# Did your university student want to go to summer school ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 30, 2013, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-university-student-want-to-go-to-summer-school/664899 "2013-07-30T12:16:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-university-student-want-to-go-to-summer-school/664899/21 "2013-07-30T18:23:14Z")
I triple-majored in 5 years and 2 or 3 summers. I rented off-campus housing so I had a year-long lease, I had work-study campus jobs that were available all year (laboratory worker), and I wanted to stick around the area. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-university-student-want-to-go-to-summer-school/664899/22 "2013-07-30T20:24:18Z")
I got a summer school scholarship the summer between my junior and senior years in high school. Up to 7 hours, tuition and dorm room & board all free. Had to go home and go back to high school, which I do not recommend, at all, ever. I wanted to go back so badly (because nothing sucks more than high school after you’ve already been to live-away college, nothing), I applied for the same scholarship the following summer. And got it. The first year I did it, it was for just one of two summer sessions. The second year I did it, the scholarship was for 15 hours (I think – it was a full load, not a half) for both sessions for a mere $600-ish. They also gave us Work-Study jobs and if you worked enough hours that summer, you could reimburse yourself for the $600 you paid for the dorm room. So basically, I got in two terms for free before the rest of my classmates even started college. That put me ahead in credit hours, so when signing up for popular or crowded classes, I always got in before other classmates because I had a credit-hours advantage. It was a good thing in many ways and I didn’t know at the time, exactly how many intangible benefits summer school would offer, but it was one of the best decisions I made at that age. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-university-student-want-to-go-to-summer-school/664899/23 "2013-07-30T20:49:05Z")
I was in undergrad 2000-2005. I took classes every summer but the last\* and had a part time job tutoring on campus year round (plus another job as a computer lab proctor my final year). I did attend a uni within commuting distance from home, but my folks aren’t rich and I needed to work to afford commuting, textbooks, food during the day, etc. Taking those summer classes (along with some AP credits from high school) is what allowed me to complete/receive 2 B.Sci degrees in 5 years. - Lessee… Between freshman and sophomore year, I took Intro to Metaphysics; between sophomore and junior I took Data Structures; between junior and senior I took Theory of Computation (aka Automata Theory) and Differential Equations. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-university-student-want-to-go-to-summer-school/664899/24 "2013-07-30T23:32:24Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > I got a summer school scholarship the summer between my junior and senior years in high school. Up to 7 hours, tuition and dorm room & board all free. Had to go home and go back to high school, which I do not recommend, at all, ever. I did that same thing. Went to Boston College for the summer. I had actually forgotten that until you mentioned it! ---
**Author:** ![Hockey\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Hockey\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hockey_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-university-student-want-to-go-to-summer-school/664899/25 "2013-07-31T02:37:46Z")
I’m back in school after 20 years and both back then and now I like taking the hardest classes during Summer Session. At my university we have two 5-week summer sessions. I find that by taking one course each session I can give my full concentration to that one thing rather than dividing my attention over several classes in a normal semester. And if it’s something I hate, it’s 5 short weeks and done. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-university-student-want-to-go-to-summer-school/664899/26 "2013-07-31T13:25:04Z")
Money is often a factor in this trend. Neither I nor my son, 40 years later, had/have the financial means to simply take a summer off and travel. Summer meant/means working for the next year’s tuition. And while you’re doing that, might as well work in a couple of credits at the local community college. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-university-student-want-to-go-to-summer-school/664899/27 "2013-07-31T17:36:16Z")
I always took summer classes as an undergrad. Loved them. Paradoxically, there was a much more relaxed feel amid an accelerated syllabus. It was usually stuff I was just interested in. A lot of history classes. Since I worked in the campus library, I was on campus anyway. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-university-student-want-to-go-to-summer-school/664899/28 "2013-07-31T17:50:36Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > And I’ve come back to second the “fun relaxed vibe” - summer session courses were usually a little easier than the regular term counterparts. Yep, it’s when I took the tougher classes since you can put up with anything for 6 weeks, physics, chemistry, advanced math. It’s also when I took courses that weren’t offered during the regular year, English history _in England_, Modern/Ancient carbonates _in Jamaica_, geology field course _in the Rockies_, etc. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-university-student-want-to-go-to-summer-school/664899/29 "2013-07-31T17:57:37Z")
Theres usually at least two summer semesters in college. My daughters would take a class in the 1st one and finish in early July. That guess us enough time to take a family vacation before their Fall semester started. It depend on the class. The science and math classes require the whole 12 week summer. Most classes are taught in a six week (Summer I, Summer II) semester. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-university-student-want-to-go-to-summer-school/664899/30 "2013-07-31T18:51:48Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > Yep, it’s when I took the tougher classes since you can put up with anything for 6 weeks, physics, chemistry, advanced math. I’ve always regretted not going to Colorado College (I think that was the school) where they did one-course-at-a-time for a short semester rather than lots of courses stretched out over four months. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-university-student-want-to-go-to-summer-school/664899/31 "2013-07-31T19:24:53Z")
I took a couple of summer courses to get liberal arts electives out of the way, but at a different school near home (which I did by special permission of my university). They were evening classes, and I had a full-time day job. It, along with a bunch of AP credit, let me graduate in 3 years instead of 4 and save a ton of money for myself and my parents. ---
**Author:** ![Deegeea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Deegeea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deegeea)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-university-student-want-to-go-to-summer-school/664899/32 "2013-07-31T20:12:46Z")
I got jobs every summer during college and did not take any summer courses (one summer I did not find a paying job but did two very interesting unpaid internships that were each half-time). One summer, though, my summer job was as a teaching/lab assistant for summer courses at my University. edit to add: I just remembered, I did take one summer college class. It was in the summer after my first year of college, the only one for which I returned to my home town instead of staying in the city where I was going to college. I took a class at the local University in a subject I was interested in. I don’t think I tried to transfer the credit to my college degree - it was just for learning purposes. I didn’t need the credit for any requirement for graduation. ---
**Author:** ![Renifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Renifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renifer)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-university-student-want-to-go-to-summer-school/664899/33 "2013-08-01T20:15:38Z")
A few people might view summer universities as a punishment. A holdover from high school or earlier. The underlying attitude might be that if the student did everything she or he was supposed to do, she or he wouldn’t need summer classes. Another factor is finances. People who are working to pay for school might appreciate a term off so they can partially rebuild their savings for future classes. Or they might want to take advantage of summer vacation to return home and reconnect with friends and family. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-university-student-want-to-go-to-summer-school/664899/34 "2013-08-01T21:00:21Z")
I took one course during my final summer- I was also working at the university (my boss wanted us generally there, so I don’t think I would have taken more than one class). Lots of Electrical Engineering folks took Optics in the summer, as taking that class gave you enough credits for a Physics minor. I took one class the summer AFTER graduating - that way I had access to a laser printer. Brian ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-university-student-want-to-go-to-summer-school/664899/35 "2013-08-01T21:13:37Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Exactly this. Everything is a lot more relaxed. Summer school was awesome; I took it in the last summer before I graudated, and wished I’d done it every semester. Classes were more relaxed, professors were more relaxed, townsfolk were more relaxed, bars weren’t so crowded, video rental places had movies in stock, parking wasn’t a total pain in the ass, and so on. I even got to continue my student worker job (help desk tech) over the summer, which was basically a way to get paid to sleep and surf the web for 6 hours a day. As a matter of fact, I opined to my father that if I had it all to do over again, I’d have probably skipped several fall semesters and replaced them with summers. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-university-student-want-to-go-to-summer-school/664899/36 "2013-08-01T21:19:47Z")
My brother did summer school each year, he burned out and it contributed to him dropping out going into his 4th year. He would have been working during the summer regardless, I guess sometimes you just need a break from the books! ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2013, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-university-student-want-to-go-to-summer-school/664899/37 "2013-08-02T04:23:43Z")
> [@Renifer](#): > > Another factor is finances. People who are working to pay for school might appreciate a term off so they can partially rebuild their savings for future classes. I could be misremembering, but I don’t think my largest scholarship would have paid for summer classes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-university-student-want-to-go-to-summer-school/664899.md?page=1)