My son tossed out the idea this morning of taking a course or two this summer since he will have a very long summer break after graduation from HS.
Before we start looking into this - do you know if incoming first year students are able to take summer courses on campus? If so, are there any specific courses you would recommend? He was thinking it would help him learn his way around campus and Chicago before fall quarter and give him a bit of a cushion so he can just take three courses his first quarter or two.
Would love thoughts from some current or recent students/parents as to whether or not you think this would be helpful or not.
We asked one of the alums at the admitted day last month if there was anything he’d recommend reading or classes to sign up for, and he said (paraphrasing) ‘just enjoy your summer because you’ll have alot of work to do starting in September and thereafter.’
Thank you - CU123, that’s what I was thinking as well. If he’s serious, I’ll have him contact the registrar.
uocparent - thanks, I agree, I think he’s probably just a bit nervous and thinking of ways to ease into college…a nice long summer with him home sounds good to me!
^^Couldn’t agree more with #2! It’s the last summer before you really ramp up that workload! Enjoy it, hang with friends, get a part-time job. Unlike other schools, UChicago doesn’t assign the first years anything over the summer break. There’s plenty enough to do just getting ready for college! However, if he wants to get into the UChicago spirit early-on there might be some summer orientation programs available like there were last year. Most of them were abroad but they sounded really fun. Whatever they have available for will be communicated in plenty of time to make a decision on whether to apply.
Realistically speaking, most of the first year courses will be Core sequence and/or pre-reqs so are best begun in the fall. A few will depend on placement from AP and summer placement/accreditation exams anyway - those results won’t be available till later in July at the earliest.
During O-Week your son will definitely be able to learn the layout of the campus and how to get around. He’ll also be doing things with his house, meeting with his academic advisor, and having a great time. It’s perfectly fine to take three courses in the fall and ramp it up later - he will still graduate! If he wants to take a course or two next summer, he might consider it then.
Just a caveat - FA in the summer is a separate process. Check with FA on that one.
Everyone needs 4200 credits to graduate (so 42 courses) and you can bring in up to 400 from AP, etc. That means 3 - 4 courses each quarter. If, each year, he takes 10 (3 in fall, 3 in winter, 4 in spring) then he’ll graduate on time as long as he can bring in two AP’s from the outside. BTW, check which of his AP’s are accepted and keep in mind that this list might change over the summer once the new catalog is published. In reality, your son will likely want to take more than 38 UChicago courses and will probably be ready to try four courses as early as the winter. He can also try four in the fall and drop one by 4th week (a LOT do that). But in any case, he needn’t worry about taking courses over the summer to get a head start.
Yes, @caymusjordan, my son is nervous as well. After the alum’s advice, my son decided to read more ‘fun’ stuff, learning chess, and working out.
Also, he says he has plans to hang out with him friends as everyone will be away by September, so adding hanging out to list of activities; and of course video games, since he’s not taking his games with him to school.