Penn State Students ‘Wish’ For More Break Time After Thanksgiving Vacation | University park campus news

The Thanksgiving break is designed to give Penn State students some free time for schoolwork and allow people to enjoy the vacations with their families. However, many said they felt the week didn’t give them enough time to relax before returning for the Finals.

Some institutions such as Stanford have changed their academic plan for the 2020-21 year to eliminate finals week and have the fall semester end before Thanksgiving – giving students around seven weeks off before the spring semester.

And, many Penn State students have said they would support the idea of ​​following in the footsteps of these universities and implementing the same semester structure.

John Black said he was “definitely not” able to rest during the Thanksgiving break due to the upcoming finals.

“I knew I was coming back, and in two weeks it would be the final,” said Black (freshman).

Christopher Irvin said it was difficult to get back into a school routine for Finals week after the Thanksgiving break.

“I went home and walked into [break] fashion, and now I have to study for the final, ”said Irvin (freshman, undergraduate studies division).

The same problem plagued Claire Silva upon her return from Thanksgiving vacation.

“I went on break because the holidays are approaching,” said Silva (new civil engineering student). “Once Thanksgiving is over, the Christmas stuff is put in place, and I’m like ‘Okay we’ve got Christmas’ and then I’m like’ No, we still have two weeks of school and end of school. ‘studies.'”

Other students like Amy Vasquez found time to relax during the week before focusing on studying for the exams.

“I was actually kind of dreading coming back because I knew I would be facing the stress and the finals,” Vasquez (junior-forensic) said. “The first few days I was able to rest, but towards the end of the break I kind of had a nervous breakdown.”

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JJ Mallory said his goal was to catch up at work during the break, but ultimately he didn’t follow through.

“I was like, ‘I’m going to take two or three days to do nothing’, but it bit my butt a bit because I came back to school, and I realized I had so much. things to catch up on. Mallory (mechanical engineer) said. “I wish I had more time.”

Vasquez said she “studied here and there,” but tried to give herself as much time as possible to rest before returning to Penn State.

“I don’t mind coming back for the finals because I like being in person for my lessons, but having a break earlier would be nice,” said Vasquez. “That way it’s not just two weeks – because those two weeks are super stressful – and then the finals.”

Silva and Irvin both said they “definitely” wish they could have worked during the break, but with their brevity at home they couldn’t save hours.

“I work in a grocery store so they could really use the help while on vacation,” Silva said.

And Irvin “didn’t have any hours” due to the lack of shifts available on time.

While the idea of ​​a break starting on Thanksgiving and extending into the New Year was tempting, some students were concerned about how classes would be more condensed if the new break structure were to be implemented.

For example, Silva, who is currently following MATH 140 – Calculus With Analytic Geometry – said her classes were “already overwhelming” because they “were moving at such a rapid pace.”

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“MATH 140 is a class of ‘weeding’,” said Silva. “You have more difficult problems, and it’s difficult to grasp the information and the new concepts that you are learning… If it was more condensed, it would be really hard for people to keep up. “

Mallory said he felt like he was “already learning so so fast” as a STEM major, and that a more condensed semester would only speed up the pace of learning.

“I think we would like to start earlier because [ending before Thanksgiving] would make the semester two weeks shorter with classes, ”Mallory said. “So if we could start maybe a week earlier that would be cool.”

Many international students travel across the world to attend Penn State, which means they sometimes cannot come back during the Thanksgiving vacation. For Mehul Aggarwal, a return flight to Bangalore, India, would take 20 hours.

“It would take a day or two to get there and a day or two to come back,” said Aggarwal (freshman-data science). “I would end up spending over $ 1,000 just for four to five days at home. ”

Coronavirus restrictions on international travel have also prevented Aggarwal from returning home for the break.

“When we land in Bangalore the rules keep changing, but we may need to be quarantined for seven days,” Aggarwal said. “There is a chance that I will lose a week.

Aggarwal said “it would be nice” to extend the break, allowing him and other international students to spend more time at home.

While students like Vasquez and Silva have said they would “personally” like to put in place a structure that ends fall semesters before Thanksgiving, they are unsure whether it would be possible to do so.

“This is what I would like… The courses already contain a lot of information at once,” said Silva. “I don’t know if it’s possible.”

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