Winter Break

I’m most likely attending U of M next fall (go blue!) and saw the academic calendar. I remember my cousin saying that at her college, freshmen get longer winter breaks…is this true for Michigan? I was just wondering. It says exams will end around the 20-22 and classes resume on the 4th of January. I just know many of my friends (a year older than me) had over a month for break. Believe me, I know it’s not a huge deal. Although, flights are more expensive/hard to come by in the days immediately following or preceding the holidays. Also, it does not give me a ton of time to see family and friends. If someone could just let me know if freshmen get longer breaks, or if that was just with that specific college, that would be great! Thanks!

No, everyone gets the same break length. The trade off is that school starts later than most schools.

And ends early, in April- can help for inernships and simply earning more over the summer.

Different colleges have different breaks. Many schools do offer a five-week (or longer) winter break; Michigan does not. On the other hand, Michigan finishes its regular school year by the very beginning of May, while many other colleges do not wrap things up until mid to late May. It is pretty standard that most universities have two semesters of 14-15 weeks each; how those weeks are scheduled is up to each school. (And this does not apply to the schools that use a true trimester system).

We have a weird system of breaks. Winter is roughly 2 weeks as opposed to a month for other schools. Our fall break is also cut in half too (just two days + weekend). However, this adds up and is used in the summer; we get out roughly two weeks before everyone else, and don’t start school till a week and a half later. This is VERY useful for internships, and relaxing in the sun!

Michigan also has a period for finals then many universities. Almost 2 full weeks. This usually means you are either done earlier than the December 21-2 time frame or you get ALOT of time to study for finals. My daughter had all her finals the first week so her break was 3 weeks long.

Thanks everyone! Good to know!