Taking summer classes

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>Need some help from you engineering majors out there. I'm a mom, and I'm trying to budget for summer courses, which seem to be a necessity as an engineering major.</p>

<p>Son has an academic scholarship at an OOS state flagship which covers his tuition, but because of schedule constraints, he was unable to take chemistry his freshman year, and he needs to take it this summer as a prerequisite for his sophomore engineering courses.</p>

<p>It will cost us about 6K this summer for him to take chemistry at the local Catholic university. It's a 4 credit course, 3 hours lecture, 1 hour lab, and he'll take both sessions. There are no college level community colleges or public universities in our area that will offer the equivalent course, as we've had major cutbacks in public education in our state. </p>

<p>We'll bite the bullet,even go so far as to take out a loan, which we were trying to avoid, to cover this, but we're wondering if this is going to be a regular thing over the next few years. </p>

<p>Since these courses will take six hours a day, with I'm sure a ton of homework, four days a week, I don't see where son is going to be able to make enough money to help pay for these courses. As he is termed a transient student, he will not qualify for financial aid. I was hoping he could get a work study job, which is how I paid for summer courses, but since he attends a different university full-time, this is not available.</p>

<p>Since engineering is a rigorous, credit rich curriculum, I'm sure many of you have had to, at one time or another, take a summer course. How do you finance it? Any way to avoid this happening every summer?</p>

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<p>I have taken many summer courses both through my school’s intersession programs (which were all online) and at my local community college. It sounds like your son’s school must have a specialized chemistry or something because most 100 and 200 level courses can easily be taken at your local community college and transfer over nicely. My classes at my community college were around 200 per credit hour and through my school around 700 so the community college it was really affordable. Not to mention I learned a lot because by only taking one or two classes at a time, they had my full attention.</p>

<p>If your having this trouble I would recommend talking to an academic advisor or the registrars office at his school. Hope this may be helpful.</p>

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<p>Was he unable to to get into the chemistry course during his freshman year due to it being full?</p>

<p>Normally, for engineering majors, the university should give a suggested schedule that a student (with no AP or other credit coming in) can take in order to graduate in 4 years (8 semesters or 12 quarters of actual school, if interrupted by a semester or quarter off at a co-op job) in the desired major. Such suggested schedules tend not to include additional summer sessions of school.</p>

<p>He (and you) should check this suggested schedule and/or consult with an academic adviser for his major on what to do. Also, are you certain that nothing offered at any nearby community college is accepted for that course?</p>

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<p>Why not find another course that fits his requirements that can be taken at a local community college, and then take Chemistry at his college when he returns in the Fall?</p>

<p>I’m sure there is a math class or humanities that can be taken at a CC that will transfer to his school.</p>

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<p>Depending on the major, it could delay every class in a pre-requisite chain that could delay graduation. I could easily see that for Chemical Engineering and to a lesser extent the other engineering majors with Thermo requirements.</p>

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<p>I’ll just take a stab in the dark and say that your son is an Alabama Chemical Engineer. In that case, here’s his flow diagram of order of classes to take in 8 semesters (4 years) and graduate on time: <a href=“http://che.eng.ua.edu/undergraduate_programs/flowchart2010.pdf[/url]”>http://che.eng.ua.edu/undergraduate_programs/flowchart2010.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>So it should be possible to graduate without taking any summer courses. Of course, if he’s throwing in minors, additional majors, study abroad, co-op, etc. that would complicate things greatly. I wouldn’t be able to comment further without knowing his involvement in those things (plus if I’m right about the college and major).</p>

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<p>^^^Close, banjo, same school, but different major. He is in a special honors program that is like a minor, so he has to take an extra course every semester in addition to the regular engineering curriculum. We thought he’d be okay because he came in with many AP credits for the humanities, but time logistics, like required recitation sessions, caused scheduling conflicts.</p>

<p>Above posters are right in that this course has to be taken now, as it is a prereq, and missing it will throw his entire mech eng curriculum off course. </p>

<p>Son has AP credit for most of his core courses, or took them during freshman year when logistics prevented him from taking the chem course, if he had time available. He only has one humanities class left to take, and he’s hoping to take an honors class for that to fulfill honors and humanities requirements in one shot.</p>

<p>I am coming to understand why so many engineering majors do forego participation in an honors program to finish their engineering degree in a timely manner. Since this honors program is an awesome opportunity and what tipped his hand to choose this particular college, we’ll have to bite the bullet and bear the cost. </p>

<p>I wish we had a decent community college that son could take this course at, but he’s familiar with the professor at this university, having done summer research with him a couple of years ago, and is looking forward to taking the course with him. </p>

<p>Since as a transient student, the university advised us that he would not be eligible for financial aid, which I would assume includes work study, but would it be possible that son may be able to find a paid position in a professor’s lab to help towards the cost of this course?</p>

<p>Also, since above posters mentioned taking 100 and 200 level courses at local colleges, I think after this course, we’ll have this covered, but I was wondering if engineering majors ever take 300 and above level courses during the summer to fulfill engineering requirements that for some reason or another, they’re not able to take during the school year.</p>

<p>Thanks for any input!</p>

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<p>I think I’m thrown off by the fact you said he was only a freshman rising into his sophomore year.</p>

<p>I just can’t see how he could be behind the 8 ball right now, if he is only a freshman and came in with AP credits. Seems to me that somebody screwed up with his academic planning and advising (either him or his advisor).</p>

<p>I’m confused as to why is Chemistry a pre-req for upper division Mechanical Engineering classes? Can he have it changed to a co-req instead?</p>

<p>Edit: I looked over UA’s Mechnical Engineering catalog and didn’t see any ME classes requiring any type of Chemistry class. I’m not sure if I’m confused at the situation, or if your son is confused with what he is expected to have completed by the end of his freshmen year.</p>

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<p>Honors programs usually aren’t a problem, but it sounds like your son’s is requiring a substantial amount of extra courses (which is not normal). In that case, how many summers he will need to take depends on his current hours and classes left, so I can’t really comment.</p>

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<p>I don’t know if you’ve looked at this, but have you considered sending him off for an internship? If he interns in a different city he’ll gain work experience to boost his resume, can earn some cash to counter the cost of tuition, and can probably find a local CC near where he works to take classes at night. I knew many students who did that (worked a full-time co-op/intern then took a class at night at a CC). </p>

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<p>It happens all the time, but every situation is idiosyncratic.</p>

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<p>Here is Alabama’s Mechanical Engineering major web page:
[Department</a> of Mechanical Engineering - Undergraduate Programs](<a href=“http://me.eng.ua.edu/undergraduate_programs/index.asp]Department”>http://me.eng.ua.edu/undergraduate_programs/index.asp)</p>

<p>Curriculum and degree requirements are listed here:
[Mechanical</a> Engineering Undergraduate Curriculum](<a href=“http://me.eng.ua.edu/undergraduate_programs/curriculum.asp]Mechanical”>http://me.eng.ua.edu/undergraduate_programs/curriculum.asp)</p>

<p>This [flowchart[/url</a>] lists the following:</p>

<p>CH 104 (General Chemistry I), freshman year fall, is a prerequisite to
MTE 271 (Engineering Materials I), sophomore spring, is a prerequisite to
ME 383 (Modern Manufacturing Processes), junior spring</p>

<p>In other words, this is not a particularly long chain of prerequisites that will hold up graduation if he is “behind” on one of them (especially, since there is at least one semester in between each link in the chain).</p>

<p>The suggested schedule / flowchart has an “Approved Science Elective” in sophomore fall. He can take CH 104 in place of that. Then, if he needs another “Approved Science Elective”, he can take it when he would otherwise take a Humanities or Social Studies course as listed in the schedule / flowchart (there are five slots for such courses in junior and senior years, but you say he needs only one more).</p>

<p>Also, if he had usable AP Calculus credit, he may be a semester or two ahead in math, which would effectively free up one of the spaces used for math courses.</p>

<p>What he must avoid getting behind on are the [url=&lt;a href=“http://me.eng.ua.edu/undergraduate_programs/criticalpath.pdf]critical”&gt;http://me.eng.ua.edu/undergraduate_programs/criticalpath.pdf]critical</a> path](<a href=“http://me.eng.ua.edu/undergraduate_programs/FlowChart.pdf]flowchart[/url”>http://me.eng.ua.edu/undergraduate_programs/FlowChart.pdf) courses (though if he had usable AP Calculus credit), that will shorten the critical paths).</p>