In about two weeks, I start my summer class– COM100– to fulfill the dreaded public speaking requirement.
While I am nearly not so shy as I once was, I still dread public speaking. I’m not alone, though. Glossophobia– stage fright, or the fear of public speaking– is believed to be the single most common phobia — affecting as much as 75% of the population. In fact, many people actually rank public speaking above death on their lists of worst fears!
I decided to take this class during the summer to bite the public speaking bullet and get it out of the way as quickly as possible. It helps that my beloved Mass Media & Popular Culture instructor is teaching it. That will soothe the pain and anxiety considerably.
My school offers three summer sessions. The 15-week session takes up the entire summer, about equal in length to the regular fall and spring semesters. Two shorter sessions each compress an entire semester’s worth of study into seven and a half weeks. The format will vary from school to school, but it may be similar to this.
Time factors
Summer classes can be especially worthwhile for non-traditional students.
- Those shorter sessions, if your school offers them, can help you rack up credits quickly. If you take one or two summer classes each year, you could possibly graduate a full semester sooner!
- Taking a class during the shorter session will somewhat lessen any sacrifices for you and your family. Any schedule disruptions will be blessedly short-lived, much to the relief of everyone involved!
Plan ahead and choose wisely.
Depending on the school, summer offerings can sometimes be frustratingly limited. However, there are several ways of planning your summer classes wisely.
- In the early spring, when meeting with your academic advisor to plan your fall classes, discuss possible summer classes too.
- Hold on to course catalogs from previous semesters! You can look for patterns of when certain courses are offered. Some classes might usually be offered during the fall, others only during the spring. Plan strategically for the coming semesters. Also, if you miss a spring course, you may get lucky and find it available during the summer. Nowadays, course schedules are usually posted online, too, but might not be available after a certain amount of time.
- If any of your courses have pre-requisites (one or more introductory courses required before taking a more advanced course), take them during the summer. That way, you can jump right in during the fall semester.
- Consider the summer offerings at other schools in your area. If another school has a course that’s comparable to one at your college, you may be able to take it and transfer the credits. Check with your registrar first to see if it’s transferrable, of course.
- Community colleges are always a great bargain, especially for general education requirements and introductory courses. My school charges about $312 for a three-credit summer class. They also often have easy credit-transfer agreements with local four-year colleges. You can save a lot of money this way!
- If your financial aid department does not fund summer classes, though, you will have to pay for them out of pocket. Set aside a chunk of your fall and spring financial aid money and earmark it for summer class(es). If you work during the school year, save your money! Even if you save only $10 (roughly two Starbucks lattes) out of each week’s paycheck, by May you’ll have about $360 to pay for summer tuition!
- Find more money-saving tips for the starving student on my other blog!
- Look up the instructors on a site such as ratemyprofessors.com to help make your decision. You can learn a lot about teaching styles, expectations, and work-load. While you’re there, do other students a favor and take a few minutes to honestly rate the teachers you’ve had, too! It’s a great tool, but only works if everybody particpates honestly.
Other thoughts
While summer classes are sometimes more relaxed in atmosphere, they are still more concentrated due to time constraints. Once in a while, you might get lucky with a much-easier course load during the summer version of a particular class, but there’s no guarantee. Think about your strengths and weaknesses. If there are subjects that naturally come easily for you, consider taking them in the compressed summer-time format. Save the more difficult courses for the regular semester. For example, I probably wouldn’t want to take Statistics or Pre-Calc during the short session! I’d rather stretch something like that out through an entire full semester, so I have enough time to absorb it. Everyone is different, of course.
Well, for the rest of the summer, I look forward to working part-time, conquering the fear of public speaking, and spending plenty of time at the pool.
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