Hello Math Majors,
I hope you are doing well as we work through the seventh week of the Spring 2023 semester, which is the week before Spring Break. Registration for Summer 2023 semester opened yesterday, so you can enroll in any summer courses that you are interested in (and have the prerequisites to take) now! Additionally yesterday, the schedule of Fall 2023 semester classes was opened, and you should have received your Fall 2023 Priority Registration date and time. As I have written for the last few weeks, now is the time to start enrolling in summer classes and planning for fall classes. I would encourage you to schedule your advising appointment now to avoid delays in getting the help that you need.
Each summer semester, UNL offers classes in a few different sessions lasting three weeks, five weeks, and eight weeks. This summer, the Summer 2023 semester, the schedule of these sessions will be different due to the length of the summer semester being shorter than past summer semesters. During the Summer 2022 semester and previous summer semesters, the overall length of classes was 13 weeks with a one week break between the preceding spring semester and the succeeding fall semester. Last summer, the week between the spring semester and the summer semester had to be eliminated due to the two week Pre-Session for the Spring 2022 semester. With the three week long Pre-Session for the Spring 2023 semester, the Summer 2023 semester had to be shorten or both of the off weeks around the summer semester would have be eliminated. Thus, the Summer 2023 semester will run for a total of 11 weeks.
Since the Summer 2023 semester will only last 11 weeks since of 13 weeks, the schedule of the three week, eight week, and five week sessions will be different from previous summer semesters. Traditionally, the summer semester sessions would lay out as follows using dates from Summer 2019 due to continuous adjustments caused by COVID:
1. Spring Semester Ends (Friday, May 3, 2019)
2. One Week Off (sometimes Two Weeks, which was the case in 2019)
3. Three Week & Eight Session Start (Monday, May 20, 2019)
4. Three Week Session Ends (Friday, June 7, 2019)
5. First 5-Week Session Starts (Monday, June 10, 2019)
6. Eight Week and First 5-Week Session End (Friday, July 12, 2019)
7. Second 5-Week Session Starts (Monday, July 15, 2019)
8. Second 5-Week Session Ends (Thursday, August 15, 2019)
9. One Week Off
10. Fall Semester Starts (Monday, August 26, 2019)
For the Summer 2023 semester and likely for as long as we have a Spring Semester Pre-Session that lasts three weeks, the summer semester sessions will lay out as follows:
1. Spring Semester Ends (Friday, May 19, 2023)
2. One Week Off
3. Three Week & First 5-Week Sessions Start (Tuesday, May 30, 2023)
4. Three Week Session Ends (Friday, June 16, 2023)
5. Eight Week Session Starts (Monday, June 19, 2023)
6. First 5-Week Session Ends (Friday, June 30, 2023)
7. Week Off Between 5-Week Sessions, Eight Week Session Continues
8. Second 5-Week Session Starts (Monday, July 10, 2023)
9. Eight Week and Second 5-Week Sessions End (Thursday, August 10, 2023)
10. One Week Off
11. Fall Semester Starts (Monday, August 21, 2023)
These differences can be visualized in a graphic I made, which can be found here. This changes will make a difference as you plan out summer courses that are in different summer sessions, and you need to be mindful of sessions and classes that overlap.
The changes to the summer semester schedule of sessions has changed the maximum number of credit hours you can take in one semester. The maximum number of credit hours you can enroll in for the Summer 2023 semester is now 14 credit hours, and the maximum number of credit hours per session is as follows:
Session Limits:
Three Session: 4 credit hours
Eight Week Session: 10 credit hours
First 5-Week Session: 7 credit hours
Second 5-Week Session: 7 credit hours
Combination Limits:
Three and First 5-Week Sessions: 10 credit hours
First 5-Week and Eight Week Sessions: 10 credit hours
Eight Week and Second 5-Week Sessions: 10 credit hours
Personally, I would not recommend taking a Three Week Session course and two First 5-Week Session courses. While it would be a very heavy workload, you could take two First 5-Week Session courses, two Second 5-Week Session courses, and one Eight Week Session course (or some similar combination of Eight Week and 5-Week Session courses), but you still cannot exceed 14 total credit hours during the summer semester.
I would be happy to discuss how taking summer classes that overlap will work and how the pace of summer classes typically works. Having taken both a First 5-Week Session and a Second 5-Week Session course while working full-time, I can tell you that one course in a 5-week session will see you being very busy. Thus, you should be cautious when taking summer semester session courses in my opinion.
No Drop-in Advising During Spring Break
During Spring Break and immediately after, there will not be Drop-in Advising on Monday, March 13th, on Friday, March 17th, or on Monday, March 20th. There also won't be any academic advising appointments available on March 13th, 16th, 17th, or 20th. Otherwise, the schedule of advising appointments and drop-in advising will be normal.
For the Spring 2023 semester, I am taking in-person, Zoom, and phone meetings in 45-minute blocks from 8:30 am to 12:15 pm and 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm every weekday outside of my drop-in advising hours, and I am taking drop-in meetings via Zoom only on Mondays and on Fridays from 1 pm to 3 pm.
You can schedule a meeting with me by using the Student Success Hub via this link, by calling the College of Arts and Sciences Academic and Career Advising Center at 402-472-4190, by calling me at 402-472-4319, or by emailing me at dpellatz@unl.edu. You can find instructions for how to access and schedule meetings in the Student Success Hub system here. You can also find information about my virtual only drop-in meetings at https://cas.unl.edu/drop-in-advising-schedule.
Best wishes, Doug
Math Department Events
The Math Department has many upcoming events that might be of interest to you along with a weekly (or almost weekly) colloquium series. A listing of all upcoming Math Department events can be found at https://events.unl.edu/math/upcoming/.
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