First of all, for our parents and families reading this morning and worrying about the weather and travel conditions: as of 7:45 this morning, it was cold and rainy but I did not experience any ice at all on the roads.  There was a bit of ice on power lines and trees, but the roads were only wet, not icy.  At least in the 3-4 miles from my house to campus.  So if your students are driving today – to airports or even farther home – please tell them to be cautious and be aware of road conditions.  But right around campus, my roads at least were fine, if wet.

Now on to the real meat of the day: here’s an idea that you may want to consider discussing with your Deac during Thanksgiving – Summer School.  Courses for summer 2014 are available for browsing now.

Yes, I know that seems a very long time away, but Summer School is a great option for a lot of different scenarios:

1) the “hard class” – many of my advisees have gone to Summer School because they know they have a hard class coming up.  That might be a divisional requirement, or a prerequisite for their intended major (I see a lot of Accounting 111 and Organic Chemistry for these).  It helps these students to be able to focus on just one class, without the distraction of  a full campus of friends, social activities, etc.

2) the “catch up” – some of our students deliberately take fewer than 15 credits a semester their first year and come to Summer School to ‘catch up.’  They might have elected to slow the pace of their scholarship because they wanted to be sure to get a solid start their first semester, or because they were on a sports team and needed a lighter schedule for practices, or because they were going Greek.  Summer allows time to catch up and get back on schedule.

3) the “cover a lot of ground” class – there are a couple of Summer School classes where you can get a lot more credit in a shorter period of time.  There is a terrific Summer Management Program that allows non-business majors to get 8 hours of class credit, and an Intensive Summer Language Institute that combines the 153 and 212 levels of Spanish into one course.

Students can visit the Summer School website or go to their office (across from the Office of Academic Advising off the Reynolda Hall lobby) to learn more.

This is a great option for many students, so look into it!

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