regular academic year end before May 1st. As such, Michigan students have all of May, June, July and August off! That's right, Michigan's summer break is 17 weeks long...a full month longer than the summer vacation of other universities. Michigan can do that because it follows the trimester system, which is 14 weeks long rather than 16 weeks long. However, there are two major drawbacks to Michigan's calendar. The first is its Christmas break, which is seldom longer than 2 weeks long. Generally, finals end 3 days before Christmas and classes resume by the 5th of January. Second is Michigan's Spring Break, which really happens to be in the middle of winter! Michigan's "winter break" starts at the end of February, a good 3 weeks before the rest of the country has its spring break. </p>
<p>The point I am trying to make is that all universities have their own calendar and it varries.</p>
<p>bump...bump</p>