By Jennifer Colbourne (Staff Writer) – Email
Summer school seems like a great idea, in theory. You can get your degree done faster, and you don’t have to join the fray vying for a summer job. It sounds like a good deal, but in truth, it’s not at all what it seems cracked up to be.
First of all, there are no courses. The pickings are astoundingly slim. If you’re in your upper levels, most of your required courses are not likely to be offered. Equally disheartening, the selection of professors are even more scarce; most of the established, long-time profs are off on vacation, while a few sessional-instructors are left to take classes, wistfully dreaming of job security and a few months free to lie on the beach.
Second of all, there are no students. UFV may still be largely a commuter school, but there is a lot consistently going on around campus during the fall and winter semesters. In summer, most of the clubs are inactive, and while SUS and Student Life certainly still put on events, not many students are around to attend. Neither do the departments bother bringing speakers or films to campus with such a small percentage of students enrolled, nor is there anywhere to hang out: places like the cafeteria and Tim Hortons have reduced hours during the summer months. UFV is almost eerily deserted.
Most importantly, your mind needs the break. The stress, the continual reading and writing, the studying – it all becomes too much. Sure, in the summer you may not feel that way, but next fall, your brain will be screaming for a rest. Essay after essay, test after test – school becomes less enjoyable and more of an inescapable chore. While summer jobs may be tedious, the plentiful free time you have left over more than makes up for it. Camping, swimming, hiking, fishing – it’s the one time of year we can actually go outside in the Fraser Valley without getting soaked. We might as well enjoy it, rather than be cooped up painfully inside a classroom. Besides, misery, stress, and boredom are serious GPA killers.
Further, while it’s true that you can graduate faster if you take summer school (that is if you can actually take the courses you need), there’s always the question: why graduate faster? There are no jobs out there. We’re in the midst of a recession. The best plan right now is to stay in school. The number of students who graduated last year that are now working at Starbucks or in the mall would make you cry. BC’s unemployment rate is sneaking closer and closer to 10 per cent. That’s right; nearly 1 out of 10 people are currently without a job. At least when you’re taking classes, you can get a student loan, but the faster you graduate, the faster you have to pay that loan back.
Whatever you do, do not take a full load of condensed courses. It’s humanly impossible and enough to make anyone’s brain explode – we’re talking 6-8 hours of lectures a week per class, never mind the vast amounts of reading and studying required to keep up. In a shortened semester, midterms are usually during Week 3 of classes! If you really need to make up for a course or two over the summer, seriously consider taking them online. Otherwise, if you don’t have to, don’t go to summer school. Any child or teenager would strongly agree: summer vacation rocks!
