Fall Final Exam Schedule (for travel planning)

Faline2
Sat, 15 Jun 2013 01:53:36 +0000

Son never really wanted to catch a plane immediately anyhow. Buzzed from exams, piles of laundry can get done, or get books to resell at bookstore, chill out, clean room after the rigors of the last weeks of a semester. Important dates for parents to calendar are the exact date/time you have to be out of the dorm which is on the academic calendar.
You can always aim for a couple of days before that “you must be out” date when in doubt if you think work will be complete. Keep in mind that some students need extensions now and then and might scramble post final exams to do papers or lab work esp if they have had setbacks like an illness or something.

Son took flights home that last day often, getting to airport by 7am and being out of his room before the 9am deadline. During ice storms, inclement weather, and for special circumstances…(international students, student activities) you may put in requests to stay in the dorm past the deadline for departures. Student services shut down, dorms will shut down, but sometimes there is permission given to stay in your room to get your flight late or for other approved reasons. Vandy is an easy place to sleep even in those circumstances…easy as pie to get meals when dining is closed on foot around outskirts of campus.

For Atlanta students, there was sometimes a bus I think chartered on those shorter breaks…perhaps a student can confirm this? So convenient when you are only four hours away.

Also, your son or daughter can sign up for Vandy organized shuttles to the airport on the obviously most likely days for departures. They might not be the right schedule for you but they are there for the most likely times students need to get to the airport. You have to be at the airport two hours early. In Nashville, with any luck, you won’t have any serious traffic obstacles to the airport as you might risk in Atlanta or NYC but Nashville highways are busy at peak hours and slow down. Another “trick” in my book is to make sure you don’t book your son or daughter on the last flight into your home airport. On major holidays a canceled flight to a hub or a delay will seriously eliminate you getting a seat on the final leg. So try not to do that. (I learned this one the hard way as our home airport is tiny and late flights are extremely full on holidays).

There are plenty of taxis in the Commons parking lots that have been called as well on airport departure days and on dates that dorms can be opened up again. Students learn to call taxi companies early (the days before…they call and book), and son always had a taxi on time when he called. Nashville is easier to depart from than larger cities…not too bad at all.