By Ashley Foy
Never ending complaints about late graduation or difficulty getting into the right classes overwhelm the CCSU campus. While there are obviously limitations to the courses offered over summer break, it is very easy to catch up or get ahead in the summer months by taking as few as one class. Even if students are simply taking a general education requirement and nothing specific to students’ major or minor, they can still free up the work load for the following semester.
However, it does come with a heftier tuition than the average fall or spring semester. The cost of a 3-credit course for an in-state undergraduate is $1,125, which is almost double the cost of a 3-credit course for undergrads during a usual semester. Tuition for a 3-credit course in fall or spring is $617.83 for full-time students taking the maximum 6 credits.
One of the hardest classes to get into during a student’s first year of college is ENG 110 Freshman Composition. This summer CCSU is offering three ENG 110 classes. It is important for students to jump on these opportunities to catch up or to start early because ENG 110 is mandatory in general education and a prerequisite for many different courses among most majors. Another important course is PSY 236 Life-Span Development. This course is required for all education majors and tends to fill up quickly during the regular school year. Education majors could benefit tremendously by using the summer months to fulfill this requirement.
Many other useful and interesting courses are being offered this summer as well. If students still need to fulfill a communication requirement, there are many lower level courses to choose from with morning hours, evening hours and online format available. A potentially entertaining course, however, could be GEOG 100 Search: Ethnic Restaurants. Mathematics and Philosophy also have decent course listings, both in number of courses offered as well as variety of topics covered.
It is understandable for a student to want some time off after slaving away all fall and spring with only a short winter and spring break to help pull them through. Taking a summer course, however, does not take the entire length of your summer break. Courses are offered in a five-week, eight-week or post session (August 9-26) time frame. Even in the eight-week course, which is the longest session, students still finish by July 22 and that leaves one month of break before the Fall semester.
Online courses are offered as well, if students do not want to travel to campus. Online courses also enable working students to pick up a summer job or continue working their regular hours, or potentially take on even more. This can off set the extra cost of taking courses outside of the regular CCSU tuition.
If students know what classes they need to graduate on time, they should find one or two in the summer course catalog and sign up. Summer classes are short and to the point, and a great way to get one or two classes out of the way – if students are dedicated and willing to help curb the five- or six-year graduation rate.