Your variable studentsYear returns a value 1, 2, 3 or 4 as defined by the order in your menu. So you should use the integers 1, 2, 3 and 4:
studentsYear = menu('Chose your year in school','freshman','sophomore','junior','senior');
switch(studentsYear)
case 1 %freshman
final_day = 'Monday';
case 2 %sophomore
final_day = 'Tuesday';
case 3 %junior
final_day = 'Wednesday';
case 4 %senior
final_day = 'Thursday';
otherwise
fprintf('Not a valid input.\nYou must enter freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior.\n');
final_day=0;
end
if ischar(final_day)
fprintf('Your final will be given on %s.\n', final_day);
end
