Students will have a chance to get an extra few hours of credit when Mississippi State University offers a winter intersession for the first time in January.
The intersession, which is scheduled for Jan. 3-13, 2006, with final exams Jan. 14, will be held as a trial, associate provost Jerry Gilbert said.
Students may take only one course during the intersession, and tuition will be charged on a per-hour basis, he said.
Financial aid for the intersession will be grouped with spring semester financial aid, he said, and students will register for intersession courses when they register for their spring semester courses.
Timothy Chamblee, head of the university committee on courses and curricula, which decides which courses should be added, modified or deleted, said one of the committee’s big concerns when deciding which courses should be taught during intersession was that upper-level, in-depth courses would have too much material to cover in two weeks.
“The UCCC sat down and developed a set of criteria to use to decide what sort of courses would be used,” he said.
The committee decided that courses taught during intersession should be cousres considered to be: technical or skilled, preparatory or remedial, study abroad courses that include a travel component, or courses that fit a shortened format.
Junior floral design major Rebecca Bemrich said she thinks intersession courses are a good idea in case people need extra credits.
She expressed doubts, however, about the variety of courses offered. “A lot of them didn’t look like they actually count toward a major except as an elective,” she said.
Bemrich, who isn’t sure whether she’ll take an intersession course, said the only one she would consider taking would be floral design because it relates to her major. The overseas courses also looked interesting, she said.
Junior management of construction and land development major Blake Southward expressed similar views.
He said he thought intersession was a good idea, but that the courses offered defeat the purpose of holding it.
“It appeals to so few people,” he said.
“I just think it would be better if they had classes that more people needed to take,” he added.