Comparison of Academic Calendars

Fall semester

	GMU	UVa	W&M	VPI	JMU	VCU	ODU	Maryland	GW
years examined	04-05 05-06 06-07	03-04 04-05 05-06	05-06 06-07 07-08	05-06 06-07 07-08	04-05 05-06 06-07	05-06 06-07 07-08	04-05 05-06	05-06 06-07 07-08	05-06 06-07 07-08
classes begin (3 year average)	Mon 8/29	Wed 8/28	Wed 8/28	Mon 8/21	Mon 8/28	Thur 8/24	Sat 8/27	Wed 8/30	Tue 9/3
classes begin (Fall 05)	Mon 8/29	Wed 8/24	Wed 8/24	Mon 8/22	Mon 8/29	Thur 8/25	Sat 8/27	Wed 8/31	Wed 8/31
Labor Day off?	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
October Fall break (no. days off)	1	1	2	1	1	2	2	0	0
Thanksgiving week (days off)	W,R,F	M,T,W,R,F	W,R,F	M,T,W,R,F	W,R,F	R,F	W,R,F	R,F	R,F
classes end (Fall 05)	Sat 12/10	Tue 12/6	Fri 12/2	Wed 12/7	Fri 12/9	Sat 12/10	Fri 12/9	Tue 12/13	Sat 12/10
no. reading days immed. prior to exams (3 year average)	0.33	0.33	0	1	0	0	0	1	1.67
exams begin (Fall 05)	Mon 12/12 (4:30 PM)	Thur 12/8	Mon 12/5	Fri 12/9	Mon 12/12	Mon 12/12	Sat 12/10	Thur 12/15	Tue 12/13
exams end (Fall 05)	Tue 12/20	Fri 12/16	Thur 12/15	Thur 12/15	Fri 12/16	Tue 12/20	Sat 12/17	Wed 12/21	Wed 12/21
exams end (3 year average)	12/20	12/17	12/19	12/14	12/15	12/19	12/17	12/20	12/21

	GMU	UVa	W&M	VPI	JMU	VCU	ODU	Maryland	GW
classes begin (3 year average)	Mon 1/23	Wed 1/17	Wed 1/18	Tue 1/16	Mon 1/9	Tue 1/16	Sat 1/7	Tue 1/26	Tue 1/16
classes begin (Spring 06)	Mon 1/23	Wed 1/18	Wed 1/18	Tue 1/17	Mon 1/9	Tue 1/17	Sat 1/7	Wed 1/25	Tue 1/17
MLK Day off?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Week off for Spring break?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
start of Spring break (3 year average)	3/12	3/5	3/5	3/3	3/6	3/12	3/6	3/19	3/14
no. other days off (3 year average)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
classes end (Spring 06)	Sat 5/6	Tue 5/2	Fri 4/28	Wed 5/3	Fri 4/28	Tue 5/2	Tue 4/25	Thur 5/11	Wed 5/3
no. reading days immed. prior to exams (3 year average)	1.5	1.67	0	1	0	1	1	1	2
exams begin (Spring 06)	Tue 5/9 (4:30 PM)	Thur 5/4	Mon 5/1	Fri 5/5	Mon 5/1	Thur 5/4	Thur 4/27	Sat 5/13	Mon 5/8
exams end (Spring 06)	Wed 5/17	Fri 5/12	Wed 5/10	Wed 5/10	Fri 5/5	Fri 5/12	Thur 5/4	Fri 5/19	Tue 5/16
exams end (3 year average)	5/17	5/10	5/11	5/9	5/7	5/11	5/4	5/19	5/15
no. M-F class days (05-06 acad. year)	140	139	136	143	145	143	140	144	142

Saturdays and Sundays were not counted as reading days.

When GMU exams start at 4:30 PM, the first day of exams was counted as half a reading day.
UVa takes a day off midweek during the exam period as a reading day --- however, they use Saturday as an exam day.
W&M takes a day off midweek during the exam period as a reading day in the Fall semester.
VPI has Saturday exams in the Spring semester.

VCU's academic calendars are complicated relative to the others. For this comparison, the calendars for the Monroe Park campus are used.
ODU's 3 year averages are just based on 2 years, since calendars for other years were not easily found.
Prior to this year, UVa took off only W,R,F of Thanksgiving week --- but since they've changed to taking M,T,W,R,F off, that's what the table above indicates.
Rounding was done to obtain 3 year average start and end dates. E.g., for the three start dates being 1/14, 1/16, and 1/17, the start date was listed as 1/16 (since the average of 14, 16, and 17 rounds to 16). Since the 3 year averages were not based on the same 3 years for all of the schools, it's possible for both Wed 8/28 and Wed 8/30 to be valid average start dates for schools which start Fall semesters on Wednesdays.