Entry #5: Ready, Set, Go!

My time at my community college will be coming to an end in the near future, and because of this, I have been looking into my options of universities to transfer to. I live in Arizona, and like many other students, one of the colleges that I am considering attending is ASU.

I recently ran into an article called Arizona State University to offer more short classes which talked about increasing the amount of 7 and 1/2 week courses to be made available for students. I love this idea! As a math major and lover of math, I quickly grasp the concepts that some struggle to understand. Because of this, I find that I usually get bored in the normal 15 week course, and I need more of a challenge.

The article states that although ASU does not intend to rid the system of the traditional semester, they intend to significantly increase the amount of the shorter course option making it possible for people to graduate with a bachelor's degree in 3 years, rather than 4. I am all in favor of this. I truly would love to get my experience in my necessary courses and run with it.

Although I love this idea for math courses, there are definitely other subjects that I would prefer to take in the full 15 weeks in order to have a full grasp on the concepts presented.  With that said, everyone learns differently, so what may come easily to one person, may not come as easily to another. So how do you know if taking a shortened course will be beneficial to your learning style?

In order to know if a 7 and 1/2 week course will work for you, it is important to take into consideration the quickness of your learning in the subject area. It's also important to understand that the class will not only take twice the time to meet in person, but the weekly homework load will be doubled as compared to a week of the full length class. If you pick up on learning new information quickly and have the time to put into it, a shortened class may be extremely beneficial to you, but if you require more time and have less time to put into your homework, a full-length class may be the way to go.

Of course, we don't all have these options as we go into our future universities, but it seems that this may be a fast spreading concept. Look into it! Knowing that I can finish my degree a year earlier has already put me in favor of attending ASU, but I will continue to do research to see if this is an option at the other universities that I am interested in and if it interests you, I urge you to do the same. Good luck, and happy university hunting!