Next year’s academic calendar will return to a more typical schedule after the 2024-25 school year saw final exams stretching across a weekend in both semesters. But the new calendar again pushes Pitt’s traditional April commencement into May.
Finals for the 2025-26 academic calendar will be Monday through Friday, and faculty will have four days between the end of finals and when they have to turn in grades in the fall; and three days in the spring. This year, the grading deadline was only two days in the fall and three in the spring.
FOR FALL 2025:
Fall classes will start on a Monday, Aug. 25. Other dates for the fall include:
Oct. 10 (Friday): A one-day fall break for students, instead of the two in fall 2024
Nov. 24-28: Thanksgiving break for students; faculty and staff get Nov. 27-28 off
Dec. 1 (Monday): Classes resume, then end for semester for undergraduates on Dec. 5
Dec. 8-12 (Monday-Friday): Finals week; grades are due by 11:59 p.m. Dec. 16
Dec. 14: Winter commencement
Dec. 15 (Monday): Winter recess for students begins
Dec. 24 (Wednesday): Winter recess for faculty and staff begins
FOR WINTER/SPRING 2026:
Jan. 5 (Monday): All University offices reopen; faculty and staff return
Jan. 12 (Monday): Spring term classes begin
Jan. 19 (Monday): Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday
March 9-13: Spring recess for students; faculty and staff off Friday, March 13
April 24 (Friday): Last day of undergraduate classes
April 27-May 2 (Monday-Friday): Finals week
May 3: Undergraduate commencement
May 5: Grades dues by 11:59 p.m.
— Susan Jones
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