I don’t know how you felt about the idea of summer school when you were growing up, but to me, it always sounded like a punishment. That misconception makes the awesome idea of dual enrollment in the summer puzzling to some high school students.
In college, summer school is an entirely different story. Taking a summer course may be one of the wisest decisions you can make heading into your college career. Allow me to share with you a few of the benefits of taking a summer course.
GET A HEAD START ON COLLEGE
College is a time of incredibly exciting new information, opportunities and people. It is also a very busy time filled with assignments, stresses and deadlines. A fantastic way to lighten the load is to take a summer class, and you can start early by dual enrolling during high school!
Dual enrolling at CU gives you the ability to choose from a selection of required 100- and 200-level classes in core topics like math or English. Getting these out of the way gives you more opportunities to fill your fall and spring semester of college with classes related to your field of study.
Not only that, but CU’s summer courses are offered as online classes, meaning that you don’t have to worry about missing out on your summer fun. You can work from basically anywhere you have internet access, and you have more flexibility with your study schedule (just make sure to keep up on due dates).
SAVING SOME MONEY
Taking a summer course could save you a bit of money in the long run. These savings may not come from cheaper credits, but there are definitely some practical day-to-day costs you won’t have to worry about.
Because CU’s summer classes are online, it frees up your budget from things like spending gas money to be on campus a couple of times a week. With gas prices being what they are lately, that can be a big win. You’ll also save money on a meal plan because you, again, won’t need to come to campus.
Plus, it’s summer! You can use some of that saved money to take that trip you always wanted to with your friend or make sure you can afford that meal out every week.
SHORTENING YOUR DEGREE LENGTH
Personally, I believe that four years at a university is an awesome opportunity with rich experiences that I wouldn’t give up for the world.
That being said, I do understand that a lot of people are excited to get their degree sooner, so they can get into the job field, and taking summer classes brings you closer to that goal. It allows you to get some of the bigger classes done with so that the rest of the following semester can be more streamlined to the classes you would like to take.
I would say that one of the best parts about taking a summer course is that it takes place during a time when you have more free time. Knowing that you don’t have to stress yourself outperforming final project after final project can be a really freeing notion.
I believe it also allows you to concentrate more deeply on a specific set of information, but that’s just my personal opinion.
Overall, taking a summer course can give you the freedom to work with your schedule a bit more and allow you the opportunity to graduate early. If you don’t know what you want to major in yet, you can even use some classes to explore different topics without losing time during the normal school year.
Visit our Summer Course Registration page to check out more information on summer courses and their benefits!
