News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Some 3,100 students are attending Tennessee Tech this summer, many of them expecting to find a faster way to achieve their educational goals.
Associate Registrar Brittany Copley says many students choose summer courses at Tech as a more affordable way to advance their education at other institutions. She said the summer semester offers a faster paced way of completing classes. Copley said some students may prefer the faster pace of summer courses, which condense 15 weeks of content into as few as five.
“I think there’s definitely a lot of reward in getting it done quicker,” Copley said. “So, instead of, you know, sitting in a classroom 3 hours a week for 15 weeks, they can sit in a classroom for, you know, five days of a week and get that content covered.”
Copley said that another factor for choosing summer classes may be the smaller student to teacher ratio, which may help boost their GPA and assist them with maintaining scholarships.
Assistant Director of Admissions Ted McWilliams said over half of the 3,100 students attending summer school this year are undergraduates. He said that in many instances, these are transfer students picking up electives not available at the schools they come from.
“In many instances, there are some business electives that they’ll get there. A lot of the nursing students, if they’re transferring in, some of the community colleges may not have had some of the prerequisites for the upper division. So, probably some nursing classes in there. I know some students, especially engineering students like to see if they can go ahead and get calculus or calculus II, some of the engineering math, out of the way.”
McWilliams said that the summer season also means that students have more time to enjoy the natural beauty of the Upper Cumberland area.
“They like to enjoy, you know, some of the outdoor programs too,” McWilliams said. “Our recreation center, if you’re a tech student, you can, for around fifteen to twenty dollars you can outfit yourself with kayaks and tents and all the rest of the stuff and head out for the weekend.”
