Chicago
Chicago is an area that my previous
searches didn't touch. It doesn't have the state flagship school
or an Ivy League school, but it does have some elite schools and a
number of smaller state schools. The elite schools that I looked at are
the University of Chicago and Northwestern. The University of Chicago is like the typical Ivy League school with 25 percent (S14) of it's courses meeting on Friday. Northwestern
is typical for the Big Ten with 42 percent (S14) of it's courses meeting on
Friday. There are five other state schools in the Chicago area, one
of which stands out as a five day school, the University of Illinios
Chicago. The smaller schools don't use Friday nearly as
well. The University of Illinios Chicago
has 58 percent (F14) of its courses meet on Friday, which is better than any
of the flagship schools. I will attempt to find out how and why
it does this. The other schools are not as large or selective and
yet they use Friday less; Northern Illinios has only 28 percent (S14) of its courses meet on Friday, Northeastern Illinios has only 31 percent (S14) of its courses meet on Friday, Chicago State has only 34 percent (S14) of its courses meet on Friday and Governor State has only 21 percent (S14) of its courses meet on Friday.
To see if other research schools near Chicago were like the University of Illinois Chicago, I looked at these sort of schools in the nearby states.
I would urge the four day schools to either mimic UIChicago or at least
change their four day pattern to use MTh and TF. This
leaves Wednesday as the classless day where students are more likely to
study.