For your final assessments, beware this weekend in May

To create a more uniform final assessment schedule, Princeton has moved to a new model spreading out paper deadlines and final exams across six days in May. How did it end up? The new schedule has created a ”Dean’s Double-Date” on Saturday, May 10 and Sunday, May 11 on which over 50 percent of final exams are administered and final papers are due.

The Daily Princetonian broke down the 867 final assessment session times available on the Registrar’s website to determine trends in the new assessment scheduling.

The changes to the new finals schedule begin with Dean’s Date on May 6, 2025. Dean’s Date is now simply the final deadline for any remaining semester coursework from the instructional period. Following this date is a period labeled as Senior Departmental/Comprehensive Examinations from May 7 to May 8, 2025.

The highest concentration of final assessment sessions are on Sunday, May 11 from 7:30–10:30 p.m. Other than May 14, 12:30 p.m. is the least popular exam slot, even having zero sessions on Saturday, May 10. Freshman seminars have final assessments exclusively due on May 7 from 12:30–3:30 p.m. Writing seminars have final papers exclusively due on May 8 at 3:30 p.m.

The final assessment period begins on May 9 and ends on May 15, with four assessment sessions held each day: 8:30–11:30 a.m., 12:30–3:30 p.m., 4–7 p.m., and 7:30–10:30 p.m. Exams are to be taken during the three-hour session window and final papers are due at the end of the session window.

Aside from freshman seminars and writing seminars, which have final assessment sessions on May 7 and May 8, respectively, around 65 percent of remaining courses have sessions scheduled in the first half of the remaining days between May 9 and May 11. There are six sessions across the six-day period with fewer than ten courses administering final assessments. Saturday, May 10 at 12:30 p.m. has zero final assessments due during that window. There is a noticeably high number of assessments due on Sunday, May 11, with 234 papers due or exams administered.

This year, final assessments are less uniformly distributed across the board. Compared to the past two spring semesters, where no day during the final examination period had more than 17 percent of total final exams, this semester has 20 percent of final assessments on the second day and 30 percent on the third day, May 11. Still, these new totals consist of in-person exams, take-home exams, and papers.

Among the six most popular majors in terms of degrees conferred for the Class of 2024, we still see that high concentration of assessments with due dates on May 11. At least for computer science, the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), and economics, multiple courses with assessments due on May 11 are 300- or 400-level departmental courses with distinct weekly meeting times. It is feasible for upperclass students in these departments to have multiple of these courses on their schedule this semester.

Princeton students can add and drop courses until 11:59 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025.