Bryn Mawr College

Summer School

Summer School at Bryn Mawr

Bryn Mawr offers summer courses in General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry and Calculus. These courses are divided into two five-week sessions. Many of the students in these courses are drawn from Bryn Mawr's PostBaccalaureate PreMedical program, but there are also small numbers of Bryn Mawr undergraduates.
 
Through the Russian Language Institute, Bryn Mawr also offers intensive language studies in Russian, from the elementary to the advanced level. These courses are divided into two four-week sessions. The RLI is coeducational and counts among its students undergraduates from Bryn Mawr and elsewhere, as well as graduate students and teachers.
 
Grades in summer school classes at Bryn Mawr are included on Bryn Mawr transcripts and in Bryn Mawr GPAs. Summer courses at Bryn Mawr also count towards the residency requirement. However, they are also subject to the ordinary limits on summer school courses: i.e., no more than two units of credit may be earned per summer, and no more than four units of credit may be earned through summer courses.

Summer Study Abroad Sponsored by Bryn Mawr College

The College sponsors summer programs abroad in Avignon, France, and Pisa, Italy. The Institut d'études françaises d'Avignonoffers a six-week program of intensive advanced work in French literature and culture. The program is open to male and female undergraduate and graduate students from other colleges and from Bryn Mawr. Some of the courses carry graduate credit. Summer study in Pisa offers 6-week intensive courses in elementary, intermediate and advanced Italian, as well as courses on the Italian short story and art (taught in English).
Courses at Pisa and Avignon are often taught by Bryn Mawr faculty and are always taught and graded according to Bryn Mawr standards. Therefore, grades from these courses are included on Bryn Mawr transcripts and in Bryn Mawr GPAs. However, these courses do not ordinarily count towards the residency requirement.

Summer School Elsewhere

Many students choose to take summer courses at other institutions. If you decide to take a summer course with the intention of transferring the credit towards your Bryn Mawr degree, you should keep the following things in mind:
 
Bryn Mawr will only confer transfer credit for liberal arts courses taken at a 4-year college or university in which you obtain a grade of 2.0 ( C ) or better.
 
One Bryn Mawr unit equals 4 credit hours. Many courses at other institutions are only 3 credit hours. However, if the summer course you wish to take is 3 credit hours on the semester system and at least four weeks long, Bryn Mawr will "round up" the course and accept it as equal to 4 credit hours. If the summer course you wish to take is offered on the quarter system, the class has to be 5 credit hours in order for the credit to be transferred towards your Bryn Mawr degree.

It is your responsibility to find out how long your summer course is, how many credit hours it carries, and whether the class is on the semester system or the quarter system. If you have any questions about this, consult the registrar at the school at which you plan to take the course.

Online courses, internships, and fieldwork courses that do not involve papers and exams are not awarded transfer credit.
 
Courses taken at colleges or universities abroad that are not part of an approved study-abroad program are usually not accepted toward the undergraduate degree.

Like other transfer credits, summer courses taken through institutions other than Bryn Mawr are not factored into your GPA. Summer classes at Penn are treated as transfer credit.

Students may transfer up to four units of credit for courses taken during the summers. No more than two units may be transferred from any one summer. If a student takes a summer course at Bryn Mawr, this is not considered a transfer course, and the grade she earns will be counted towards her GPA.

Use Summer Courses to Fulfill Requirements

Major requirements: If you wish to use your summer course to fulfill a major requirement, you should consult with your major adviser or the chair of your department before enrolling in the course. In these cases, it is recommended that you obtain your adviser's signature on a transfer credit approval form, which you can pick up in the Registrar's office. It is highly unlikely that a summer course taken at another institution will be accepted as fulfilling a requirement for a 300-level course.
 
Divisional and quantitative requirements: Students are often attracted to the idea of taking a summer course to fulfill a division requirement. In particular, many students think that it will be easier to take a lab course or a quantitative course when they will not have three other courses competing for their time and attention. For many students, this plan works well. For some students, however, the intense amount of class time per week and the quick pace demanded by a shortened semester makes a summer course more difficult than a course taken during the regular fall and spring terms. Before enrolling in a summer course, students should consider their own learning styles and their history with similar material in the past. If a student will also be working during the summer, it may not be a wise idea for her to take a summer course. If you are unsure about whether a summer course is a good plan for you, consult your dean.
 
Once you have decided to take a summer course to fulfill a divisional requirement, please consult with your dean and the registrar. You may need to show the course description to a Bryn Mawr professor in order to determine if the summer course is comparable to a similar course offered at Bryn Mawr. In this case, you should have the professor sign a transfer credit approval form, which you may get from the registrar.
 
Foreign Language Requirement: If you are studying a language taught at Bryn Mawr or at Haverford, the foreign language requirement will not be fulfilled simply by taking intermediate-level courses at another institution. If you do take such courses, you will ordinarily need to take a Bryn Mawr exam to demonstrate your proficiency in the language. If you are studying a language not taught at Bryn Mawr or Haverford, you will need to take a proficiency exam through the Penn Language Center , or through arrangement with some other university. If you have questions, consult your dean.