Halloweekend is officially over, and that means one thing: The countdown to Thanksgiving break has begun.
Considering the University of Maryland doesn’t have a fall break as many other colleges do, Thanksgiving break is often students’ first time going home since moving to College Park at the end of August.
But this university’s break feels short and bittersweet. How can it even be considered a break if the university is only closed Thanksgiving Day and Friday? It seems like more of a long weekend than anything else.
The university’s academic calendar says break is from Nov. 26-29, making it seem as though it’s four days. In reality, two of those days are the weekend, not extra days off.
Even though this university’s break technically starts on Thanksgiving, it is very common for professors to cancel Wednesday classes or for students to just head home a little early.
Of the 14 schools in the Big Ten, this university is not the only one with a short break. Both Michigan State University and University of Minnesota’s calendars state that break is Nov. 26-27, while Rutgers University and University of Wisconsin-Madison have break from Nov. 26-29, just like this university.
The remaining nine Big Ten schools have longer breaks. Five of them — University of Michigan, University of Nebraska, Northwestern University, Purdue University and Ohio State University — all begin break on the Wednesday of the week (Nov. 25). Michigan’s break technically starts at 5 p.m. and Northwestern’s at 6 p.m. that Wednesday.
The last four schools in the conference — Pennsylvania State University, University of Illinois, Indiana University and the University of Iowa — all essentially have more than a week off for this holiday.
Illinois has the longest stated break, from Nov. 21-29, which is the Saturday before to the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Both Indiana and Iowa have break from Nov. 22-29 — Sunday to Saturday, for the same number of days off as Illinois. Penn State’s break goes from the Nov. 22-28 — Sunday to Saturday — but of course there are no classes on Nov. 29, giving Penn State students the same nine-day break.
Also, out of the 14 schools, the ones to not have fall break like this university are Penn State, Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Rutgers and Wisconsin.
Illinois refers to the Thanksgiving break as its fall break. Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State and Purdue all have fall breaks in October.
This university is not alone in not having a longer Thanksgiving break or a fall break.
