While most students will be out enjoying the many brunches and parties at Spring Fling this year, some will be stuck indoors, studying for exams scheduled for next week.
Nursing freshmen Michelle Nigro and Raquel Brosh said they will be skipping the Fling concert featuring Zedd and Tinashe this Friday to stay at home and study.
“I constantly have something to do,” Brosh said. “This weekend is no different.”
While Brosh said she knows other Nursing students who are going out during Fling weekend, she is personally not willing to spend a single day away from her work until her last exam is finished.
Nigro agreed, adding that she would feel guilty taking the weekend off when she has exams and evaluations on Monday and Wednesday. Nigro said she also has a lab session on Saturday that she can't miss.
Nursing students aren't the only students who will have to spend this weekend working. For College junior Adair Powers, missing out on Fling festivities is something she's used to. As a student on the pre-med track, Powers has always had lab session and midterm examinations up until reading days — and the days after Spring Fling weekend are no exception.
“I’ve gone to a day of darties, but I’ve never properly flung,” Powers said. “I’m a junior and I haven’t had a year where I can really go out all weekend with my friends.”
Some professors are cancelling classes or making them optional tomorrow in anticipation of poor turnout.
Powers said that while she is upset that she has exams the week after Fling, she doesn't think that it would be fair to ask professors to change their exam schedules to accommodate Fling weekend.
“Sleep deprivation is a major issue at this school, and you can’t really blame the professors — it's just the course material,” Brosh said. “They try to help, so I don’t put it on them that we’re so strung out.”
Brosh said that the reason she came to Penn was to learn.
Nigro agreed, adding that there might be issues in relation to mental health problems which might arise from having limited time to study for exams.
This year, Fling is happening on the weekend just before reading days. This may add to the pressure that students already face with having only two reading days to prepare for final exams, while other schools often have up to a week off to study.
Powers advocates for longer breaks and more reading days in order to reduce stresses associated with workload, especially around finals season.
“It would just make more sense,” Powers said. “That way, we could have time to both study time to decompress. School is important, but it can’t be your whole life at Penn.”
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