summer classes -- Virtually Advising Q+A

The Q: What kind of classes do you recommend I take in my summer term? Are there classes that are more suitable to take in the fall than in the summer? Should I take a class like statistics, since it would be my hardest class, or wait until the fall to take it? Or should I take two easier classes?

The A: My feeling is that summer courses are the best time to take 1) introductory classes and 2) classes that interest you but that you couldn't (because of scheduling conflicts or because they're just not offered), or wouldn't (because they're totally unrelated to your major or your core requirements), during the regular school year.

I have mixed opinions about using the summer to take classes that would be really hard for you even during the regular semester. On the plus side, you get to spend the summer concentrating almost completely on just that one subject, and you're usually a little bit more likely to get personal attention from the professor and/or help from other students. But on the minus, summer courses are often very intense -- you're usually cramming a semester-long course into just a few weeks -- and you'll probably have to spend a huge amount of your time (both inside and outside of class) studying something that may not be your strongest subject. Talk about self-imposed agony!

A lot depends on exactly how summer courses at your school are set up (how long is each class? how many days of the week? how much homework is assigned?) and on your own feelings about what you want (do you want the challenge of taking difficult courses in a very intense setting? Do you think you'd be able to handle a class like statistics better if it's the only thing you're concentrating on, or is it better if you take it during the fall when you have other classes/activities to fall back on when you need a break from stats?). If you think you can handle the workload and the stress -- and that you want to -- go ahead and take stats along with another course, or take one in each summer session (if you can).

But just be aware that you might not have as much free time as you think: Summer courses are very often set up so that an entire week's worth of learning during the regular semester is crammed into a single day. That means that, if you're in class for a few hours, it's a virtual guarantee that you'll be spending just as many hours that same day doing a huge amount of homework for tomorrow's class. So if your school's summer classes are that intense, it might not work out well for you if you try to take two at the same time. In fact, it might turn out to be a better move for you to avoid taking that class in the summer entirely, and leave it for the fall or spring semester when you can spread the work out more and make things a little easier on yourself.

Ask around -- talk to students who've taken those summer classes before, your adviser, the professor of the summer stats class -- and get more information about how the classes work before you make your choice. Once you've gotten all the info you need, I'm sure you'll have no trouble deciding the course of action that works best for you!

—Myles Helfand, General Advisor