Breaks?

[PathMicro]

My financial aid package stated one amount for fall and spring combined and then an additional amount for the summer, so I'm assuming I'm going to be in/at school for the entire year.

So, I was wondering if anybody could provide info about breaks for grad students? I know it probably varies by program, but for example do any of your programs allow time off for winter or spring beak, or any time off in the summer?

Any help is appreciated.

[eat.climb.love]

From a friend's experience, he has to research during the summers. He gets three weeks off and can choose those weeks. He does get university holidays and the week that the whole school is shut down off, I believe.

[robot_hamster]

From my experience, if you're planning to go on vacation or to visit family then you just ask if you can have some time off. People arrange those kinds of things all the time, just as long as your plans don't conflict with others (assuming you are going to be working in a lab with lab mates).

[Roccoriel]

This is extremely important for me, since my boyfriend's entire family lives in France, and we both enjoy visiting them. I imagine its best if I can schedule my trip around school shutdowns then, so i am not missing a big chunk of days? We usually go for 2 weeks once a year.

[Tall Chai Latte]

We are entitled to have two additional weeks off from the national holidays at my school. But if you need to take longer break, as long as your PI is okay with it you should be fine.

[violetvivian]

Can anyone speak to this for the humanities?

[runonsentence]

Can anyone speak to this for the humanities?

In my department, it's rare (actually, impossible) to be do grad coursework over the summer, so I've never had to take summer classes.

Most funded students in my department are on TAships; there's not too much summer teaching around (or if you manage to snag a class, it's only 3 weeks long), so summers are pretty much a break from stipend-paying duties whether you like it or not. Even when I've been on RAships, though, my advisor didn't care if I took trips home over the summer, so long as I was still reading and meeting with her every couple of weeks.

Most grads in my department (in addition to a part-time job, for some) use summers to get a jump on professionalization and for finding extra time to read for exams, dissertate, etc.

Edited June 10, 2011 by runonsentence