<p>my parents want to buy airplane tickets early, but we don’t know if final exams are scheduled and can stretch into the late afternoon on the last day of exams (dec. 8), or if they’re take-home exams too. we’re trying to decide whether to buy tickets for dec. 8 afternoon or be safe and buy tickets for morning of dec. 9. any ideas from current Caltech students?</p>
<p>I’m not current, but I’d say just get the tickets for the 9th. Whether or not the exams stretch late, it’d be much nicer to just leave on the 9th, so you don’t have to worry about packing/whatnot while dealing with finals.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there is no set answer to this question. I can remember winter semester this past year I was working on a final the evening of the last day, and I can also remember some semesters where I was done on the Wednesday of finals week. Also papers for hum classes may take you time as well; during winter term this year I was working on a hum paper while I was home after the term ended. </p>
<p>The finals are typically all given out by Monday. However, you may have too many, or need to study a lot for them, or have a difficult unlimited-time final that you need the last day for. To be safe you should book them for the Saturday after the term ends.</p>
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They’re all take-home exams (effectively). So you can take them whenever you want, and if you really wanted to leave on Wednesday, you could do that without much trouble.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you are like most Caltech students, you might learn the material you never bother to learn during the term for the first few days of finals week, and take the exam at the last minute. Also, some exams are not timed, so you may want to have more time to take it.</p>
<p>It depends in large part on how good you are at scheduling and whether you mind working up until your flight. I tend to procrastinate a lot on writing papers, and I always used to schedule my flights for Friday afternoon. The result was that I always would have to pull an all-nighter Thursday night. When I started flying home on Saturday, it was much nicer because I had time to relax and pack after finals were due, plus people often like to go out and celebrate on that Friday night.</p>
<p>Another vote for the later ticket. It’s just nicer to not have to worry about leaving immediately right after your finals. An extra night to relax with friend before you head home will be invaluable.</p>
<p>Third term frosh year is usually very bad, finals/time-wise… you generally have 3-4 to do, because of core/menu, with some number of Hum papers to do, as well. Generally, frosh year is best to get a late ticket. Also, I agree with what Mike said.</p>