Montana State encourages students to consider enrolling in summer classes

BOZEMAN — As Montana State University continues its efforts to help students succeed, university officials are encouraging students to consider taking summer classes.

Summer classes can help students get ahead, help them get caught up or open the doors to additional opportunities, according to Ryan Anderson, provost’s academic leadership fellow at MSU.

“There are important ways summer classes can help students,” Anderson said. “First, summer classes can help students get ready for college or prepare them for a major; they can help students get ahead. They can also help if a student has had a tough semester and needs to get caught up. Finally, summer classes can also open up some doors. If students know they want to get ahead, potentially graduate earlier, pursue a double major or study abroad, summer classes could help them do those things.”

No matter why students enroll in summer classes, Anderson said, the goal is to keep students on track to graduate with their degrees in four years or less.

To give students a variety of options, summer classes at MSU are offered both in-person and online. Class terms vary in length from four to 12 weeks.

“We want students to be able to balance classes with other things that might be important to them in the summer, such as work,” Anderson said. “Having flexibility really helps them overall.”

This summer, the university will offer more than 500 sections of 379 unique courses, according to the MSU registrar’s office. Most of those classes are offered to undergraduate students.

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Tony Campeau, MSU registrar, noted that class sizes in the summer are often smaller than during the fall and spring semesters. He added that some summer students have said they like the faster pace of the courses, particularly those offered through the Bobcat 4x4 program, which are just four weeks long.

MSU also offers a series of science and mathematics courses designed for pre-med students, Campeau said.

“The variety of courses offered and the flexibility they offer in the summer allows students to either catch up or get ahead as they plan toward a degree or pick up a minor or second credential,” he said. “Students can even explore a new topic area that maybe they wouldn’t have time to do in the regular school year.”

Students are invited to view lists of available courses at the following links:

Information about enrolling in summer classes is available at https://www.montana.edu/registrar/add_drop_summer.html. MSU’s summer calendar can be accessed at https://www.montana.edu/registrar/calendar.html.

To learn more about summer classes at MSU, visit www.montana.edu/summer/.