What is the difference between summer college courses and regular college courses?
I know that Summer classes are 6 or 8 weeks long, making them more condensed and usually more difficult. How else do they differ from regular college courses? How hard would it be to take Human Anatomy and Physiology I and Chemistry both in one 6 week summer session? Should I do it, or only take one class? Thanks
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Like the others have already stated, the coursework is the same but it is condensed into a shorter amount of time. With that said, you can expect the classes to be intense and fast paced. Meaning turn-around will be much more demanding. In a normal semester, your professor might require one major paper or project to be due at the end of each month, however during a summer course you may be required to take one each week. In addition you will also have to take exams on a weekly basis as well. You will need to be extremely focused and study every day since summer courses are in fact administered 5 days out of the week. During a normal semester your courses may fall on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. But most of the classes during the summer will be everyday or fall on only one day of the week but will last 3 hours long. Thus you need to make sure that you have time and that you don’t take too many difficult courses at once due to the demanding schedule and course load. With that said, it’s recommended you take one, two classes max each summer session. If you are trying to take 3 summer courses because you want to graduate faster, I suggest you read this article for additional tips on how to accomplish that: http://www.accreditedonlinecolleges.com/blog/2009/graduating-on-time/
There is no difference other than the fact that they are more condensed. You are a sadist if you try to take those two courses over the summer.
So I am not an expert in regard to the classes you’re thinking of doing…BUT:
First off it depends on the college.
If you’re in a community college all three would be doable, but were I you I would only take two.
If you are in a University I would only take one. In the university setting, like you mentioned they are condensed and even border along being in a living hell.
Though here at the University of Va, some things are easier in the summer. A lot of religion courses are easier, and apparently it is much easier to take the second writing requirement in the summer. I’ve only done the Summer Language Institute here, and both times it was brutal. And I am just a Arts & Sciences kid, I couldn’t imagine the horror of taking a science class in the summer.