Alongside returning home, working or landing an internship, some University of Michigan students spend their summers taking classes, sometimes outside the University. Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor is one such alternative, offering numerous courses transferable to students’ U-M transcripts.
MATH 115: Calculus I is a prerequisite for multiple U-M majors, so students often take the course’s WCC equivalent, MTH 191. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, WCC mathematics professor Mohammed Abella said his MTH 191 students often appreciate the more personalized class environment.
“A lot of them say they come to WCC because of the personal attention that they get,” Abella said. “They get more personal attention at WCC than they do at any four-year college, not just (the) University of Michigan.”
In an interview with The Daily, LSA rising senior Alejandra Smith said she believed WCC courses’ smaller class size would have made asking questions easier.
“It’s a lot more hands on, because the classes tend to be smaller,” Smith said. “I took economics at U-M, and I really wish I’d taken it at WCC because the lecture hall had like 500 people in it, and I felt like if I had a question, it was a lot harder to ask. If I had taken (economics) at WCC, there would have been maybe 20 to 30 people in my class.”
Abella said WCC regularly meets with the University to ensure course curriculum aligns across the two institutions for smooth credit transfer.
“We are in constant communication with the University of Michigan to see exactly what their curriculum is,” Abella said. “And yes, we do meet. They told us (when meeting), these are the topics we want, and we teach the same topics, and we meet with them on a regular basis. It used to be like once every five years or so. They look at what we are doing, they look at the exams, they approve it and that’s how it has been since I came to WCC.”
In an interview with The Daily, Mike Stowe, LSA coordinator for student communication and engagement, said classes transferred from other institutions such as WCC may take additional time to be recognized by the University, which can delay the registration process for upper-level classes that require prerequisites, such as those in economics.
“The most common occurrence for that would be taking Calculus I over the summer as a prereq to ECON 401, which is the first core class in economics,” Stowe said. “If a student is registered for Calc I (at the University), they can just register for ECON 401 in the next semester, because the system has ways of checking to see if they passed it. If they’re registered for that course (at a) community college, instead of being able to register for the fall course in April, they may have to wait until August.”
LSA also requires that no more than 60 of the 120 credits used to graduate are transfer credits. Stowe said this requirement can present another logistical challenge for U-M students, especially transfer students intending to register for summer classes at a community college.
“It’s more common that (transfer) students, if they want to take courses at WCC, may be facing more limitations in terms of the course,” Stowe said. “(The course) might still count to be a prereq, which is a common reason students take courses, but it might not be contributing to the 120 total credits they need to graduate.”
Smith said it is important to work with an academic advisor to determine whether WCC summer classes are transferable.
“I feel like all of my classes at WCC were transfer-friendly and easy to manage,” Smith said. “I think I only took one class that was non-transferable and I was told beforehand that it was non-transferable by an advisor. But it’s important that you work with an advisor, because (if) you honestly like working alone, you can mess up and you can add a class that won’t transfer.”
Daily Staff Reporter Kayla Lugo can be reached at klugo@umich.edu.
