When most students think of summer school, they probably feel sick to their stomachs. 
“Wasting an entire summer on class? No way.” 
But some students are beginning to look forward to them.
LSU just finished its first week of school for the first summer session out of five consecutive weeks and it seems like the numbers of attendees are increasing by the second.
Mechanical Engineer junior Nicholas Kudr is taking summer classes at LSU for the second time, this session being enrolled in two courses: Dynamics and Electromagnetism.
Kudr said that he originally took summer classes to get ahead on the busy work his major requires, but over time the his reason changed.
“In mechanical engineering, when you have so many hours, say, on average like 17-19 hours, and you have to focus on two or three really hard courses, it can get overwhelming very quickly,” Kudr said. “So over the summer it just makes it easy.”
Kudr expressed that he doesn’t know how often courses for his major are offered over the summer, but that availability tends to be present given the amount of work his major requires compared to others.
On top of the availability of summer courses, Kudr said that summer sessions allow more time to focus on a class compared to traditional fall and spring semesters along with the GPA boost benefits better grades can achieve.
“It’s easier because it’s one class out of one time so there’s a lot more time you can spend on that one class,” Kudr said. “It is a shorter amount of time to learn the information but it’s a lot less time to forget the information.”
Due to the lack of online classes and the price to pay for extra classes, some students stray away from summer school, but Kudr pays for his summer sessions himself and attends class in-person.
According to him, taking things as “bite-sized” as you can is the way to go.
“It’s a small price to pay for the summer and I just let that happen,” Kudr said.
Jacqueline Bach, LSU’s vice provost for academic programs and support services for the Office of Academic Affairs, says that summer school for college students should be encouraged because of the various benefits it offers.
“Summer school isn’t just an opportunity to make up courses, but it’s also an opportunity to get ahead,” Bach said.
After completing extensive research on the data provided by LSU students’ performance in certain courses, data results were able to determine that students are twice as likely to graduate in four years rather than six years if summer school courses are taken.
Midterm grades from previous spring semesters are also considered when trying to determine what courses should be offered, usually the courses where midterm scores are lower stand a greater chance at appearing in the summer registration.
“You get more of an experience in a smaller setting than you would during the year,” Bach said. “We don’t run classes with a thousand students so that’s a benefit as well, just having that kind of experience with a smaller class.”
Though the benefits of summer school can keep students on track, there are some concerns regarding the cost to attend.
According to Anna Bartel, LSU’s assistant vice provost for academic programs and strategic analytics for the Office of Academic Affairs, data has shown that less students attend summer school due to the extra costs, causing more students to attend summer school at community colleges for a cheaper price.
“Let’s say you’re going home to Houston, some of our biggest numbers of transfer courses are from the Houston community college area, you have a lot of students who are going back home and can’t find an online course through our LSU summer, so they just take something at their local community college,” Bartel said.
Bartel also said LSU is trying to get better at ensuring the acceptance of all students transferring with credit hours so that they can apply to the specific major the student selects.
“You don’t get the perks of a flagship research university because of the difference with a community college instructor, who might be really good, but they’re not on the same level, I would say,” Bartel said.
Since it isn’t always a guarantee for credits to transfer, Bartel also encourages LSU students to take a summer course with LSU.
“It’s only five weeks, then you get the rest of your summer back,” Bartel said. “I think you get some really cool experiences, especially if you come on campus because you get to experience the UREC and do the river, join intramural clubs, make friends and just enjoy campus culture.”