Summer Coursework?

[thedig13]

A follow-up question to a previous post I made about 3 days ago:

I'm thinking about taking summer coursework at my school. However, at my school, summer sessions are divided into 2 quarters of grueling 5-week courses (double the lecture hours), instead of the usual 10-week quarters. While I'll only be taking half as many classes (in order to compensate for double the lecture hours), I still have concerns about whether the course material will be "dumbed down" to accommodate the shorter duration of the class, and also whether I'll have enough time to really internalize and grasp the material. Although I'd like to get a lot of the courses out of the way ASAP, I'd like to actually master the course content as well.

Thus, I have 3 reservations:

1) Will the course content be "dumbed down"?

2) Will I have time to really internalize and master the material?

3) How will this look on a graduate school application? Do schools frown upon students who take a somewhat-significant portion (approx. 3 courses out of 13 total) of their major-related courses over the summer?

Any thoughts/opinions/experiences would be appreciated.

Edited February 21, 2012 by thedig13

[virmundi]

A follow-up question to a previous post I made about 3 days ago:

I'm thinking about taking summer coursework at my school. However, at my school, summer sessions are divided into 2 quarters of grueling 5-week courses (double the lecture hours), instead of the usual 10-week quarters. While I'll only be taking half as many classes (in order to compensate for double the lecture hours), I still have concerns about whether the course material will be "dumbed down" to accommodate the shorter duration of the class, and also whether I'll have enough time to really internalize and grasp the material. Although I'd like to get a lot of the courses out of the way ASAP, I'd like to actually master the course content as well.

Thus, I have 3 reservations:

1) Will the course content be "dumbed down"?

2) Will I have time to really internalize and master the material?

3) How will this look on a graduate school application? Do schools frown upon students who take a somewhat-significant portion (approx. 3 courses out of 13 total) of their major-related courses over the summer?

Any thoughts/opinions/experiences would be appreciated.

This is an excellent time to take that language coursework that will burnish your application. Five-week intensives will make the language stick far better than a language course that drags out for a long time over ten weeks.

[iamincontrolhere-haig]

I'll second what virmundi said about languages. I've taken language classes and "normal" classes over summer sessions (I graduated from another UC), and I've found the language classes to be more in line with what you would expect during a fall, winter, or spring quarter class.

I'm hesitant to recommend taking upper-division history courses over the summer for a couple reasons. First, there tends to be less reading, even if there's actually a little bit more time in lecture. That's less material and less time to absorb it. Second, summer courses are often taught by grad students. I don't at all mean to denigrate graduate student-led courses. But if three of your thirteen history courses are led by graduate students, your opportunities to forge close relationships with professors (and hopeful letter of recommendation writers) diminish.

If, on the other hand, you're talking about taking lower-division history classes, fire away! Especially if you want to study world history and you're taking a US history survey, or if you want to study US history and you're taking a world history survey, I don't think you're missing all that much.

[Safferz]

1) Will the course content be "dumbed down"?

2) Will I have time to really internalize and master the material?

There's a recent book that argues most students don't actually learn in college, so I don't think this is a problem unique to summer courses. I can say that in my experience, most of my learning has been outside of classes, with the exception of a handful of professors that really pushed me. When I think about it, the summer courses I've taken have actually been better than most of the courses I've taken during fall or spring semesters, and I've had a lot more time to focus on the readings.

3) How will this look on a graduate school application? Do schools frown upon students who take a somewhat-significant portion (approx. 3 courses out of 13 total) of their major-related courses over the summer?

No -- I've taken four. Summer is still a semester

[rising_star]

I'm going to answer this from the perspective of having taught an upper level undergraduate course both during the regular semester and during the summer. Students in the summer course read less, write less, and generally get the material in less depth than the students that take it during the fall/spring. So yes, in a way, the content is dumbed down since there isn't time to present all the same topics and theories that I would during the fall/spring (and yes, this is the case even though the number of butt-in-seat hours is the same). The reason some of the theoretical material gets dropped from my summer course is because I find that students don't have the time to really think about the material in sufficient detail.

That said, there are many state universities in Florida that require students to take summer courses. At FSU, students must take at least 9 hours in summer courses unless they entered with an AA or transferred in a bunch of AP/IB/CLEP credits. So I don't know that universities would look down on it. But, taking summer classes (which are often taught by grad students) may hamper your chances to write detailed research papers and work closely with the professors that you need to write you recommendation letters.