Summer school is a form of education instruction provided by universities and colleges during summer breaks with courses usually lasting a couple weeks. Students get a chance to engage in full-time intensive classes related to their chosen subject of focus and have the option to attend extracurricular activities designed to encourage socialization and stimulate cultural awareness. Summer schools offer courses that may aid students in revising a subject studied during the previous academic year, further exploring a known subject, or discovering a new interest.
Whether you’re focused on your self-improvement, on your academic future, or on your professional career, a summer school course has so much to offer. Here are reasons to attend summer school:
- Get an Insight of College Life: Summer school programs allow you to live on campus giving you insights into the college life experience, living in dorms, eating in the cafeteria and taking college-level classes often taken by college professors in real campus buildings.
- Gain Experience & Explore Major Choices: Summer programs specialize in particular disciplines or careers. Often the classes are taught by professionals in those careers with site visits to real workplaces. These networking experiences can be helpful with future internships and advice.
- Learn New Skills: A common thread to different summer programs is that they’re centered round learning skills you can apply in your courses and extracurricular. You can build on what you know now, as well as take classes outside of your comfort zone. Summer school is a great place to try out something you haven’t had the opportunity or wanted to try in the past.
- Earn College Credit: In some cases, courses you take might earn you college credit. This can save you time and expenses in college. If this is something you want to do, ask if others have done it, what the procedures generally entail, how colleges might determine course equivalents, and any other questions that might help you with the process.
- Form Friendships and Connections: Summer school allows you to meet like-minded people. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to meet people who enjoy similar activities. These are people who could be your future batch-mate at college, colleagues at work or just friends you manage to retain for a lifetime!
- Impress Colleges: Attending an academic program demonstrates that you enjoy learning—so much so that you want to spend your summer vacation immersing yourself in learning experiences. It also shows that you enjoy challenging yourself, and that you’re mature and ready for college, since you’ll be experiencing many facets of college life.