<p>I feel like this is something I should know since I've already been at Smith for a year, but does Smith offer credit courses for students during the summer? I'm asking because I'm very attached to the idea of graduating with my class, but my mom is very sick and I'm worried that sometime during my college career I'll have to take some time off if things take a turn for the worst. If I ended up behind a semester, would I be able to make up the credits during the summer?</p>
<p>First of all, I’m so sorry you and your family are going through this. Smith doesn’t offer credit courses, but you can take some classes at your local community college/university over the summer and apply them towards graduating. I think it’s a limit of something like 12 credits, though. If you have any AP credits from high school, you can also use those to make up the difference if you need to take some time off. (I know way too many people who’ve gone on medical leave, both short term and long term, so this is all stuff I’ve gathered from them, because they’ve been talking to the administration and working on plans to graduate with our class even though they’re missing semesters.)</p>
<p>If you haven’t, it’s probably a good idea to talk to the administration now so they know what your situation is and can give you all the support you need. Again, my sympathies.</p>
<p>Hey,
So sorry that this is going on. You could also think about J-Term courses. There aren’t a huge number, but I know a couple people who have made up minor shortages that way I think. Also, I would strongly recommend making some advisor aware of this. Your explanation need not be super detailed or personal, but they might have more major/situation specific recommendations for you.
All the best to you</p>
<p>All of the above is good advice. In addition, if you’ve taken AP courses at your high school and received a 4 or 5 on your AP exam, your AP credits can be used to make up for a shortage of credits for graduation. I did this because I had dropped a class and so was four credits short of what I needed and I wasn’t interested in taking a larger than normal credit load. So for example, you need 64 credits to graduate, and let’s say you took three AP courses in high school so you have 12 credits available to you from that (four per course), you could ostensibly use those 12 credits to make up for most of or all of a missed semester. They won’t let you apply the credits to your credit total until you’re a senior though, and the credits won’t make up for any courses missed in your major, but it can help take the load off. </p>
<p>If you do have to go home, talk to your advisor and make an appointment to see the registrar. You should be able to come up with a good plan as to how to get back on track when you return. And best of luck.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone, that’s all really good advice. I forgot that Smith takes AP credit in case of a shortage, and since I took 5 tests and got a 4 or 5 on all of them, that should help me out.</p>