<p>Yes, it can be a real pain. Depending on your student - they may be living off campus by Sophmore year so this may only be an issue only for a short while. Another thing to do is to get your airline tickets for the thanksgiving break way early - that is one holiday that sees fares skyrocket.</p>
<p>I think it more common for schools that draw primarily from their own states or neighboring states to stay open for Thanksgiving break and spring break. It can be a problem for athletes – along with winter break – who continue to have practices and games during ‘vacation.’ That’s why a lot of athletes move off campus …so that they can come back early and stay through many of the small breaks.</p>
<p>D2’s school was very accommodating when it came to dorms closing since she lives so far away, but the majority of students are within a three-hour drive of campus. Yes, they close them, but she could request to stay.</p>
<p>Another thing I really liked was that they also accommodated early arrival travel plans. Because getting her back and forth during the longer breaks usually involved a long drive with either my H or myself, then a flight home, we had more limitations and restrictions with the timing. I remember a year ago January, we had plans to leave here on a Saturday and had gotten authorization for her to get access to her dorm Saturday night, then I was scheduled to fly home Sunday. As the end of the week before we were to leave approached, a major snowstorm was predicted to wreck havoc on our travel plans. So Thursday morning I woke her up and said, “Get up, we’re leaving today.” We left that afternoon, drove about halfway and stayed the night in a hotel. Got up and finished the drive to campus on Friday, staying ahead of the storm by about twelve hours. The storm rolled through there on Friday night/Saturday, but was cleared out by Sunday for my flight home. When we left our house on Thursday, we called campus security and explained the situation, that we couldn’t wait until after the storm passed through our home to leave, because then there wouldn’t be enough time to drive to her college in time for me to catch my flight home on Sunday! They had no problem, and when we arrived on campus Friday afternoon, they let her in her dorm room. Yes, there was no food service, but with a car, she didn’t need it.</p>
<p>S’s school consolidates students to one building for Thanksgiving. The kids get together and cook a meal. This lets the International students have a spot – but it does make for a quiet, long weekend. </p>
<p>Many colleges offer spring break trips. Students can often travel or have an educational mini-seminar class for a relatively low cost. </p>
<p>We are on the opposite coast from our guy. I do wish he were closer. The first Thanksgiving was the hardest. – but he seems to have weathered the away times well.</p>
<p>At the school my son is going to, dorms are open for all breaks except winter break (one could make special arrangements to stay on campus, but one needs to get permission in advance). Some dining areas do close down, but I am pretty sure that one dining hall stays open.</p>
<p>Some schools have one or two dorms that stay open for spring and thanksgiving break, and students who need to stay at school can usually move in there temporarily. But most of the buildings they do close, both for security and energy savings reasons.</p>
<p>Where my kids go went to college, there were resident directors (adults) in each dorm…and resident assistants on each wing of the floor. The RD (resident director) was basically in charge of the dorm. I do not think it’s reasonable to ask these PROFESSIONAL dorm folks to remain in the dorms on all holiday. Our kids’ schools closed for all breaks…and the dining halls did too. For those who needed it, they had alternate housing for a reduced price that the students could request. Most just went home with friends if they weren’t traveling home.</p>
<p>Nightchef - My response to your question would be the same as Thumper’s. BTW, it would be the same at 99% of American colleges and universities. Went to Harvard, did ya? ;)</p>
<p>Whether the dorms close for the short breaks seems to depend on whether the majority of the student population comes from nearby or from all over the country and the world.</p>
<p>My son went to the University of Maryland at College Park, where most of the students come from in-state, and it’s a small state. There, most but not all of the dorms close for all the breaks, even the short ones. At a certain time on the day when students must leave, the automatic locks are changed so that the students’ ID cards won’t let them in the building, and then the staff searches the buildings for stray students and requires any they find to leave. After that, in come the exterminators.</p>
<p>My daughter goes to Cornell, which has students from all over the world. There, the dorms stay open for the short breaks. This probably implies the presence of a higher level of vermin (since there are fewer opportunities to fumigate), but I have no specific data to back up that supposition.</p>
<p>^^Yes I agree with Marian. We found that my son’s college having a high percentage of students from long distances allowed those students to stay in the dorms over Thanksgiving and Spring breaks. The students that were not returning home needed only to make their RA aware. My son’s college food service was not open but he just ate in town and some of the kids that could not return home for the short time “made their own Thanksgiving feasts” and “group meals.” He rather enjoys the breaks and doesn’t miss the hectic travel just to get home for a couple days even though he does get “offers” to drive home with friends who are within driving distance.</p>
<p>S2 attends a big directional state u. On his campus twelve of the dorms are “academic year” housing meaning they stay open for scheduled fall and spring semester breaks.</p>
<p>And often the dorms don’t re-open until the Sunday before classes resume. It makes it really hard for a kid from far away. Bad weather on the one day you can travel means you miss classes…</p>
<p>My son’s school closes the dorms only for 2 weeks at winter break and for summer break. Thanksgiving and spring break the dorms stay open, but the dining hall is closed. The kids who stay (and my kid is one of them) get together and cook meals in one of the dorm kitchens. It actually ends up being pretty fun.</p>
<p>My daughter’s school closes the dorms for Thanksgiving, winter break, spring break and summers. Students can make arrangements to stay in certain univ. housing units over those breaks if they have need, but it is at an additional cost.</p>
<p>At my school, I don’t think they close them except during winter break but at my cousin’s school, they close them for an ‘October break’, Thanksgiving and winter break and spring break.</p>
<p>NYU dorms are open during breaks. A lot of students are from different parts of the country as well as international and can’t get home.</p>
<p>When I was a student the dorms in my school were closed during breaks.</p>
<p>Luckily for us, son’s dorm will be open for Thanksgiving and Spring Break. I believe he will have to register and that the dining halls will be closed. Since we are on the opposite coast he will only be flying home for Winter Break. I hope he’s not the only one there!</p>
<p>Most of our dorms close for breaks, but I believe they have limited accommodations for people who can’t get home.</p>
<p>Here the dorms are open for fall and spring break, with reduced residential life services and no meal plan.</p>
<p>At my alma mater the dorms stayed open for in-semester breaks - Fall Break, Thanksgiving, and Spring Break. They only closed for the winter/holiday break and for the summer break. It didn’t make sense to close during Thanksgiving because it was only two or three weeks before the holiday break and a lot of students didn’t have the money to fly home for Thanksgiving and then turn around and fly home again for the winter break. We had hall directors in every hall, so the RAs got the time off and the hall directors usually had to stay.</p>
<p>However, during the in-semester breaks there was reduced food service in the dining hall.</p>
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<p>My niece was a student at UMD and she made a very good friend while attending who simply had no place to go over Thanksgiving…her parents were living in London and her only trips ‘home’ were to be over summer break. My niece invited her to stay with her at my sister’s house, and it ended up being tradition for the four years she was in school. The girl’s parents were so grateful that their daughter had a place to spend the holiday that they’d send a gift basket every year as a thank-you. </p>
<p>Perhaps your son will be just as lucky to make a friend that will let him share the holiday with his family.</p>