<p>In order to keep its student population from growing too large, the Gators are planning an enrollment experiment. A cohort of about 2,000 undergrads will spend only the spring and summer terms on campus and will not be permitted to take classes in the fall semester. </p>
<p>U. of F. administrators claim that this new gambit will lessen the strain on university resources but will not treat the spring/summer-only enrollees as second-class citizens. Ideally, these students can use the fall term for off-campus jobs, interviews, or research. </p>
<p>While I like Dartmouth's system of requiring its sophomores to spend the summer in Hanover (which, arguably, is the best time of year in New Hampshire), I'm not so sure that a mandated summer in steamy Gainesville will be a popular imperative. On the other hand, jobs and internships for undergrads probably aren't as hard to find in September or October as they are in July.</p>
<p>What do high school students and current college students think about this U. of F. initiative ... and about colleges, in general, creating non-traditional calendars?</p>
<p>I have to say, if I were a student, I would not choose to go to UF if they wouldn’t allow me to take classes during certain semesters. they say those students wouldn’t be “second-class” but they already are if only they aren’t allowed to take fall classes, but other students can take classes during the summer along with the fall & spring. and in some departments, certain classes are only offered during certain semesters. It doesn’t seem likely that offering all classes during the summer or spring to accommodate this cohort would be cost effective, especially for the smaller departments.
And besides that, what about the students trying to graduate early who want to go to school year round? this option would just be a limitation.</p>
<p>in order to do something like this, a lot of other things have to change to. they need to make sure these students can find housing, whether it is in dorms or apartments. Starting in the spring would mean they would have to pick over the leftover dorms and apartments students starting in the fall didn’t like or want. not to mention the problem of scholarships. many, if not most, only cover fall and spring, especially the kind of scholarships that are recurring. so not only would they miss out on the fall classes, but they would miss out on a crap ton of money that they can use to actually pay for their schooling.</p>
<p>this may be good for the university is some way, but I seriously can’t see any benefits at all for the students.</p>
<p>I think I would be in favor of a more fluid policy … perhaps one that would require every student to spend a summer on campus in lieu of a fall or winter term.</p>
<p>I would definitely be angry if I could not attend a fall term. Gaps may cause me to forget some material, not to mention inconvenience my housing.</p>
<p>I think the program is fine for students willing to volunteer to leave for the fall, but forced leave is not. There should be a less drastic alternative if it is going to be forced.</p>
<p>The plan makes sense to me. Gator mating season begins around April when the weather starts warming up; gators’ metabolism increases when it gets warmer and they are more frisky and alert which is better for learning. As long as the state allows state financial aid for Florida resident gators spring and summer semesters the same as other terms, summer and spring only should work fine for some. What incentives will be offered gators opting out of fall semester attendance?</p>
<p>How would it be decided which students are permitted for the fall semester and which ones aren’t? Being a premed, having off a semester to volunteer and shadow would be preferred.</p>
<p>You’ll get summer off if you have the normal schedule silvari, so it’s no different as far as volunteering and shadowing. Research may be harder to find or easier to find in the fall though. I’d be pretty irate if they forced me to not be able to go in the fall, as most schools are ghost towns in the summer.</p>
<p>Might make sense if the spring/summer term is a full term and was slightly cheaper than the fall term. By full term I mean they offer most/all the same classes that they offer during the fall term, and is the same length of the fall term.</p>
<p>I can’t say that I agree with this policy, but this answers a couple questions posed in this thread. Can somebody copy/paste the entire article from the Chronicle?</p>
<p>One summer term is already required for students who bring less than 9 credit hours from AP or IB or DE. But now-a-days, most students have way more than that. I think they should just require all students to take at least one summer term–a full summer not just one of the half term 5 week summers. </p>
<p>And summer is not the same as fall. There are not the same class offerings. And the sequence is generally fall/spring for many courses. So a student starting out would either not start until spring of freshman year, or take summer freshman year followed by a full semester off, then continuing on in spring. Seems awkward. I suspect the first cohort would indeed start spring and go spring/summer the first year. What internships are available that first fall to a kid who has not even started college yet? </p>
<p>They will certainly offer this to students in the lower 25% of applicants, otherwise they will loose students. The ONLY way this will work is for them to offer it to those students who would not be accepted otherwise. And many will choose to go elsewhere. Affording a semester abroad? EXPENSIVE. Living on campus fall to participate in football? NOT VERY PRODUCTIVE. Online classes only for fall for this cohort? They won’t learn as much, can’t take labs online, etc. </p>
<p>Interesting all the way around. Seems better to just get students to go year-round and finish in 3 years.</p>
<p>My free access to the article does not kick in until it is a month old, so I cannot read or post the info. Here is similar info from the USA Today article than ran in the fall. The original concept from this article was adding 250 freshman, and perhaps offering it also to transfer students. </p>
<p>Has anyone considered the fact that the Bright Futures Scholarship (a program funded by the Florida Lottery) can only be used in Fall and Spring semesters? It doesn’t pay for summer classes. </p>
<p>While Florida residents still would get Florida residency classification for tuition purposes (and hence, state-subsidized tuition) they would not receive the Bright Futures scholarship benefits.</p>
<p>I bet this actually increases costs for UF. Many professors that teach in the Fall/Spring use the summer to focus on research. They’ll have to vastly increase their course offerings (and thus hire more lecturers) in order for Spring/Summer to make any sense to me. That or risk decreasing the productivity of the research faculty (contrary to popular belief, it takes a long time to prepare a class).</p>
<p>They are solving the problem of a too-large student population easily: by implementing this new policy, they are effectively un-marketing themselves to a clearly (from what I can see from this thread, anyway) large percentage of prospective U of F students.
They don’t want too many students? Well, now they won’t be getting them.</p>
<p>UF should get Univ. of North Florida in Jacksonville to merge in with UF. Uf could pump up enrollment with the extra Jax campus and get what it really wants–more money for its till. Uf has strong connections with Jax market and operates Shands Hospital already in Jax.–it would be a good, natural fit for both schools.</p>
<p>If the Legislature would allow Bright Futures to cover summer courses now, many kids would opt to graduate in less than four years. Also if the parking fees, blue light fees, and other on-campus type fees were waived for students who interned for credit or took online classes (either all off campus or at home during the summer) then graduation could be accelerated and voila…more space. Who decided that the magic number of years to graduate should be four? The UF students are our high achievers starting college with loads of credit. Let’s make it work in everyone’s favor.</p>