Several parents have emailed the Parent Programs office at parents@wfu.edu with questions about the Thanksgiving and Winter breaks and how to schedule flights home for their students. Here’s a few things to consider as you make your student’s travel plans:

1. Check the Academic Calendar before making any flights.  The Academic Calendar is the official schedule for the University. Make sure you are aware of the exact date for breaks.

2. Ask your student to talk to his professors first. Occasionally a faculty member will decide to make a class optional or will allow a student to take his or her finals on an earlier date than originally scheduled. It’s always helpful to make sure if the faculty members teaching on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving are really planning to hold class that day, or if they are allowing students to leave early.

3. Think about airports. The closest airport to campus is the Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, which is about 25 miles from campus. Farther away – typically 1.5 hours drive from campus – are Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte airports. While a flight into Raleigh or Charlotte might be cheaper than Greensboro, consider the cost of shuttle serviceto those airports vs. a shuttle to Greensboro. As of this morning, round trip shuttle service to PTI in Greensboro was $110, but roundtrip to Raleigh or Charlotte was $300. If your student has friends on campus willing to drive them to/from the farther airports, that’s great – but if not, the cost of shuttle service may be worse than the cost of flying into Greensboro.

4. If you have daughters planning to take part in sorority recruitment, remember that they need to arrive on campus earlier than the official start of the spring term. Recruitment begins on January 4th.

If you have other questions, visit the Questions and Answers page on the Parents’ Page – and if the answer is not there, please email parents@wfu.edu so the Parent Programs office can assist you.

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