Summer School: An Exciting Equation
by KJ Hamilton

Summer is coming; it is inevitable. It approaches so quickly that the unmistakable scent of tanning lotion makes us let out a deep sigh of relief as we pull our sandals from the closet. Thoughts about trips to the Cape and sunbathing on the Common are enough to temporarily distract you from reviewing your class notes for your finals.

You know exactly where to locate your beach blankets, sunglasses and swimwear and you can tally the precise distance from your door to water’s edge, thanks to your advanced, collegiate mathematical skills. There’s just one thing that you haven’t calculated: what are you going to do with the rest of your summer?

Sure, you could spend your time hanging out with your family or working at a part-time job. But, once you’ve had a taste of the college life, it’s a bit difficult to reign yourself in. So, before you decide to brew coffee, rip movie ticket stubs in half, deliver pizzas or volunteer to baby-sit your little brother all summer long, add this into your plan - summer school.

The idea might sound a bit like an oxymoron at first. After spending fall and spring semester sitting in class day after day, the idea might not be quite so appealing. However, summer school isn’t your average semester on campus. The classes are shorter, the workload is a bit lighter, and the schedule is a lot less hectic. And, there’s no humdrum, underpaid job involved.

Don’t forget: there is still time to have an active social life—at the beach, on the Common, or even on campus. You also might want to consider some other factors into your equation:

Classes are a lot shorter & smaller.
Think about it: spend two hours each day in class and the rest of the time is yours to make those trips to the beach. And, with less people to deal with, there’s the possibility of meeting someone you might never have otherwise bumped into on campus.

Get to know your professors.
The person in front of the lecture hall isn’t a robot or a tiny speck you see everyday from the back row of stadium seating. This is your chance to see your professors up close and personal. Smaller classes provide the opportunity to work one-on-one with your educators, which could pave the way for mentoring, tutoring, and the ever-important recommendation letter.

Get the hard classes out of the way.
Is there a mathematics, science or literature class that you haven’t gotten around to registering for? Consider spending six weeks instead of three months in the course of your choice. It will go by faster, with a lot less tests, lab work or papers to write.

There are a lot less books to buy.
Ok, so you still have to spend time in the bookstore, searching for the required texts. But, there are some classes that may only require one book in the summer, as opposed to three or four books in the regular fall semester. You’ll still get a meager buy back amount at the end of the summer, but at least you didn’t have to shell out extra cash for books you didn’t need. You might even get lucky and score a class with no book requirements!

Explore other interests.
We know the classes that we have to take. What about the ones that we want to take? Flip through the summer class schedule and see what interests you. You could spend your break in an ecology class that just happens to meet at the beach once a week. Plus, it will count as an elective.

You can have your own space.
Those of us who’ve ever lived in a dorm room on campus know that the Magic 8 Ball is in charge of picking roommates. It is shaken until two completely opposite people are chosen to room together. With less people registered during the summer, you could potentially score your very own dorm room, thus giving you plenty of room to hang your ocean-drenched clothes up to dry.

So, once you’ve added in the positives, subtracted the negatives and divided by suntan lotion, it is plain to see that summer school is definitely worth the effort—provided that you’ve gotten the right answer for x, of course.