Summer tuition has been reduced by 50 percent for students who were enrolled in at least 12 credit hours in the spring and finish this semester in good academic standing.

Tuition will be reduced for students who enroll in six or more lower division credit hours. There are 99 classes in more than 25 departments available to take. Both online and on-campus options are available.

“Now is the time to keep making progress on completing your degree,” said Tim Peterson, dean of Graduate Programs and Academic Outreach.

Peterson said that in addition to saving some money, there are a lot of interesting courses offered in the summer including a number of General Education courses that help fulfill degree requirements.

Classes offered include classes such as financial accounting, cultural anthropology, introduction to art, and college algebra.

There were 3,334 students enrolled in 12 of more credit hours as of the spring 2015 census date who may qualify for the savings if they have an overall 2.0 cumulative GPA by the start of summer sessions.

“We hope that all of the students who are eligible for the summer savings will take advantage of this opportunity,” Peterson said, “but we obviously won’t know how many will actually do so until the summer sessions begin.”

Peterson said enrollment in lower division summer courses have declined since the federal government discontinued the summer Pell Grant program several years ago.

“Some students have also reported that the lack of scholarships has deterred them from enrolling in the summer,” Peterson said. “We hope that the pilot summer savings program will allow these students to accelerate the completion of their degrees via the summer sessions.”

Peterson said that while the summer savings program is not restricted to freshmen students, their retention rate historically lags behind those of other students.

“Research has shown that students who complete at least 30 credit hours during their first year of college are more likely to finish a degree,” Peterson said. He said he hopes summer courses can help them achieve that essential milestone.

Peterson said once they have confirmed that students who have enrolled in six or more lower division credit hours have met all the requirements for savings, the 50 percent savings will be applied. He said that should happen beginning the last week of May.

There are three sessions for the summer semester that classes meet for: early session, full session and late session. The early session runs from May 26 to June 25. The full session is from May 26 to July 16. The late session is from June 29 to July 30.

Advanced registration began on April 6. Students need to contact their major advisor to secure a summer enrollment PIN. For students who haven’t yet declared a major, they can consult an academic advisor at (785) 670-1942 or send an email to [email protected].

More information can be found at www.washburn.edu/summer.

Will you take a class this summer? Let us know in the comments and in our poll.