DD is attending school with large number of international students that’s why dorms only close for summer break. They don’t have fall break, get two days off for Columbus Day and just two days for thanksgiving.
Why? The short fall break may be timed to coincide with midterms. The day or two off may have to do with administrative needs. Does your college provide students with actual midterm grades in every class? Sometimes starting earlier to allow for a midterm break plus a week at Thanksgiving does interfere with students earning or internships. My kids had the 2 short breaks and still had to be back at school mid-August, for one that meant going right from internship back to school. Whatever the reason, I’m sure the school isn’t setting the calendar with the express intent of keeping the distance kids trapped on campuse based on some kind of meanness.
Having a child farther from home is challenging, because the child can’t come home for shorter breaks and the parent can’t visit the college for a weekend here or there. That was a consideration in my kid’s college choice. He had never been away from home before. So far, we’ve been meeting once a month, one place or another, as per his request.
A lot of the students who live plane rides away stay on campus for October break, as do many kids who live nearer the college. For Thanksgiving, some stay on campus and the college arranges a holiday celebration for them, but many go home with friends who live in the northeastern United States.
October break is not bad for staying on campus and relaxing a bit or getting some studying done, but Thanksgiving is harder because it is a time when many families traditionally get together.
Some of my sons’ high school friends’ colleges do give a full week at Thanksgiving, and that must be nicer for students who live farther away, provided they can afford to travel home.
I don’t know what happens for financially aided kids. Normally a meets-need college pays for airfare at the start and end of each semester. Would they pay for travel for a week-long Thanksgiving break, or would less affluent kids be stuck on campus for an even longer time if the break were longer?
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Happy Thanksgiving!
I think we need to also consider this question from the perspective of the employees of the university. Most employers offer paid holidays scattered throughout the calendar year. Universities forego many of these. A fall break may be as much about giving the employees a break, as giving the students a break.
I do agree that the academic calendar should be a consideration when selecting a university. Many of these calendars were set before students and parents would have any expectations of traveling more than a short distance “home” over such breaks. Universities are adapting slowly via more dining options open, etc but those 4 years go fast so a significant change like the entire academic calendar (usually published up to two years in advance) is unlikely to occur during a student’s time there.
@toomanyteens I sympathize with your situation. The two day breaks do cause trouble for those a flight or two away from the college. We tell the kids when they apply if they go that far that there will be some breaks they will not be able to come home for or that they will have to friends homes, on trips or make their own plans on campus with others in similar situations. I think universities and colleges do not think about the shortness of the breaks but instead how many holidays are designated in total throughout the year
My daughter goes back to school Labor Day weekend. She gets Monday off of classes for Columbus Day weekend but does not have to leave campus. Thanksgiving she had to be off campus by 7pm on Tuesday night or make arrangements. She goes back Sunday. While not a main consideration we did look at which colleges closed for what days and how easy it was for my daughter to get home/back without a car. The college she picked ended up being close enough do drop off/pick up when needed.
This bit from a satirical magazine at Williams College speaks to this thread:
https://www.williamshaystack.com/post/melbourne-native-excited-to-visit-family-for-45-minutes-during-reading-period
This so varies. Neither of my kids had a fall break. They had classes on Columbus Day. One just had the long weekend for Thanksgiving, but the other had a full week off for Thanksgiving.
Both had a week of classes and then finals after Thanksgiving, and then the semester break.
But then one kid had about three weeks off, and the other had almost a month.
My D18, going to school in Canada, gets no Thanksgiving break. Well, she does get one day off for Canadian Thanksgiving in October, but that’s it. Some profs may cancel class on Election Day, but for the fall semester, it’s officially just one day off. Students have been lobbying for a “fall reading week” (they call spring break “reading week”) but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen any time soon.
We knew this going in, and we accommodate by having someone (parent, sibling, grandparent, whoever) fly up to spend a few days with D sometime in the fall.
I agree that there are benefits to staying local for short breaks. Students can catch their breath, get ahead on their studies, explore their new neighborhood and spread their wings a bit. I have fond memories of spending Thanksgiving with local friends in college. It was great to see how other families celebrated.
My first year DS also goes to school in Ohio. The school has historically had a large population of students from the coasts so they have fewer but longer breaks. Oct Break is just a 4 day weekend that he said alot of kids go home but alot stay as well. He stayed at school and plans to do the same next year as well. Parents Weekend is usually the following week, so we go up for that.
He also gets a week for Thanksgiving. With it being so late, he will be back home in 3 weeks. He’ll be home for 3 weeks before he has to go back to school. We flew him home for T-giving, but his dad will be driving up to get him for Xmas break… dad is not looking forward to that!! LOL
Spring semester is alot more balanced. He gets 2 weeks for Spring Break with 7 weeks and 8 weeks of class.
My dd goes to a school with midterm breaks both in the fall and spring. They are basically 4 day weekends. Then she was off Thursday - Sunday for Thanksgiving, will have a month or so at Christmas and a week (plus weekends on both ends) for Spring Break. Her school plans to extend Thanksgiving by an extra day next year, probably because so many classes get cancelled on Wednesday and many kids just skip class that day anyway.
I asked her today how she felt about the multiple breaks instead of one longer one. She said she’d love a longer Thanksgiving break BUT she came home for her fall midterm break and REALLY felt she needed the time home at that point. I think the midterm breaks are meant to be after midterms but it doesn’t always work out that way based on how the professors choose to set up their classes and how many midterms they give.
My daughter did fly home for both fall breaks but many kids from her school who have to fly only went home for one or in many cases, none at all depending on how far they live, what their families can afford, and personal preference. When my daughter was making her college decision we told her we’d budget for trips home from breaks if she needed them. She’s 1000 miles away from home. As a freshman she’s taking us up on that offer but I’m not sure if she’ll continue doing so once she is more acclimated. Luckily Southwest flies direct between school and home and we are learning to take advantage of their flexibility in making flight changes when prices change!
Yes we are focused on the students. But many of the breaks are a chance for staff, facilities and professors to take a breath too.
They don’t – I really would like to see a longer break at Thanksgiving so coming home is more feasible
I guess – I mean outside of government and academia Columbus Day isn’t much of a holiday
Uh, yeah, they have a lot of employees, too. There are people who work in colleges who would probably prefer to have days off that coincide with their children’s schools, if possible. I can tell you that I would have had to find a sitter for some of those holidays if I had to work.
It would be like any other place of employment: would you like to sacrifice federal/typical days off to get longer breaks while your young kids are at school? Some might like that but many wouldn’t.
Like I said before outside academia and government there are tons of people who don’t get days like Columbus Day or MLK Day off from work; I never have and don’t really consider those days typical to most; when my kids were young we dealt with it as part of being a working parent – probably more people don’t have those days off than do. We deal with it and not the biggest deal in the world but my D’s school recruits kids from all over the country and the world for athletics etc. so I would think they would balance these students need to travel as well. Even one extra day on a busy travel week like Thanksgiving would help.
My D’s school has a very diverse student body…only 45% or so from in-state and many international kids. The international kids can’t go home for such a short break and many don’t bother to fly if they live out of state either due to time or finances. It seems like most of my daughter’s athlete friends stayed on campus for break too, mostly because they had to practice. With finals coming very soon, even a lot of local kids stay on campus to study or only go home for a day or two. In order to accommodate all the kids who stay at school the dorms stay open and at least one cafeteria on campus was open the entire break, except on Thanksgiving Day.
Next year her school is extending Thanksgiving an extra day though which will be great!
I wish American Thanksgiving was in October! I hate it that our daughter has to drive 1,000 miles now and will be making the 500-mile return trip in fewer than three weeks when she’s exhausted from final exams and projects. And her school kicks the kids out the last day of finals! They can’t even stay overnight in the dorm.
I get it, one of my kids went away to school and it was a pain. But that’s how it goes, and it’s not as if that info isn’t available before you decide. Lots of people from other countries are usually stuck on campus for breaks shorter than winter and summer. So much depends not only on how many days off, but also travel costs.
I would imagine whether or not they give Columbus Day and MLK have a lot to do with the region and what’s common. Columbus/MLK seem pretty typical on the east coast.
We deal with it and it’s not the biggest deal in the world, certainly. But it’s something important for applicants to discuss with their parents.
^True! We were just happy daughter wanted to go to school in Pennsylvania instead of Beirut! 