Five benefits of taking summer classes in college

With summer approaching why not continue your education? Here are five benefits of taking summer classes in college.

With summer rapidly approaching, many people have different plans. Some plan to travel, many plan to work, some aren’t sure what they are doing. But if you are currently a college student who does not have a plan for the summer months why not take a summer course? After all, it’s only going to benefit you in the long run. They are offered at many different times of the day, they are offered in different sessions and overall they get you to the finish line (graduation) faster. Here are five reasons why

Here are five reasons why you or the college student in your family should take a class or two this summer.

Get general education courses out of the way: General education classes also known as Gen Ed’s are usually pre-requisites for classes directly connected to your major. Whether you see them as an interesting window into different disciplines or an unnecessary detour from your major, summer classes give you the chance to take them in less time. This means you can dive into classes directly related to your major sooner.

Shorter classes: If you pick a class that you really don’t want to take but have to, there is at least one thing to look forward to. Summer classes run at a very accelerated pace. A summer class only lasts for 5-8 weeks as opposed to 15-16 weeks during the school year. You won’t have to put up with a subject or teacher you can’t stand for very long, and once you’ve finished you’ll still have a portion of summer left. Some students actually reign supreme at the shorter programs, so if you’re one of those students then summer classes are right for you.

Smaller class size: If you are afraid of taking a class with 99 other students, you most definitely want to take a summer course. Depending on which class you take you will be looking at a class size of only 20-50 students if not less than that. This gives you the opportunity to connect with your instructor.

You can put all of your concentration into one or two classes: Instead of the usual 4-6 class load you can just take one or two classes. Not only is this less stressful it’s the perfect chance to raise that GPA. Or if you really feel like you have it in you, you can take three or four summer classes which can cause you to graduate up to a whole year earlier.

You can possibly graduate early: One thing a lot of people don’t realize is that if you want to graduate in four years (or less) you would have to take summer classes at some point. If you are only a few classes away from graduating consider taking a summer class or two, so you can definitely graduate on time or a semester early. Trust me there is no need to be in college longer than necessary.