Harvard change

[magid]

Harvard is changing to a new, "coordinated" academic schedule, so all 13 schools have the same calendar. Which means that Harvard undergrads will no longer have the glory (*cough*) of exams after the holidays. And there will be a break before spring semester, a 3-week optional semester that sounds rather like MIT's IAP, though perhaps with less wide-ranging possibilities (I'm guessing it'll focus on academically-oriented things only).

I suspect undergrads everywhere are celebrating, just as soon as they get out of whichever exam they're in right now.

Comments

[jwg.livejournal.com]

What is going to happen to WHRB Orgy schedules?

[magid.livejournal.com]

I suspect the president didn't take that into consideration when aligning all the other schedules...

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

I think that leaves only Princeton on the "old" schedule.

I liked having exams after the holidays and after a real reading period. But maybe it was just me.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize Princeton was on that schedule too.

They're not the holidays you care about, though. Would you feel similarly if exams had been after Sukkot? And I get the impression that a lot of students would prefer more than a weekend's break in between semesters.

Oh, hey! I just realized: this means that if my Dad continues to proctor exams, he'll be staying with me in December, rather than a couple of days before Arisia. Definite win for me!

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

We also had midterm exams. Some years, they were right after Succot.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Point.

[(Anonymous)]

For the May 2010 Commencement, the University is notifying local hotels about the change so that they can alert individuals holding reservations.

People really make reservations two years in advance for the Harvard commencement?

[magid.livejournal.com]

I know that people make plans at least a year in advance, and the hotels do book up... Two years does seem a bit excessive. What if your kid decides to take a semester off or something?

And I assume that some of this is also to let the hotels know that they should be jacking up prices during different weeks. /snark
(I wonder if this will overlap MIT's graduation? That would make things beyond nuts in Cambridge, not to mention skyrocking hotel rates.)

I got calls from a friend's mother one August, asking if she and her husband could stay with me for the upcoming June commencement.

[queue.livejournal.com]

What if your kid decides to take a semester off or something?

A reservation is not a commitment. They can be canceled, usually as little as 24 or 48 hours in advance.

[godream.livejournal.com]

According to my aunt, she and my uncle were offered the chance to make hotel reservations for my cousin's graduation from Cornell... while bringing her to her freshman orientation. So it could be even more absurd. :p

[magid.livejournal.com]

That? Is just nuts.
Wow.

[rethought.livejournal.com]

I hate having exams after vacation, I think I'd love the switch. Don't see it ever happening here, though...

[magid.livejournal.com]

Yeah, your school has a tradition longer than Harvard's...

Are all the schools on the same exam schedule?