Son is minoring in Spanish, so one of the objectives of the study abroad is to be immersed in the Spanish community to become fluent (hopefully speaking no English).
His college has an established study abroad for (almost) native speakers.
Thanks.
1 Like
My daughter was housed in a private neighborhood apartment, several blocks from the University. They did their own shopping and cooking, had to deal with the āsuperā, when appliances werenāt working, and there was lots of unstructured time to do their own discovering.
After the program ended, she spent ten more days ābackpackingā other parts of the country.
So until your son can meet language requirements, there can still be meaningful options.
Coincidentally, her deepest language immersion was not in Spain. In Europe, people frustratingly tend to just be helpful and switch to English when they hear you try speak their language.
But renting a 50ās Taxi in Havanna for 10 days during Spring Break, having the driver take you to other historic cities and sites across Cuba, staying at Particulares along the way - you couldnāt find anyone speaking English if your life depended on it 
.
3 Likes
My son is talking vaguely about āgetting a job in Bostonā (heās at NYU and we live in NYC, but heād apparently live with a friend in the Boston suburb where we lived for his last three years of high school). He didnāt make any moves at all toward getting a professionally relevant internship for the summer. Admittedly, it would have been difficult; he wants to be in communications/PR, and few formal programs accept rising sophomores. I managed it 35 years ago, but needless to say, itās a different time. We were all chatting about it on a walk a couple of weeks ago and our D19 said, āLet him have a summer!ā And itās true that because everyone in the industry knows there are so few internships available, not having one the summer after freshman year shouldnāt hurt him when he graduates. So I hope he has a good time!
8 Likes
My son goes to a co- op school where he has had two full-time job experiences so he may relax this summer and go back to his caddie job. He meets some interesting people there, including the Giants manager and an actor from the Broadway cast of Hamilton.
5 Likes
My D22 will most likely work at her high school job this summer. She just wasnāt ready to try for internships. I think it will be okay. She likes to have a job and has picked up a part time job working at Barnes & Noble in college. Her college does a January short term where some kids (usu first years) take intensive classes but most do an internship or study abroad. She didnāt meet the deadline for study abroad for next J-term and wasnāt interested in it yet (planning to try for a semester junior year) so I suspect sheāll be looking for an internship in January.
4 Likes
My son is in engineering, and internships seem to want at a minimum a rising junior. He will be taking 2 classes over the summer to lighten his class load during the regular academic year.
5 Likes
That hasnāt been our experience with either my D or other family members.
2 Likes
My s20 is also a communications major (business minor) and heās also run into the internship drought. This summer, leading into his senior year, would typically be the big internship summer, but heās going to take a couple of classes and itās not ideal for him (personally, but maybe for other students) to try to combine his first summer class experience with an internship. So Iām going with your D19ās view of āLet him have a(nother) summer!ā
Iām of the mind that all will work out and the path doesnāt have to be perfectly designed/followed to end up at a happy destination. S20 plans to move back to our home state (the RTP area of NC) and there are (and will be) plenty of work available when he graduates.
This summer, heāll take his summer school classes, maybe work part-time outside his major, and enjoy one more summer of almost-freedom.
One thing Iām finding is S20 is adamant about not remaining in Ohio. He finds it less enjoyable than a more diverse, more inclusive place like RTP. His campus is not a drag, but he hasnāt become a fan of the state of Ohio. He may or may not end up in RTP, but living in a different area has made him appreciate his childhood region much more than he did before leaving for college three years ago. 
7 Likes
I appreciate the downtime of summer, especially after an intensive school year, but DS is a bit undecided as to WHAT to do after graduation
- finance
- applied math
- computer science
for WHICH industry?
He likes classes in all those subjects.
He has more questions than answers.
His college doesnāt generally have co-ops,
so I believe that he should work at DIFFERENT jobs/industries each summer to get a feel of what he does like, vs. what he abhors (I hated coding; I did it long enough to pay back college loans).
Since the plan is to study abroad next summer, then he really just has 2 summers (after Freshman and after Junior year) to get exposure to different jobs/industries.
1 Like
I think my D22 is liking home more too. Itās a pretty cool place after all.
3 Likes
No swipes for laundry and the RA bakes cookies!
4 Likes
My D22 is also an engineering major and doing the same thing. Sheās taking two classes at community college and working part time at her job from last summer.
2 Likes
How common is it for students to take summer classes?
HOW does financial aid/merit work for summer classes?
While I was a math major, my engineering friends and I didnāt take summer classes. So summer classes never crossed my mind.
Sonās college doesnāt seem to encourage summer classes. Sonās advisor did a DRAFT of all 4 years classes, and he seems to have some space his senior year. Often, some Engineering students are able to do a MENG (master in 5yrs).
My cousin went to UC Irvine and he said he and ALL his friends took many summer classes. He said they wouldnāt graduate on time if they didnāt take summer classes.
1 Like
Summer classes are generally not a good idea for students who donāt need to take them. Theyāre typically taught by different instructors/professors and the students who take them tend to be the ones who need to take them in order to graduate on time.
Summer credits arenāt a viable option for my kid. His school will almost never accept summer credits from outside schools. The school does offer its own summer classes, but only at full price, making it a horrible deal (most students at the school receive either need-based or merit scholarships, so these full-price summer credits come out as much more expensive.) I think that the kids who do take these summer credits are either 1) Doing so because otherwise they wonāt graduate on time due to a failed course etc. 2) Are super wealthy students either from the school itself, or from different schools, who find a summer session at the school an attractive option due to the fun location.
2 Likes
D20 took a summer school course at a different university after her first year at college. It was a specific class that wasnāt offered at her home school that she was interested in taking. She did get credit at her home school; it helped immensely that both schools use the same accreditor which made the credit transfer pretty seamless though credit wasnāt the main reason for her taking the class.
2 Likes
Many kids take summer classes at my sonās school to lighten the load ā particularly as heās on a quarter system. Heās doing a lab which he had trouble getting into during the year as well as a GE that might require a lot of reading/writing.
One class is online so he will be homeāthe other class is a condensed session where most OSS kids come back to campus right before the school year begins. Many kids sublet from the fraternities or other apts.
For OOS people at UCLA, for example, the price is the same for instate and OOS for summer courses, so many OOS kids do summer courses because it is cost effective.
1 Like
This is one big reason at public universities. You can graduate early and save one or more semesters/quarters of OOS fees. The second reason is that getting class registrations in summer is much easier (especially if you have sophomore standing) so if you miss out on popular freshman classes during fall or spring, it becomes necessary to keep up.
4 Likes
It seems like quite a few kids take a summer class or two. On the Facebook engineering page, itās regularly recommended to take calculus classes anywhere but Bama. My son really didnāt want to take any and isnāt planning on it. Heās fine in the calc classes so far. He is fortunate that he came in with many credits which allows him to take a lighter fall schedule when the marching band is quite busy.
That said if he was just working part time this summer her might consider taking a class just to get ahead. But he has a tuition scholarship so itās costly.
When I was in engineering school I changed majors sophomore year and took one class in the summer to get on track for the new major.
3 Likes
Why?