And you thought you’d never get to take a class on soul food.
Food, Culture and Performance is just one of the more than 300 courses that will be offered next quarter, during Northwestern’s Summer Session 2008. Other unique classes range from “The Art of Murder – Homicide in Literature and Film” to “Needle and the Rhyme – Developments in Rap Music.”
Registration for all Summer Session 2008 courses began April 14 and runs through June 21. Courses are open to high school, undergraduate, graduate and visiting students, as well as alumni, and run from three to eight weeks during the summer.
Popular summer classes include biology, chemistry and physics sequences, which offer a full year’s course load in one quarter, said Summer Session Director Stephanie Teterycz. Economics courses, and classes such as Introduction to Buddhism, Theories of Persuasion and Public Speaking , also have high volumes of enrollment for the summer, she said. .
“The vast majority of Northwestern students who take courses during the summer are doing it to fulfill courses towards their major or distribution requirements,” Teterycz said.
One advantage of taking classes over the summer is that students are able to concentrate on one subject at a time, Teterycz added.
“The pace of the course is different,” she said. “It gives you a little more breathing room and opens some people’s options.”
Weinberg sophomore Alyson Stevens said she took organic chemistry during summer 2007 to focus on what is typically known as one of NU’s most difficult courses.
“I think seeing a lot of kids taking it now and trying to balance it with three or four classes, it’s a lot tougher,” she said.
Courses are taught by many of the same faculty members who teach during the academic year. Classes generally offer the same number of credits as the other quarters, but the cost of tuition per course during the summer is decreased to $2,922 from $3,063.
Students looking to combine their summer studies with an internship can look into NU Chicago Field Studies, which integrates two courses for class credit with an outside internship, and also runs through Summer Quarter.
“Our classes are based on complementing student internships, focusing on contemporary business, organization business and how interns function within their workplace,” said Audrey Cutler, the program’s assistant.
NU Summer Session also offers brief enrichment programs that run for three to five days. These programs include the Green City Institute, Pre-Law Summer Institute, Summer Institute on Holocaust Education and Summer Writers’ Conference.
While many students take courses at other colleges and universities over the summer, NU only allows four transfer credits from other institutions.
“The course has to be one for which NU offers credit,” said Weinberg Assistant Dean Richard Weimer. “U.S. History would carry credit, glassblowing would not offer credit.” Because of the difficulty in transferring credits, many students choose to stay at NU for their summer courses.
“They’re NU classes so the credits are automatically applied to their transcript,” said Teterycz.
