By: Michele Pavitt
A course in statistics loomed as a stressful challenge in Mina’s second year at SMCC.
Summer was approaching and she hit on what seemed like a logical idea: take one tough course all by itself.
“I took it in the summer because I didn’t want to be distracted by other things,” said Mina Beauvais, a nursing student. “I wanted to take it on its own and isolate that part of my learning and give it more attention.”
Unfortunately, the experience didn’t end up as stress-free as she expected. She was living at home, working full time, and feeling pulled in many directions.
“I didn’t have as much free time as I thought I would… I was definitely short on time,” she said. “You’re kind of mentally checked out in the summer.”
Mina’s experience reflects the quandaries involved in summer-semester planning. Taking one difficult class in summer to avoid distraction is a common strategy among SMCC students. Since each student holds different academic strengths, challenging courses vary widely, from chemistry or computer science to history or business.
Finney Irashitsa used this approach when taking biology and English Composition in his second year. He purposely took these courses in summer to avoid distractions and also kept his credit enrollment low since financial aid didn’t cover as many summer courses.
“They were classes I don’t enjoy taking, but I had to – they were required,” he said. “The thing is, my schedule was flexible and I had the time to do all the work for those classes.”
Using the summer semester wisely therefore requires careful planning. It may be a good strategy to take a challenging course during that term, as long as students are aware that it’s a shorter semester of 12 weeks rather than the usual 16-week terms of fall and spring. Some summer courses are offered in an even shorter timeframe, of just six weeks, which can offer advantages and disadvantages.
As always, students need to carve out time from their work schedules and family responsibilities to keep up with their coursework. And summer is by definition a short, precious season in Maine.
“I didn’t have as much time as I thought I would, I always felt kind of rushed,” said Mina. “When I’m home during the summer, there’s just other things going on. When I’m at school I can just focus on school.”