By Guadalupe Santos-Sanchez, Staff Reporter
Financial Aid will be offered for intersession, said Lee Carrillo, senior director of Financial Aid.
Students do not have to apply separately to receive financial aid for intersession, the FAFSA application for 2014-2015 is the only application that needs to be completed, he said.
How much financial aid a students receive depends on the hours they enrolled in and their eligibility, he said.
“Tuition for intersession courses is the same as full term courses for each individual student,” said Yolanda Pacheco, associate director of Academic Advisement and Job Connection Services.
Intersession will be from Dec.29, 2014 to Jan.18, 2015, she said.
Intersession is a term in between regular semesters in which select classes are offered in a condensed format, she said.
It provides students with the opportunity to shorten their time to graduation, she said.
“The majority of intersession courses are only offered as 100 percent online or as a blended course,” Pacheco said.
There are some courses that are offered in person, according to cnm.edu, these courses are offered in the Main, Montoya, and Rio Rancho campuses.
Most intersession courses are two weeks, but it varies and depends on the credit hours of the course, Pacheco said.
The schedule of classes at cnm.edu will show exact dates, she said.
Courses are currently listed for the dates Dec.29 to Jan.18, Jan. 5 to Jan.11, Jan.5 to Jan. 18, and Jan. 12 to Jan. 18, according to cnm.edu, meaning that courses are 3-weeks, 2-weeks, or 1-week long.
“I think it’s a good idea because a lot of students might just need that one class to graduate so they just take it during that term and they’re done,” said Lucy Santos, Early Childhood Multicultural Education major.
Students who do not want to spend three or four months on a class can also take it during intersession and get it out of the way, she said.
In person classes are only offered at some campuses, which can be an inconvenience, she said.
“If they are going to offer classes, they should do it everywhere so that it will be equal and everyone has an opportunity to do it,” she said.
The exact time frame depends on the individual course, Pacheco said.
Courses range from being three hours long to being eight hours long, according to cnm.edu.
The length of an intersession course varies, again based on the credit hours, Pacheco said.
“However it is estimated that for a 3 credit hour course a student will be expected to commit 65 – 70 hours per week to successfully complete the course,” she said.
This is because the student is covering the same amount of course work, reading, and assignments in a few weeks that he or she would be covering in a regular semester, she said.
“It has to be condensed, I mean they have to get all that info in just a couple of weeks you just have to dedicate a lot of time in those two weeks,” Santos said.
Students give up their holidays, so they have to make sure that they are willing and able to sacrifice that, she said.
But it saves you from spending a whole semester in a class, and the main point of intersession is to save time and graduate faster, she said.
“Blended courses range from 51 percent to 99 percent online,” Pacheco said.
The amount of time spent online and in class depends on the individual course, she said.
Condensed online courses are probably not a good idea, Santos said.
“If you’re online you start slacking off, at least in the semester you got time to catch up but in a condensed course you only have two weeks and no time to slack off,” she said.
For in person classes, a student knows that they have to show up and do the work, she said.
The CNM Schedule of Classes at cnm.edu can be a bit confusing at first glance, said Michael Faulhaber, Health, Wellness, and Public Safety instructor.
For example, as it pertains to Health 1001 courses, he said.
“Being that the class is a blended course there are two sets of dates: the first set is the start and finish dates of the course and the second is the week in which the skill labs meet,” he said.
Pacheco said she would refer students to Schedule of Classes at cnm.edu to find out whether a course is being offered online or in person, and on what campus.
