By Eileen Salazar
While some students plan to vacation, others plan to study hard this summer. College of Southern Nevada offers students many ways to get ahead by offering four, six, eight or 10-week courses.
“Students should be aware that it takes a concerted amount of time, effort and dedication,” said Shelley Fischer, English professor at CSN who will be instructing courses over the summer.
“[Some of] these courses are four weeks long, four days a week for three hours a day,” Fischer said. “The student consequently does not have that much time in between classes to turn in assignments, such as essays, or read the required curriculum. In other words, the pressure is on.”
Summer courses are condensed to as little as one-fourth the time compared to a regular 16-week semester session. Summer-school students learn in a short amount of time.
According to John Bearce, senior research analyst for Office of Institutional Research at CSN, there were 15,197 students enrolled for summer school last year.
According to enrollment reports from Institutional Research dated 2011 to 2014, on average 22,000 students take summer courses.
Judith Miller, criminal justice student at CSN, said, “Because of my job I was unable to get a full schedule for this spring semester. Thankfully, summer school is going to get me back on track and not delay my graduation.”
Miller plans to take math 120 and English 102 in order to make room for her major-based classes for the upcoming fall semester.
Before signing up for summer courses it is recommended that students speak with a professional counselor about what to accomplish. The goal is to select a course load that is achievable so it is important for the students to be realistic on what they can successfully finish.
“When I heard about summer school I thought I should take four classes over the summer,” said Jose Renteria, automobile technology student at CSN. “That was the biggest mistake of my life. I did not realize how much work load I was putting on my shoulders. I had to end up dropping two classes.”
Renteria is signing up for this summer. After his past experience, he decided to take two instead of four classes.
There is a wide range of course offerings for students to choose from. General-education courses such as history and science to major courses such as journalism and art are on the list.
Enrollment for summer term is ongoing and will end May 31 right before midnight. To register students should sign in to their MyCSN accounts.
Coyote Student News at the College of Southern Nevada 