Since coming back to college last year, I, like all upperclassmen, have been carefully charting my path to graduation. With the end of the semester just a few weeks away, students here at SXU are picking out classes, tailoring their schedules towards their academic needs, all while attempting to stay on track or possibly make up lost ground, when it comes to their number of credits.
For students willing to sacrifice a little extra time and money, a great way to do this is to enroll in May term or January term courses. These courses, offered over summer and winter break, are a great way for students to quickly earn a handful of credits in just a few short weeks.
Speaking from experience, these courses, although fast paced, are incredibly convenient and helpful when it comes to staying on track with your academic goals. The unfortunate caveat being the price of the courses themselves.
For the 2023 school year, January and May courses will set your wallet back about $525 per credit hour or $1575 for a three credit course. Not including the price of any textbooks or softwares you may be required to buy.
In order to qualify for Summer financial aid, students must fill out both their 2022-2023 FAFSA as well as the Summer financial aid form under the financial aid tab in their student portal. In previous years, summer financial aid was limited to leftover Pell Grant money from a student’s fall and spring semesters.
However, according to the SXU website, “Congress has expanded the Pell Grant program allowing Pell eligible students additional summer Pell grant eligibility.” Meaning that students with access to Pell Grants, may use them to pay for summer courses, regardless of whether they’ve reached their limit during the Fall and Spring semesters.
January term courses, which run from December 11th to January 7th are less varied than their summer counterparts, focusing for the most part on required courses such as COMM 101, Religious Studies, as well as introductory courses in a variety of other majors.
While the length of summer courses can vary from three weeks to three months, January term courses all run for four weeks in order to coincide with winter vacation. Making these classes more intense and faster paced than summer courses.
In all my research for this article, I haven’t been able to find any information on SXU’s website pertaining to financial assistance for January term courses. Although as somebody who had to pay out of pocket for summer courses during the previous term, I sincerely hope that SXU makes it easier for students to take advantage of the opportunity these courses present, regardless of their ability to pay.
As for navigating the financial cost of these courses, it’s important to do your research, fill out the proper forms, have discussions with the financial aid office if need be, and most importantly, familiarize yourself with the drop/withdrawal rules so you don’t end up having to pay an outrageous balance out of pocket, should you have to drop a course.
So as we approach the end of the semester and begin to see the graduation stage in the distance, I think it would be a good idea for many of us to take advantage of these courses. Whether it’s to graduate earlier or simply make up for lost ground.