Summer Programs

Ideally, summer is the time to do some wonderful things that you don't have time for during the rest of the year. The typical student thinks of summer in terms of pleasure or profit (hanging out or earning a little extra cash)--but you're not the typical student. You're ambitious.

Some ambitious students use the summer to take classes that they do not want to do in the fall or spring (perhaps they think the courses are too hard or too boring, or maybe there is a scheduling conflict that won't go away). This is a workable plan, but it is not ideal. To a degree, our summer-time course taker is missing a crucial insight that is quite clear to the student who is relaxing at the beach:

Use the summer for things you cannot do in the fall or spring.

If you do this, you might not get done with your courses as fast as the student who is completing DEC courses in the summer, but you have a better chance of becoming a standout.

If you must take courses, perhaps, you could do an interesting field archeology course or pursue some other intriguing topic you have never had time for.

Some students use their summers very profitably to gain research or health-related experience. Some students travel in the summer.

If you have a timetable that you absolutely must follow so that you can graduate as soon as possible, so be it. Just remember that the students who "step to smell the roses" and have new experiences might wind up being more interesting that you appear to be!

Lots of web sites have summer program information. One of them is explorehealthcareers.org.