Of course, winter breaks during college provide an excellent chance to relax, visit family, and eat all kinds of delicious food. But did you know it’s also an ideal time to take an extra course through OU’s Intersession program?
OU’s Intersession classes, which are held in both the winter and spring following the regular 16-week semesters, run for four weeks. Some of the courses are offered on campus in Norman, while others are taught online.
Intersession courses provide a great opportunity to take advantage of OU’s flat-rate tuition policy, where students pay for 15 credit hours a semester even if they take additional classes beyond that. Other benefits include gaining credit hours to balance a semester work load or taking the opportunity to work on a minor.
This winter’s slate of courses covers a broad range of topics, including Understanding Comics, Intro to Personality, Volcanoes and Earthquakes, and everything in between. One popular course offered during Intersession is 9 Things Every College Student Should Know About Money, taught by Brad Burnett, Associate Vice President for Enrollment and Student Financial Services.
The two-credit hour course, which is offered through OU’s University College, is designed to give students a basic knowledge of personal finance and money management, covering topics such as saving, credit cards, investing, credit scores, buying a home, and other monetary issues that directly affect college students and graduates.
The course is open to students of all ages, and right now, around 600 students a year are taking the course, Burnett said.
According to Burnett, the Intersessions see the largest enrollments because of flat-rate tuition and the fact that it’s 100 percent online, so students can go home for the holidays and still take the class.
“The Intersessions are awesome because of the compressed timeframe and the ability to focus on that course,” Burnett explained. “You don’t have the suite of courses that you’re taking where you have to balance them, so you can really dig in.”
Burnett called the class “a life-success course” that provides skills applicable to students for the rest of their lives.
“We think it’s vital for students to be successful. If you look at student success, it’s one piece. There’s academic and there’s social, but there’s another leg to that three-legged stool,” Burnett explained. “We like to say in the class, ‘It’s not who has the most money, it’s who manages the money that they have most wisely.’ Just because you don’t have the most money doesn’t mean that you still can’t be successful. You just have to put a little management into it and make good decisions as you go.”
Click here for more information about the 9 Things Every College Student Should Know About Money course, or visit OU’s Intersession page to see more of the classes being offered to OU students this winter.
