Ten years of Maymester

Most courses at Carolina take about four months to complete. But once a year, the University offers a way to finish a three-credit-hour class in three weeks.

Now in its 10th year, Maymester, which usually begins the Wednesday after Commencement, gives students the opportunity to earn course credit before summer officially begins.

Each of the 50 courses offered during Maymester meets for about three hours, five days a week, allowing students to focus on one particular subject. Maymester has tripled in size – both in the number of students signing up for courses and the number of courses offered – since it began in 2007.

For students like Megan Hardy, a senior taking an anthropology course, Maymester provides a condensed and immersive way to take a class without the pressures of managing the workload from several courses at the same time. And that’s not the only feeling she’s taking away from her Maymester course.

“You feel so accomplished at the end of it that you learned a whole semester’s worth of material in three weeks,” Hardy said. “It’s so great.”

By Rob Holliday, UNC Office of Communications and Public Affairs