Claire is not in school...

[amles80]

I have a question college/university studies; I don’t really know how these are organized in the U.S. I mean, is it normal to have maybe one or two days a week with no classes, when you’re supposed to study by yourself (in theory) but you can do whatever you feel like because there’s no supervision

Comments

[iridescentglow]

I definitely had friends who organised their schedule so that they only had classes 3 days a week. It really depends what you're studying and how dedicated you are to it (i.e. how heavy your course load is). Arts majors (English, Philosophy, etc.) with a light course load would definitely have free time in the middle of the day, mid-week. Science majors with heavy courseloads... wouldn't.

[amles80]

Okay, that makes sense to me - not so diffrent from Sweden then but I needed to make sure. Thank you for answering!

[fluteaphrael]

Yes, I didn't live in the same city as Uni and had to drive 45 mins each way (did not live in a dorm.) So I tried to run my schedule as "as few days as possible and as short an hour spread as I could," ie: not an 8 am class and a 3 pm class on the same day if I could help that, because I'd have to find places to sit around all day. So all the day classes one day and the night classes another.

[genarti]

It depends on your school and how you arrange your classes whether you have a day or two free. Most classes meet either two or three days a week, although there are seminars that meet one day for an extended period of time as well (usually more for upperclassmen). Science classes and language classes might have an extra lab or conversation group attached, which might or might not be on the same day as a class. Some students arrange their schedule carefully to have a free day or no morning classes or whatever, and avoid classes that would change that. Other students don't care so much, or simply can't manage it because the classes they have to take (for their major, or simply strong interest) don't fit that kind of schedule. In my experience, Friday is the most likely day for someone to successfully get free, but it might be different at other schools

[genarti]

Oh, and most students in the colleges I'm familiar with would take four or five courses in a semester. At my school, you could take three, but that was the absolute minimum to be full time. You could take up to five and a half, but for a heavier courseload than that you'd have to get special permission. Mind you, if you're a music student who needs to put in her practice time and be in student orchestras and stuff, or if you're a science major who has labs for two or three of those classes, that's a heavier courseload than it looks like on paper.

(For the half: you can take courses that are "half" the workload of a regular class. Often they're light electives, like a music ensemble or a PE class or something. Those would more often meet once or twice a week, and not give a lot of homework. Different schools arrange this differently in terms of how they count their credits.)

[darthfox]

Yes - fifteen hours (per week) is a normal full-time undergraduate course load at most universities. Twelve is okay, especially if as you say there's practice time, lab work, or what have you. (Or if you've got a job or an internship, e.g.) Nine probably busts you down to part-time status, which can have implications for loans, housing, and other things - scary! But those fifteen hours can be distributed throughout the week (three classes that meet for an hour each on MWF and two that meet for an hour and a half on TR, for example), or Monday through Thursday, or just MWF, or just Tuesday-Thursday if you're very brave and can handle being in class for seven or eight hours with very little break

[amles80]

I see; it's not so diffrent from Swedish universities then (except that there's little room to arrange your schedule). Thanks for answering all questions.

[conuly]

I don't know about other schools, but at the one I went to it was entirely possible, if you were ambitious, to arrange to have all your classes on just two days out of the week. If you were more normal, a four-day-a-week schedule was more likely, though you might get stuck with a single MWF class. (Lots of THOSE started the first day with the professor coming in and saying "This class only meets two days a week", which shows how much everybody likes having Fridays off.)

‘Don’t you have classes or something, Claire? Playing hookey*, are we?’The word is all right, but "are we?" is weird. Ending the sentence with "right" or "huh" or just nothing would be better

[sister_dear]

The word is all right, but "are we?" is weird.

This might be regional; the "are we" is something I regularly tack on to the end of statements like that. (I'm from the Pacific Northwest.)

[amles80]

Okay, thanks! I'm often a bit worried about my dialogues, because a fic is obviously better if I manage to write things that people actually say. :) It's often the small details that make the difference; the kind of things you can't really look up in a dictionary... I have never really spoken to native English speakers very much (except on the internet) so I base everything on what I have read or heard on TV/in movies... but it's not easy to know if I get it rigth, or if it makes sense even if I've heard it some time!

[genarti]

To me, putting the "are we?" at the end of a sentence sounds either condescending (if he means it as a serious "Ha, I caught you at it" accusation), or lightly joking. I see down below that he's supposed to be half-joking, and to me the sentence works for that!

Especially with "playing hooky," which is something you'd say more about high school or lower where the student has more supervision to evade. A college student might certainly say it jokingly about themselves, but it does carry a mild connotation of poking fun at yourself to phrase it that way. "Skipping (a class)" is what I heard for the usual matter-of-fact phrasing. So if the father is lightly teasing her as if she were a younger kid cutting class, this sentence works fine for me!

(And, for the record, I'm from the Northeast, and prior to that from Ohio.)

[amles80]

Thanks for commenting. Yes, I agree - it would be weird if he didn't know that it was her spring break! I should have thought of that. I'll just go with the idea that she has arranged her schedule to have a free day. :)

[firefly124]

I've managed to have a two-day-a week schedule as a full-time student in the past. Throughout nursing school, most school weeks have been three-day weeks: one day for lecture, two for clinicals. So yes, definitely possible to arrange your schedule that way in many colleges and universities.

Thanksgiving varies. At my last university, we pretty much just officially got the Thursday of Thanksgiving and the Friday after off. At my current community college, where the expectation is a large number of students are already parents who'll need to be organizing their own kids and such for the holiday, the whole week is basically off, though the Monday and Tuesday can be used if needed for make-up days.

There's no way the father wouldn't know it was Thanksgiving if they met up on a Thursday. All the stores everywhere would be closed, and even if he weren't into football himself, many of his friends would probably be off guzzling beer and watching the big game. Seriously, it's second only to Christmas in terms of the entire country just

[amles80]

Thank you for this detailed reply. I will go with the idea that she has arranged her schedule to have a free day, it's perfect for this scenario.

I don't mind at all that you misread my post because what you wrote was very interesting! I don't know much about Thanksgiving and I had been wondering about this; you say that "it's second only to Christmas in terms of the entire country just shutting down", and this is very good to know. Suppose this guy didn't spend the holiday with his family but was living alone, and if he decided to take a walk in the city... would he get the feeling that the streets were deserted, and would all bars and restaurants be closed?

[firefly124]

You're welcome. I'm glad it was helpful even though I'd misread

[amles80]

Great, thank you very much! Previous chapters to this story will be edited to make it more detailed and, hopefully, more real. :)