Due to the ongoing pandemic, Brown’s fall semester is shorter than usual. While the finals period for the first semester traditionally ends around December 20th, this year is an exception, as December 11th marks the conclusion of finals. This unique schedule definitely has its perks and drawbacks; here are a few of the major pros and cons of the shortened fall semester.
Pros:
1. Less amount of time devoted to online school/intensive studying
Brown courses are amazing, but everyone gets exhausted spending hours doing readings, writing papers, studying, and attending online school. With the shortened semester, Brown students don’t have to stay on their intensive study grinds for as long as usual. With the majority of classes conducted remotely this semester (which has been far from ideal for most), I think many Brown students are looking forward to a break from Zoom University.
2. Longer winter break
The shortened semester also means a longer winter break. Having more time off in between semesters is amazing because it gives Brown students more time to rest and recover from finals and the fall semester in general.
3. More time with family and friends from home
Many students will be home from Thanksgiving through mid-January this year. As a result, we have more time to spend with our families and friends from home. In the past, coming home for breaks was a bit stressful because it felt like there wasn’t enough time to do and see everyone we wanted to. The extended break gives us the opportunity to spend more quality time with our family and home friends.
Cons:
1. Longer time away from campus/school friends
One of the biggest drawbacks of the shortened semester is that it takes away time that is usually spent on campus with friends from school. We all love our school friends and want to spend as much time with them on campus as possible. This feeling has been heightened recently because of the amount of time we lost on campus and with friends when we got sent home in the spring.
2. Finishing the semester from home
Although students did have the option to stay on campus through the end of finals, a large percentage of the student body went home for the duration of the semester at Thanksgiving. Taking finals from home may be difficult for some students because they don’t have a productive study space at home or simply get distracted while trying to complete work at home.
3. Boredom
Students are going to have a lot of time at home with nothing to do. COVID-19 makes it difficult to make any concrete, fun plans for break, so most students will be sitting at home wondering what to do with all their free time. Not having anything to keep busy with can be frustrating for people who enjoy having plans and scheduled activities to accomplish every day.