Classes in the summer tend to be fast paced and are considered by some to be more difficult, but some students prefer it that way.
“I like the summer. I like the push, you got to get in and get it done,” said Eloise Coleman, who took a child development class over the summer. “I like it when class is more fast paced, when I don’t get bored, sleepy or drift off.”
Oralia Vidal, who took the same class, said, “I work and I prefer to take my classes in the summer. This way I can pay more attention to my work.”
According to the Bakersfield College catalog, a BC student has to get permission to take anything over seven units during the summer and must show an ability to handle the workload.
Michael Cook took Physical Anthropology, Introduction to Microcomputer Applications, and managerial accounting this summer, a total of nine units, to finish some final courses so that he can attend CSUB this fall.
“Look at how difficult the classes are,” suggested Cook. “You don’t want to take an English and a math class together. You want to get an elective and something hard together.”
Melisse Herring, a teaching assistant in the Mathematics-Learning Center, advised that some math classes would be great to take over the summer as a refresher, but suggests that first time students be wary.
“Summer school is for things like math class, because it goes so quickly, (ours happens to be eight weeks and others are only six weeks,) there’s a whole lot of stuff you have to learn in a really short amount of time,” said Herring. “I feel like the more time the better, the easier it is to learn.”
According to Skip Hill, a professor and counselor for Disabled Students Programs & Services, “There are some students who feel that they can learn better with a compacted schedule.”
Taking courses during the summer can be an advantage by lessening the academic load during the fall and spring semesters or to shorten the total length of time it takes to graduate.
For students that are “planning on transferring to a quarter system, it’s a good idea to take a summer school solid course to get an idea of what it’s going to be like in the quarter system,” said Hill. “You’re taking a 16 week semester and squeezing it into a four to ten week schedule, depending upon the course, and that’s similar to the quarter system.”
This summer, the highest amount of enrolled students at one time was 7,353 on June 13, an increase of 753 students from last summer.