<p>Seeing I have no plans his summer, although I'm interviewing for a job as an intern this week (which I doubt I'll get), I'm thinking of taking summer classes.</p>
<p>I am thinking of taking classes at Boston University, seeing it is cheaper than Tufts, Harvard, Boston College. </p>
<p>However it will be very pricey. Is it worth it to take the summer classes? I go to a top 6 liberal arts college. Will my college accept Boston University summer classes and will they factor into my GPA? Also are these classes at BU rigorous? </p>
<p>Since it is pricey I'll most likely only be able to take 1 class, probably higher level Microeconomics or Cell Bio. I might have to take a loan, or pay for it through a job, or pay back my parents.</p>
<p>Would it be better to take the classes at Harvard, Tufts, or BC? Would it be a bad choice to take it at a community college or someplace like UMass Boston or Northeastern?</p>
<p>I think that the BU courses will be quite rigorous but you could try
contacting the professor of the course that you want to take to get
an idea of the workload or you could check the professor out on ratemyprofessor.com. I would avoid the MET school courses if you’re
worried about rigor.</p>
<p>Summer courses started at BU last week and you’ve already missed three
classes for Intermediate Micro. It would probably take a few days to
get permission to take the course with credits transferring to your
school so you are probably looking at Summer II. It appears that you’ve
missed two sessions for Cell Biology which is only offered in Summer 1.</p>
<p>Colleges usually don’t factor in transfer courses into your GPA.</p>
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<p>I think that the average graduate carries about $21,000 in loans so this
would be about ten percent of average debt. Could you find a minimum-wage
job to offset the course expenses. I hate to see college students racking
up debt in general.</p>
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<p>You would have to contact the school and/or professor to get an idea of
how rigorous the course is. My guess is that MA community colleges wouldn’t
have the courses that you are looking for in the summer term, and, if they
did, that they would already be full. Community colleges are in pretty
heavy demand because they are so inexpensive and they’ve been throught
several rounds of budget cuts as MA revenues have had several years of
declines. The state university system has had similar problems. UMass
Boston might be an option - you’d have to look at their offerings.</p>
<p>Northeastern is pricey too - similar to Boston University.</p>
<p>I’d guess that UMass Amherst would have the courses available but you’d
have to deal with room/board/transportation (it sounds like you’re in
the Boston area).</p>
<p>You should have started this process a few weeks ago, it’s getting
pretty late for Summer I.</p>
<p>I think that if your family is not in a position to easily pay for this, it might not be woth it. </p>
<p>FWIW, my son is taking a class at a community college. He is taking a lighter course (something outside his major that fills a core requirement). He does not love it, but he’d like the 3 credits. His class has been in session for a week already. At the school he attends as a degree seeking student, he had to get permission to take this summer class in advance. This meant having having an advisor, a department head, and someone else (perhaps it was the registrar) sign a form. At one time they had a rule that if the course was offered during the summer at his school, he could not take it elsewhere. Apparently this rule had changed, and if it hadn’t he would have been out of luck.</p>
<p>Unless you are taking a junior or senior level course, a community college may be a less expensive way to take the course. Check your school’s policy on transfer credit (if you go to a state university, they likely have pre-arranged policies with the same state community colleges).</p>
<p>Universities typically do not include transfer credit in GPA. However, medical schools will include every college or university course in your GPA for the purpose of medical school application.</p>
<p>Also make sure to check in with your school about what’s required to transfer credits. DS took a class last summer but had to have pre-approval from his advisor + the head of the department the class was going to transfer to. It had to qualify for a specific course already offered by his school. Quite a bit of paperwork <em>before</em> he took the class.</p>