For thanksgiving, halls close at 11am on Wednesday and open again on noon Sunday. For the Semester break, we get exactly 1 month
@Ballerina016 - winter break isnât 8-9 weeks! Itâs two or three weeks, followed by the most wonderful experience a college student can have, i.e. Independent Activities Period in January. Itâs all the good parts of MIT with absolutely no stress. Please donât keep her home during that! (DHâs mom brought him home skipping IAP his freshman year and it was so sad.)
In IAP you can take classes if you like (I took Ancient Greek for a few days), or do extra sports (I did, one year, 14 hours per week of floor hockey), or go to chocolate tastings or Simpsons-watching marathons, or basically anything you can imagine and then some.
Thank you @fretfulmother She will try to get into UROP during IAP. At least that is the plan.
@Ballerina016 NOooo! not a good plan. That misses the whole point. Hook up a UROP maybe, but start it after MLK day. IAP is about alternative insights, not tool & die. (IMHO, of course).
From @EastGrad .
Oh yeah? Well, your mama dresses you funny!
Clearly, the Eliâs donât need the extra time to absorb the material! They can learn twice as fast as those Crimson Crusaders! And another thingâŠ
Oh, I forgot, but Iâm sure it was pithy!
Well played, @ItsJustSchool, though I find it a little creepy that somehow you know Iâm wearing bell bottoms and sequins.
Reading this thread has made me realize that I am behind â I thought we were done booking flights last night, but now I realized I have to book Thanksgiving, and also my flight out there for move in day. Thanks for the nudge, folks.
Also - buying popcorn and watching from the sidelines as slights are exchanged btw EasyGrad and ItsJustSchool
@carlson2 Me too, although it doesnât take a genius to figure where my alliances lay 
Oops - EastGrad. Clearly I should not be typing before morning tea.
Something youâd like to share @eastgrad ?
It is pitiful what passes for trashtalk among ivyleague parents. They definitely need some remedial tutoring. 
@texaspg I may be helpful in that regard . I went to high school in Baltimore City in the 80s.
@carlson2, no, Iâm SURE you meant âEasyGradâ! What else would it be from the Crimson behemoth?
With all this talk of Thanksgiving-it looks like all of you will be flying your kiddos home for that weekend, even though unless theyâre flying at night theyâll spend 2 of the 4 days in the air for those X-country flights. I never liked making that trip when I went back east for the holidays and weâve decided as a family that D will be going to her cousinâs just a 3-hour trip down the road for Thanksgiving instead. Are we the only ones doing something like that? Some of the colleges D looked at have a network of local alumni to welcome students into their homes for those short breaks. I liked that idea since not everyone can afford those high fares. A friend of Dâs goes to a school that keeps one dorm open throughout the school year for kids to stay on campus when they canât fly home. I like that option too.
Attacked by friendly fire, @carlson2! I surrender! Truce, @ItsJustSchool, old friend. Until that third Saturday in November.
@sseamom, over Thanksgiving breaks, I developed a relationship with distant relatives I did not even know existed when I was in College, just because they lived only a couple hundred miles from my school (accessible by public transportation), and one year went to my coachâs home. One year, I think it was Spring Break, I stayed at school and worked on a huge project. That was pretty lonely- I donât recommend it. Also, I do think that for Freshman year I will do everything I can to be with my Freshman- both to hear the fresh stories and to give them respite. Years 2-4, maybe not so much, they can wait a few weeks for the end of the term.
My freshman year, Thanksgiving was with my RAâs family. She is still a friend to this day. My sophomore year, Thanksgiving was with the family of this guy I had just started dating. His mother was only 4â11" and at 6â, my main job was to reach seldom used kitchen items and serving dishes from high shelves. That same lovely lady helped cook for her grand-daughterâs graduation dinner this weekend, and again my job was to reach things in high places.
D will be staying in Boston for Thanksgiving or with whatever new friends want to take in an orphan. I have no doubt sheâll be fine.
My DD also will be staying in Boston for Thanksgiving since she only has Thursday- Sunday off. I am making travel arrangements for us to fly to visit her since we will not be attending parents weekend.
Going to college close to home means I can come home for all the little breaks which is something Iâm grateful for. My mom said if we have friends from far away they would be welcome to join us.