By Anthony MulHolland
College of Southern Nevada has an abundance of short-term classes for students to take year round, if they dare.
“If their goal is to graduate in two years, those are the perfect classes to take,” said Ryan Robb, advising coordinator at CSN.
“I think they’re an opportunity,” Robb said. “I think they’re just as rigorous as any other class. I think they are to be looked at as a potential opportunity for a student to make up credits in a hurry.”
CSN offers approximately 12 variations of short-term classes. The most popular tend to be the eight, six and four-weeks. Students can sign up for these sessions year-round.
In comparison to the typical 16-week semester the expedited courses are condensed into fewer weeks requiring students to attend many hours a day and produce lots of work on a weekly basis.
That can be difficult for some.
“It’s more compacted and basically you’re learning but it’s more rushed so you aren’t actually retaining that much information,” CSN student Amy Ren said.
Jinho Hyun, student at CSN, found the short-term classes to be difficult and fast-paced making it hard to concentrate on his schoolwork.
While other students struggle with the classes, some students revel in the speediness.
Pawie Fekadu, CSN student, said the classes saved him a lot of time. When asked if the faster pace of the course bothered him he said, “No, if you stay focused you can do it pretty easily.”
Students Vincent Graziano and Cassandra Karsten consider short-term classes a good idea but only for certain subjects. They don’t advise taking math, science or anything that requires a lot of studying.
Casiano Lim, student at CSN, attends summer sessions, which are entirely comprised of shorter-term courses. “It was a little bit faster paced. If you don’t take as many classes as you can, you can afford to take summer classes but I don’t recommend taking four full classes. It’s just too much work load sometimes depending on which class you take.”
Coyote Student News at the College of Southern Nevada 