BU Summer Term Home > High School Students > High School Honors > Courses > Choosing Your Course

We encourage you to contact us if you have any questions about which summer college courses or academic programs to choose, or if you are not sure what you are best prepared to take. We have a lot of experience and we might be able to recommend a combination that will be fun, interesting, and most useful to you when you get to college.

We've put together the following list of tips for selecting your summer college courses:

• Courses within the 100-200 levels are your best bet. They are the most likely to help you complete your freshman year course requirements or get ahead on college major prerequisites. Courses at the 300 level and higher are college sophomore level and up. A few 300-level or higher courses (especially in Film and Television and Art) may be appropriate for you. If you want to take one of these courses, contact us, and we can discuss your options.
• Do not sign up for a course if it has prerequisites you have not taken (this is especially true for science courses: for example, Physics II requires Physics I).
• Make sure that your courses do not meet at concurrent times.
• If possible, avoid taking more than one evening course. They may conflict with other (fun!) activities.
• Do not sign up for a course that you will take in your senior year of high school for AP credit, since you will not be able to transfer credits from two of the same class to a future college. For example, if you will be taking AP Biology, then do not take Biology I.
• Remember that these courses are intensive, as the term is only six weeks long. We suggest taking a balanced schedule - one academically challenging course, and another course that you may already have some experience with. We'll check your courses when you register and call if we think you might be headed for an overly stressful summer.
• Please remember when choosing your courses that your final grades will go on your transcript and will count towards your GPA if you attend Boston University for college. These grades are permanent and cannot be removed.
• Keep an open mind! If you cannot find exactly what you want, or if you have trouble with scheduling conflicts, think about trying a course that will offer a different experience. Now is the time to try out all of those subjects they don't offer in high school (or subjects you may have thought you would never find interesting). You may discover that you love astronomy!
• Courses can be switched during the first week of class (until Monday, July 7). There will be set hours the first week of classes for you to consult the program staff about changing courses.