With exams only a few weeks away and fall semester classes, for the most part, signed up for, more school is likely the last thing on your mind. But don’t dismiss it too easily; summer sessions provide both a unique and useful opportunity for students with plenty of benefits that are often overlooked.

The classes during summer have certain advantages that regular sessions (fall and spring) don’t. This takes place mainly in the form of flexibility for student schedules and academic benefits. 

The sessions’ main advantages come with their flexibility. Summer sessions have four choices for time frames: the “Maymester” (3 credits/3 weeks), Summer Session I (5 weeks), Summer Session I (10 weeks) and Summer Session II (5 weeks).

With some overlap, these options allow for students to not only plan to avoid ruining prior summer plans by choosing an appropriate session but also allow students to tailor the density of their course load by choosing either longer or shorter sessions. Plus, if none of the options work for a student, NC State offers summer Study Abroad programs, which could help satisfy the need for travel while still giving students the credits they need to graduate.

And while summer classes may not have all the same course options as regular classes, they are still quite flexible in a number of other ways. Without having to fit as much into a day, students can afford to not have classes start too early in the morning. Summer classes also have the option to give students plenty of time after class for the same reason. This time could be used for a summer job, personal free time, or extra-curricular activities, depending on needs.

The practicality of warmer weather during the summer also means that students have the option to take an outside health and exercise studies course without having to worry about the wildly inconsistent temperature in other sessions. Plus, this means that summer sessions allow students to get their health credit without having to worry so much about working it into their schedule, opening their regular schedule up more. These combined benefits make the summer sessions a very convenient time for most students looking to knock out their mandatory health credits.

In addition to the flexibility of the summer, the sessions’ academic benefit is partially shown by the fact that students can take up to “two courses plus a physical education course in a summer session,” according to REG 02.20.05 – Course Load, giving students a wide variety of opportunities to boost academic measures.

The first of these is that it allows for students to choose to spread out their course load over a longer period. Often students end up taking an unnecessary number of credits during one semester to stay on track for graduation. Summer sessions allow students to either get ahead, stay on track or catch up for graduation.

This can be especially useful for STEM students who may find themselves having to take heavy course loads in order to keep up with their major and additional minors. Using summer school as a chance to take some required GEPs or to get ahead on required classes within a major can help nullify this problem.

Rithika Shivkumar, a first-year studying industrial and systems engineering, says that she is using the session to get ahead on her major and minor. “I’m trying to get a minor in statistics along with ISE being my major,” Shivkumar said. “I wanted to get done with a few subjects so that I could finish getting both my minor and major in four years.” 

As a final point, having numerous summer classes can provide a plenty of needed credits for any application where a minimum number of credits is required. This can combine with the GPA cushion that they can provide (if they are passed) to help students make sure that they are on track for any application that looks at credit hours or GPA.

Overall, it may be stressful to consider during final exam studying, tests and projects, but summer sessions are a useful opportunity provided by NC State that can help make sure students are at a self-satisfactory level while also being flexible enough to work with other plans. To not take advantage of such a scenario would truly be a wasted opportunity.