Choosing Your Summer College Courses

We encourage you to contact us if you have any questions about which summer college courses or academic programs to choose, or if you are not sure what you are best prepared to take. We have a lot of experience and we might be able to recommend a combination that will be fun, interesting, and most useful to you when you get to college.

Below is a list of tips we put together to help you select your summer college courses:

  • Students are required to register for two courses, up to eight credits, but no less than six.
  • 100-200 level courses are your best option. They are the most likely to help you complete your freshman year course requirements or get ahead on college major prerequisites. Courses at the 300-level and higher are college junior level and up. A few 300-level or higher courses may be appropriate for you such as political science and management. If you want to take one of these courses please contact us and we can discuss your options.
  • Do not sign up for a course if it has prerequisites that you have not taken (this is especially true for science courses: for example, Chemistry 102 requires Chemistry 101).
  • Make sure that your courses do not meet at concurrent times.
  • If possible, avoid taking more than one evening course. They may conflict with fun and mandatory activities.
  • Do not sign up for a course that you will take in your senior year of high school for AP credit, since you will not be able to transfer credits from two of the same classes to a future college. For example, if you will be taking AP Biology, then do not take Biology I.
  • Remember that these courses are intensive, as the semester is only six weeks long. We suggest taking a balanced schedule - one academically challenging course, and another course that you may already have some experience with. We'll check your courses when you register and contact you if we think you might be headed for an overly stressful summer.
  • Keep an open mind! If you cannot find exactly what you want, or if you have trouble with scheduling conflicts, think about trying a course that will offer a different experience. Now is the time to try out all of those subjects they don't offer in high school (or subjects you may have thought you would never find interesting). You may discover that you love astronomy!
  • Please remember when choosing your courses that your final grades go on your transcript and count towards your GPA if you attend Boston University for college. These grades are permanent and cannot be removed.
  • Most colleges and universities accept Boston University transfer credits, but you should consult each individual institution to confirm that this is the case.
  • Courses can be switched during the first week of class (until Monday, July 9). There are set hours the first week of classes for you to consult the program staff about changing courses.

  • All Summer Term courses are assigned a college and departmental code, a three-digit course number, and a section identifier. For example, CAS EC101S B1 means that the course is offered in the College of Arts & Sciences (CAS), by the Economics Department (EC). The course number 101 indicates it is an introductory course, the S indicates it is a summer course, and section B1 indicates it is offered in Summer 2. Please see Course Numbers for further information on the numbering system.