Still thinking of summer school as remedial learning for the K-12 set? If so, you're missing a great chance to rev up your career.
By Emily Wengert
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Or not.
1. Start classes over the summer to get a jump toward a much-wanted degree.
Summer, with its looser schedules and warmer weather, can be a great time to get an early start to that degree you've been thinking about. That's exactly why Felicia Smith just enrolled in a bachelor's degree in criminal justice through the University of Phoenix.
Because her daughter doesn't have school, summer was a great time for Felicia to begin coursework, she says. The fact that the program was also available online made it even more alluring.
As a single mom, Felicia feels it's important to be there to help her daughter with her homework during the school year. By getting used to an online class schedule over the summer, she's hoping it will be easier to continue to find the time when her nine-year-old daughter's work starts up again in the fall.
"Online doesn't take you away from home," adds Felicia, a youth counselor for runaways and children with behavioral problems in Richmond, VA. "The sooner I get started, the sooner I finish."
Not only is Felicia hoping to advance her career (she's considering becoming a juvenile probation officer with her degree), she's also trying to avoid becoming one of the approximately 50 percent of adult learners who never finish a baccalaureate program they've started.
2. If you've been working toward a specific degree, try taking an elective during the summer: if your school doesn't offer something, try a local community college or other adult-education program.
One way to keep the momentum toward accomplishing a degree is by starting classes over the summer and not taking a break as the weather warms.
Part of the beauty of online learning is that it doesn't have to be tied to a classroom campus' schedule, which often decreases the number of summer offerings. Distance learning programs can offer a full complement of courses, giving students a chance to complete prerequisites before the school year starts, says Arnold Bateman, associate vice chancellor for Extended Education and Outreach at University of Nebraska.
Others use the summer to take a creative elective they've been meaning to try. The fact that students can enter most distance learning programs throughout the year, not just during one or two select points of entry, as is common with on-campus education, notes Arnold, also attracts learners to the program, which is largely graduate students.
The online students at University of Nebraska, whom Arnold describes as either "time bound or place bound," have diverse histories - people of all ages, from all parts of the country and even world, of both genders, and with varying levels of work experience.
"We are truly attracting students into these programs who would not be able to pursue their graduate education otherwise," he says. Though most of his students are fully employed, many find some of the downtime of summer as good a time as any to begin a degree.
Above all, the benefits of online education continue in a busy season when vacation may be part of the plan.
"I just came back from Tuscon," says Jay Julius, who started an online program in May. "You can go ahead and travel and still take your laptop with you. I just plug in and go online anywhere."
3. Speed your way toward the finish line.
Take those last few classes you need during the summer (if you want to get even speedier, consider making one of them an online course).
Spurred to Action
Jay's decision to return to school for his MBA wasn't entirely his own. A chemical engineer, Jay had been thinking about returning to school for years. When he got laid off this spring with a $5,000 stipend to return to school, he figured his time had finally come.
Already his schooling at University of Phoenix has helped him get interviews when he might have been passed over, particularly since a master's degrees in business has become more expected in his line of work as operations manager in a petrochemical plastics plant.
"I've put it on my resume," Jay says. "I'll hear 'Oh, you're getting your MBA. That makes us more interested.'"
Since his degree is online, if he gets a job anywhere in the country or even the world - Jay has interviewed to work in Saudi Arabia - he can continue his schooling. As a resident of hazy, hot, and humid Houston, Tex., Jay also finds summer a great time to start.
"June, July, August, you don't want to stay outside too long," he explains. "This gives me something to do inside instead of me just watching TV."
Through a summer start, students like Jay use education to land on their feet and make themselves more marketable. Others like Felicia also want to improve their career outlook, using the summer to help make degree completion more likely.
4. Having trouble with statistics or another course? Use summer hours to get in-depth tutoring with an "off-duty" professor, a graduate student or even at a learning center.
5. If you don't even have time to take an online class, remember that there are other ways to boost your current/future degree during the summer, too: do some Internet research, visit a school you're interested in or read a book that will help you when school does start again -- in September!
So sharpen those pencils, buy that new notebook, and crank up the air conditioner because back to school doesn't have to wait until the leaves begin to fall.
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