The week-long Thanksgiving is generally beloved amongst Stanford students, especially those (Class of ‘08 and older) who remember the days before its institution. It justifies airfare for students from far away heading home and provides a more restful break before the end of the quarter. These few days off are much more meaningful when appended to the beginning of Thanksgiving than they were at the end of the summer.

Some schools on the quarter system take the logic of the last clause even further — instead of having a few weeks between Thanksgiving break and Christmas break, the term begins a few weeks earlier in September and ends completely before Thanksgiving. Imagine (please) if Stanford operated on this schedule. As unpleasant as the thought of addition may be on the Friday before a week-long vacation, do the math: 1 week of Thanksgiving + 3 weeks between Turkey Day and Christmas Break + 3 weeks of Winter Break = 7 weeks straight of vacation. At that length, winter would practically be summer.

The University has reasons not to adopt such a schedule — valid reasons related to aspects of campus life such as summer term classes, Sophomore College, residence arrangements, overseas seminars and more. Most of the schools that currently use the system are small liberal arts schools rather than large research universities.

The scheduling problems, however, need not be insurmountable. Most internships conclude at the end of August, if not earlier, including on-campus summer programs like Summer Research College. Overseas seminars and Sophomore College could happen at the beginning of Winter Break instead of the minimal space between Summer and Autumn Quarters.

Such a long break may not even be what the student body wants. The upside of being able to get a job over the holidays is tempered by the possibility of getting a job over the holidays. Seven weeks is a long time to head home, whether you are fresh out of the fights of high school or an elderly senior too big for that much time with parents. None of your high-school friends will be around then to break the monotony, either.

Of course, the awkward three-week period when every other student has headed back to school already would just be shifted from September to early December. Plus, after years of having class on Veterans Day and Columbus Day, just because our university is committed to teaching us rather than giving us every miscellaneous day off, imagine your satisfaction as you tell your once-smug friends from less education-oriented institutions that you have seven solid weeks off in the winter.

Rearranging the fall quarter schedule to allow a continuous break from Thanksgiving through New Year’s may not make sense for the University or even for its students. Despite all of the sensible reasons against it, many students still may be wishing deep down that this was the last day of finals instead of the last deep breath before the academic mayhem begins.