Students find summer classes more intense than expected

Jennie Herriot
Published: Monday, July 21, 2003

It’s summertime and the living’s easy - but not as easy as many students taking summer classes at UCLA thought it would be.

Students who choose to take regular UCLA classes in one of two condensed six-week sessions often find the classes more intense than classes taken during the regular academic year – despite a presumption that summer courses are easier.

Jessica Houts, a fourth-year English literature and Spanish linguistics student, said she thought summer school would not require much work, but she found that assumption to be far from the truth. Her two English classes kept her busier than she would have liked.

“Teachers should realize that it is impossible to read a 515 page book and write a six-to-eight-page paper on it in one week,” Houts said.

Houts said she had hoped summer would be more relaxed than the academic year but soon realized her summer was likely to be just like the rest of the year.

It’s no wonder students feel this way – summer school classes follow the same curriculum as the courses taught during the regular school year, said David Unruh, assistant provost for summer sessions and special projects.

“The intent is for them to be the same,” Unruh said, but adding that some classes are inevitably different.

Despite students’ complaints about the increased intensity of classes, sometimes summer classes like English composition can’t require the same number of papers as during the regular academic year, Unruh said.

Gaston Pfluegl, a summer session lecturer, agreed with students that summer classes are intense.

“Students don’t have very much time to learn everything,” he said.

Unruh explained that from the students’ perspective, missing one class during the summer is equivalent to missing more during the academic year.

“You can fall behind very quickly,” he said.

Students take only one or two classes during the summer, allowing them to focus on a more demanding class, Unruh said. Taking fewer classes also “balances out the intensity,” he said.

Bekkah Schear, a fourth-year mass communications student, explained that she found ways to cope with the increased intensity.

“We have to be way more academically committed,” she said.

Still, Schear added that though her summer classes were more difficult, she found them more exciting.

The intensity of summer sessions does not only affect students; faculty members say they feel the strain too.

Pfluegl, who is currently teaching Life Science 2 and 4, lectures for four hours every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Another summer session issue centers on the make-up of the summer school faculty.

A few of the summer classes are taught by different faculty members than those who teach them during the year, a factor that many students said does not affect the quality of the education.

Pfluegl is one of a handful of these instructors; some of his qualifications include conducting research at UCLA’s Microbiology Institute since 1994, though his current title is lecturer.

The majority of summer classes are taught by the same people who teach the course during the regular school year, Unruh said, though some classes are taught by visiting professors and advanced graduate students.