Credit: DKS Editors

Senior psychology major Lauren Wiggins said she is taking summer classes just so she can graduate in August. It’s not her first time taking summer classes, but it is her first full summer schedule, she said.

Of the undergraduates enrolled at Kent State’s main campus this summer, a little more than half are seniors – at 54 percent. Juniors make up 20 percent, sophomores 12 percent and freshmen 14 percent, according to figures compiled by Linnea Carlson, institutional research and information specialist for the department of research, planning and institutional effectiveness.

Wiggins said she took summer classes before “just to hurry it up.” However, this summer she’s taking her last psychology, biology, and writing-intensive courses. She said it’s rough for her because all her classes are upper division.

Sophomore chemistry major Ashley Haynes said she’s taking summer classes because she needs the credits to reach junior standing.

“If I didn’t, then I’d have to take them in the fall and I’d be a semester behind,” she said.

Haynes said she moved into an apartment in Kent this May so she could take summer classes and said she’s glad to be taking them now because there aren’t as many distractions.

An overwhelming majority of summer students are female – 61 percent of undergraduates and 70 percent of graduate students. More women are enrolled in general at Kent State.

Approximately 8,000 students are enrolled in summer classes at Kent State’s main campus, and of these students, 60 percent are undergraduates and 40 percent are graduate students.

Students majoring within the College of Arts and Sciences make up 24 percent of enrolled undergraduate students this summer.

The College of Education, Health and Human Services is second in enrollment with 20 percent of undergraduates and the College of Business Administration is third with 15 percent. These numbers are comparable to the sizes of the colleges.

“The distribution is basically the same,” Carlson said in an e-mail.

In proportion to Fall 2007, the number of students in the colleges of Architecture and Environmental Design, Communication and Information, Nursing and Undergraduate Studies has increased slightly. However, enrollment in the colleges of Arts and Sciences and Education, Health and Human Services has decreased slightly, Carlson said.

Contact principal reporter Kristen Traynor at [email protected].