TRAN: Rutgers needs fall break or week-long Thanksgiving break
Column: Hung Up
At this point in the semester, it seems as if everyone is checking when the first day off will be. But for many universities, including here at Rutgers, the first and only one of the semester comes in late November when Thanksgiving arrives. Some students are already asking their professors if they plan to hold classes that week.
Meanwhile, for the spring semester, there is an entire week off from classes in the form of spring break. This nine-day break is usually in the middle of the semester in March. Of course, in comparison, Thanksgiving break starts on Thursday and ends strictly on the following Sunday — that is only four days off at the tail end of November. The semester ends with just two or three more weeks of classes.
From a student's perspective, Thanksgiving break has an advantage in providing a bit of a late semester boost for overall review and preparation for finals. Because it is so close to the end of the year, practically all of the material has already been covered, especially concerning ideas that have more advanced applications in the course.
The remaining classes will simply be culminating topics and projects that, even if important, have little far-reaching potential simply because the semester is over.
Four days can mean reviewing and focusing on about one class per day. But, while productive, this means dedicating a "break” entirely to studying, which is naturally not ideal for many, skips over the holiday's purpose.
After all, an entire semester has gone by, and a few days off can help students recharge before entering the final stretch with the upcoming projects, papers and exams. But it is still only four days, which is really just a glorified weekend.
If you want a proper reset and opt to take a complete break, that can leave you feeling behind. But if you want to do a combination of the two — taking time to rest while also catching up on coursework — that results in just one, maybe two, days for each.
On the other hand, spring break presents an entire week off in the middle of the semester, twice the length of Thanksgiving recess. Due to the length, it can easily be used to effectively combine rest and productivity. This can be quite clear in how many people travel or do study abroad programs.
Then, there are still five days remaining, meaning you can have up to five days of productivity. You can have an entire day per class, assuming a relatively average five-course schedule and wanting to study for every class, which is twice the time of Thanksgiving break.
You could even extend the break to seven days — you are still left with the same productivity time as Thanksgiving. In any way it is split up, there is undeniably enough time to have an efficient combination of both rest and productivity.
Being in the middle of the semester also brings the benefit of being able to review and avoid falling behind early on. While perhaps less important than finals in terms of the direct effect on the grades, it is an ideal time to prepare for midterms or review their results.
An earlier review allows for a more concrete understanding of the essential building block topics, making the rest of the material in the semester simpler and more comprehensible. On the other hand, a late break can mean trying to recover from early misconceptions and thus not understanding the more complicated topics, resulting in being overwhelmed by new ideas and having to disentangle confusion from an additional week's worth of content at once.
As such, a longer and earlier break is more beneficial than a later one, which the fall semester lacks in any form.
Given that we will have off for Thanksgiving and the semesters should remain the same length, that leaves two simple solutions: There can be a fall break, either a week off or just one to two days for Indigenous Peoples' Day.
Removing the week is likely unrealistic, but even just one or two days off (which is the same as Thanksgiving) would mean being able to take advantage of that earlier review, especially with many classes having midterms that week. This would effectively split the semester into thirds, benefiting a spaced learning model.
Instead, there could be the entirety of Thanksgiving week off. While this does not present the opportunity to study in advance, it allows enough time to completely reset and have a true final review.
In any case, the fall semester can be draining, with nearly three months of straight schedules before the first and only break, which is a quite short one at that.
Tyler Tran is a sophomore in the School of Arts and Sciences majoring in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry and minoring in Economics. His column, "Hung Up," runs on alternative Mondays.
*Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
YOUR VOICE | The Daily Targum welcomes submissions from all readers. Due to space limitations in our print newspaper, letters to the editor must not exceed 900 words. Guest columns and commentaries must be between 700 and 900 words. All authors must include their name, phone number, class year and college affiliation or department to be considered for publication. Please submit via email to oped@dailytargum.com by 4 p.m. to be considered for the following day's publication. Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
