Tech introduces Maymesters

Photo by Brenda Lin/Student publications

Students looking to attend Georgia Tech’s summer class program will have a new option beginning May 2020: the “Maymester.” This program will offer compact, three credit-hour courses taught over 15 instructional days, May 11 – 29, as an alternative to Tech’s longer summer programs, which are Early Short session, May 11 to June 12; Late Short session, June 17 to July 21; and Full Summer session, May 11 to July 21. Applications for summer sessions, including the new Maymester, begin on Mar. 23 and last until May 15.

According to the official press release by the summer sessions office, “in-state students’ tuition cost will be $341.93 per credit hour, while out-of-state students will pay $1045.67 per credit hour,” which is on par with all other summer sessions. Since each class is worth three credit hours, in-state students will pay $1025.79 per class, and out-of-state students will pay $3137.01 per class.

The courses offered for this inaugural Maymester run are ECON 4180 “Game Theory,” HTS 2100 “Science and Technology in the Modern World,” INTA 2050 “Introduction to Global Development,” LMC 3214 “Intro to Science Fiction,” ML 2500 “Intro to Cross-Cultural Studies,” MSE 2001 “Principles and Applications of Engineering Materials”, MUSI 3630 “History of Jazz,” and PSYCH 1101 “General Psychology.” Students can also access this schedule at http://summer.gatech.edu/content/maymester.

The aim in implementing Maymester as a part of Tech’s summer sessions is “to provide students with an alternative to taking courses during the longer summer and regular academic year semesters,” which allows “students more room for other academic and professional experiences during the summer, including study abroad programs and internships,” according to the press release. Dr. De Morris Walker, director of Tech’s Summer Sessions Initiatives, said on the kinds of classes available that, “[W]e aimed to offer courses that either fulfill a core graduation, major or minor requirement”. He later remarked that his office will look at this first Maymester and how it has worked for students, saying, “We will also assess if the term does in fact serve a population of students who would not participate in summer otherwise”.

When asked about the inspiration for the Maymester program, Dr. Walker said, “GT currently offers three parts of term for summer classes — full summer, early short and late short. We noticed that these terms may not serve all students interested in taking courses in the summer. For instance, students who have an internship or co-op position that begins in June may not be able to enroll in either of the existing parts of terms. We found that other USG [University System of Georgia] schools and several peer institutions offer Maymester or three-week parts of terms to create additional opportunities for students to enroll in summer sessions”.

The official press release for Maymester also encourages potential transfer students to attend this shortened summer session: “Students who would like to visit from other institutions this summer are invited to apply to attend Georgia Tech as a Non-Degree seeking student by February, 2020”. “Attending Tech in the summer can also serve as a recruiting tool for students who might consider transferring to Tech or pursuing graduate study here, but aren’t currently students here,” said Dr. Walker on the impetus behind advertising to that demographic.

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