Going back to school is dreadful. You can see the tests and essays slowly running toward you with blood in their eyes. That being said I have complete confidence that many people will agree that spring semester feels 100 times easier than fall semester.
Most people are unaware of something called “the summer slip.” It’s a term used to describe the month of learning that kids lose over summer break. For us college students this term very much applies. As we enter fall semester we're coming off a three-month break in which many of us had ample time to sleep and see our friends. Fall semester is usually jam packed with classes and holiday events. It really is a time in which everything feels to be moving in hyper speed.
Honestly we become quite lazy. We go from too much time on our hands, to no time at all. When the fall semester is finally over it breathes new life into our schedules. Winter break is spent sleeping in, catching up on Netflix shows, and reconnecting with friends. So when spring semester rolls in we have rested, but we haven’t gotten lazy. Recharging your batteries is important, but we all know what happens when you let something charge too long. Imagine leaving your computer plugged up for three full months. Sometime in the future that battery will short circuit and die then you have to go out and buy a new one.
Another major reason for spring semester seeming so much more relaxed than fall semester is the simple fact that we overextend ourselves and take on a much large workload in the fall. Every spring we are asked to make our class schedule for fall and for some reason we think we’re super humans and fill our schedules with the most complicated courses. We breeze through spring semester and really improve our GPAs.
Spring break can also be seen as the secret to our academic success. I know I use that week to catch up on some assignments, and I do feel that professors who assign work that week are trying to kill us. You also have the week off; do you really want to grade things? This brings us back to the idea of the summer slide as it doesn’t happen in other countries. Places like Sweden and France have their school years set up in a way that there are many smaller breaks taking place throughout the year. A week off every few months so both students and teachers have time to relax.
This system seems much more plausible and smart than the system we are currently operating on. Although college is much different from let’s say high school or middle school. Having a three-month break is a great time to intern and this is when many internships are offered. This can also be a reason why fall semester is like The Hunger Games and spring semester is more like a dream that never really happened.
