It ought to be noted that not all schools have summer school, or summer school chemistry courses. In the high school environment, many campuses only offer classes to students who have to make up a poor grade in a subject, and they don’t have classes for students who want to advance their studies. Enrollment in summer school may be limited to students with poor grades to save costs. The classes offered wouldn’t be counted at full semester or quarter weight either, but a good grade in one, might elevate a bad grade earned the previous year, usually by one grade level.
In contrast, there are some schools that have summer school chemistry classes for students who simply want to learn about the subject or advance their studies. Some high schools have summer enrichment programs that allow people to study a variety of subjects. In this case, there still may only be one or two classes to choose from, and students interested in chemistry would take those courses that focus on it, or focus on related disciplines like biochemistry.
Students really interested in having a year’s full credit for chemistry would still probably need to go to a local community college and take a summer school chemistry course on campus. Unless the student has already completed an advanced placement introductory level chemistry course, he or she would take the standard intro to chemistry class, which usually counts as a full year of chemistry studies in high school, and which fulfills part of science requirements that apply to students getting their Bachelor degree.
Should students have already completed intro to chemistry or AP chemistry, they could take a more advanced course. If they’re planning on majoring in chemistry or biochemistry at the college level, they should consult with an advisor on campus to see which courses would be open to them, and which ones they’ll need to fulfill all requirements for either of these majors. Note that some community colleges won’t award college credits for summer school chemistry classes to students under a certain age. Students should verify that they’ll get full credit for these extra studies.
High school students who have graduated, or current college students can also benefit from taking summer school chemistry either to fulfill a science requirement or to advance studies. As with those cases already mentioned, beginning students usually start with Intro to Chemistry, and students with more chemistry classes under their belt may have a wide choice of advanced topics to study.
Like in high school, summer school programs in college usually don’t have the same variety as those programs offered during the regular school year. However, some schools have fairly extensive summer school enrollment and may offer quite a few classes from which to choose. It really depends on each school, and of course choosing a class also depends on the goals that each student wishes to fulfill.
