Can I make a confession to you? I didn’t enjoy school growing up. It was right up there with butternut squash on the list of things that I actively disliked. I warmed up to academia by the time I got to PUC, but if you were to go back in time to tell my younger self that I’d have to eventually take summer classes in college (because what else would you do with the ability to time travel?) I can guarantee he would’ve pitched a royal fit.

But I did wind up taking two summer courses while I was a student here, and I’ll be the first to admit I had a good time doing it. PUC offers a range of classes every summer, and you get a 50% discount on tuition as well as housing. “But Jordan,” you say, “it’s the summer! Won’t that get in the way of my plans to unicycle through the Alaskan tundra?” Fortunately, I’ve got good news for you, globetrotter. Most summer classes don’t take more than two or three weeks, depending on the credit hours. So you’ll still have plenty of time for oddly specific vacations, or finding work.

One of the biggest benefits of the summer session is the smaller class sizes. This gives you better access to your teachers, and more meaningful ways to interact with the coursework. Some of the best discussions I had in college happened in the summer section of Dr. Paul McGraw’s Critical World Issues class. There were only eight of us, but every class period was an opportunity to share ideas and expand our perspectives.

It can be a little rigorous, since you’re stuffing a quarter’s worth of classes into several weeks. But I prefer to look at it like diving into a swimming pool rather than walking in one step at a time. I got to the end of the summer classes I took, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I had learned in less than a month.

If you like the sound of a more intimate classroom setting with a laid back atmosphere (offered at half the price), then you might want to consider raking up a few credits during the summer sessions. And if the guy who used to have a “Hatfield and McCoy” relationship with school tells you he enjoyed it, you know it’s something special. You can check out the details and fine print here at http://www.puc.edu/summerclasses.