My Five Years of Summer School
A first-hand perspective
by KJ Hamilton   

Most people look forward to spending their summer months as far away from campus as possible, but I’m not one of those people. In fact, right now I am longing for those summer days I spent roaming around the University of Kentucky campus.

I spent five years in college, mostly because I changed majors in the middle of my sophomore year. I never missed summer sessions. UK had two summer sessions-four weeks and eight weeks-so I always opted for both.

The short summer session was my favorite; not only because it was one class out of the way, but also because it was a perfect chance for me to slide into one of those “required” classes that I managed to avoid during the regular semester. Four weeks of statistics was much better than three months. One session, I opted to retake a Shakespeare class (a requirement for my major) in which I didn’t do so well in the regular term. Two papers and two tests later, I ended up with a B in the class; which raised my GPA a bit. In the regular fall schedule, I’d written eight papers and taken about 4 essay tests; so I definitely saved myself a lot of time by retaking it in the summer.

Most of the syllabi in the summer sessions were less than a page long, as compared to two and three pages during the rest of the year. I really liked that. It was a bit like a vacation from the mountains of work I did during the rest of the year.

My major required a lot of literature classes. One lit class required twelve books in the fall semester. However, in all of the summer sessions I took, I don’t recall taking a class that required more than two books. This saved me a lot of money in the end because I didn’t have to buy books that I didn’t need.

A lot of the classes I chose to take in the summer sessions were taught by teachers in training; those masters students for whom practical teaching experience was required to graduate. They well understood the pressures of academia, and—while I can’t really say that their classes were easier—I had more fun in them. Besides, they were more inclined to hold class outside in the sun, which was a lot better than being cramped up inside a hot classroom for two hours everyday.

I also managed to get a couple of “ology” classes out of the way during the summer. During the regular sessions, classes like psychology, biology and sociology had hundreds of students in them, because they are required classes for every major. We were all crammed into a lecture hall, and it was difficult to pay attention. In the summer, the classes were smaller and I could actually meet the professors. It was important to me to be able to ask questions, which were rarely possible in a class with two-hundred people in it.

The lighter workload, while still beneficial, also allowed time for a bit of summer fun. There wasn’t really a beach in nearby, but there are wonderful places to hike and lots of historical sites to visit. There were pools to swim in, basketball courts to play on, and cinemas ran specials for college students in the summer time. There was plenty of time to study and let off steam. It was rough to balance that time during the regular semesters.

I lived on campus every semester I was in school. And, during the summer sessions I always had a room to myself. My roommates never bothered to show up. I loved that. I had a lot of space all to myself and it was great. I liked to invite people over to watch movies or study—whatever we felt like doing.

I also had a part-time job on campus. Jobs were readily available on campus all year round, but they were a bit easier to secure during the summer. The job of choice was at the computer lab. Back then, it was a privilege to have a computer in your room. Internet access wasn’t built-in then as it is now. So, students would try to get positions as a lab assistant so that they had ready access to a computer. I had to write at least one hundred term papers on various topics while I was in college. One summer, I was lucky enough to secure a position in the major computer lab on campus. By the time fall semester rolled around, all of the available lab assistant positions were filled. I felt pretty lucky. And, I was able to retain my position for the remainder of my time at UK.

There was always a small break at the end of the second summer session. I took that time to go and visit family, and I would return to campus raring to go in the fall. I suppose it could be easy to get burned out on school if you attend pretty much year round, but that wasn’t true for me. The summer sessions really allowed me time to breathe; time to grow; and time to learn. Oh, and time to have a little fun.