Almost 10,000 students enrolled in summer courses, accelerates graduation time


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Text books on shelves at the CMU Bookstore in the Bovee University Center on Wednesday, January 13, 2016.

More than 8,900 students enrolled in summer courses on Central Michigan University’s main campus this summer.

The summer semester offered 326 course options, spread out over 93 disciplines. During the academic year, there are more than 5,000 course options available.

Keith Malkowski, registrar of the registrar's office, said while there’s both traditional and specialty courses offered, there’s several course opportunities offered exclusively during summer months.

“One unique summer class offered is biology courses taught at Beaver Island, where labs are dependent on the weather and lake conditions only available in the summer months,” Malkowski said.

CMU alumni Kevin Andrews took three summer courses as a student to help complete his University Program requirements. This allowed him to better focus on major-related classes during the academic year.

While the summer courses helped keep his mind active, he said the classes felt less personal because of the lack of face-to-face interactions with teachers.

“I wanted to get ahead of the game and keep on top of my personal game. I thought if I got some of those credits out of the way, the less mundane classes I’ll have to take later,” he said. “I like going into professor's office hours to ask for help. Going to a classroom is a lot different than doing it online to your leisure.”

Malkowski said common reasons for taking summer courses is to accelerate the student’s graduation rate, to study abroad and to complete prerequisites to better focus on major-required classes during the academic year.
CMU's four-year graduation rate is currently 18 percent, with 53 percent of students graduating in six years.

“Students who take increased credit loads or summer courses help allow CMU to increase our four-year graduation rates," he said.

Andrews said he has noticed the misconception of the online summer classes being easier than classes in the academic year.

One difference between summer courses and academic year courses is the summer course may be over a shorter amount of time. This allows the same amount of assignments and credit hours, but with less time available to complete it.

“It’s the same amount of material, but in an accelerated amount of time," Andrews said. "It’s less time to do the same amount of stuff. That makes it a lot harder, especially if you have a job or internship.”

Some summer course offerings are only three-week or six-week long courses. 

The traditional academic year course is 15-weeks long.

“A lot of students like summer courses because there’s more time during the week to do other projects work and travel,” Malkoski said. “Students also get to see another side of campus and Mt. Pleasant over the summer months.”

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