Learn more about how you can use your time over the summer to further your course of study in physics and astronomy. 
Colgate does not offer any summer courses, though many students remain on campus throughout the summer to conduct
high-level research with faculty members.
If you are interested in supplementing your course of study at Colgate with courses taken over the summer, it is possible to do so with courses at other institutions, subject to some very strict guidelines and requirements. The quality of instruction in summer courses at other institutions can vary tremendously: to grant Colgate credit, we must be sure that the summer course is equivalent to the corresponding Colgate course in
content,
workload and
standards of achievement.
Please be aware that our standards are high. You should consult the guidelines here, your
faculty adviser, and the
registrar to ensure that you are on the right path when enrolling for summer courses.
Please refer first to the university's
transfer of course credit policies. Also, submit the
acceptance of procedures form. Then, review the following guidelines:
- Permission to take a physics summer course at an accredited 4-year college or university for Colgate credit must be obtained from the Physics and Astronomy Department Chair before you take the course. You must provide the following documentation to the department to evaluate the summer course: the summer catalogue showing the course number, title and short description; hours of class and lab meetings; syllabus; and name of the textbook. The syllabus may be from a previous summer.
- Each course should meet for a minimum of five weeks and 40 classroom hours, which is comparable to the corresponding Colgate physics course. The 40 classroom hours exclude scheduled exam periods. Thus, a five-week course should meet for eight hours per week.
- Each course should have a laboratory that meets at least 10 times, for at least three hours per meeting, to be equivalent with Colgate’s lab expectations. Courses that do not have at least 30 hours of scheduled laboratory time will not receive the Colgate laboratory 0.25 credit, but courses that have 20 to 29 hours of scheduled laboratory time will still receive the designation “with laboratory” on the transcript.
- Students who demonstrate competence by scoring a "B" or better in the summer course will automatically be granted Colgate transfer credit by the Registrar’s Office. Students who receive a summer course grade below “B” will not receive transfer credit. However, students who received a course grade between “B-“ and “C” may request to take a two-hour equivalency exam given at Colgate during the first week of the fall semester. (Students who will be off-campus during the fall semester can either arrange in advance to take the exam at Colgate within three weeks of completing the summer course or during the first week of the subsequent spring semester.) Students must receive a grade of "C" or better on the equivalency exam in order to receive transfer credit. The exam will be equivalent in level and coverage to the final exam of the corresponding Colgate course.
The above guidelines are meant to apply primarily to courses which are not required for concentration in Physics or Astronomy. Concentration credit is another matter, and any such requests must be treated with special care.