Summer Term Distinctives

A number of questions attend the purpose and effectiveness of the Summit Oxford Summer Term. Up front, it must be noted that it is not equal with the other terms. Food costs will be approximately half, though travel expenses are likely to be equal or perhaps greater (due to the time of travel being summer). The following table summarizes the structural differences.

The Summer Term presents several advantages:

• It is less expensive than a full term.
• It requires less of a time commitment.
• It provides access to the various Oxford libraries, including the Bodleian.
• It provides 90% of the worldview intensive with Kevin Bywater.
• It is at a time of the year more accessible to students who otherwise have term schedules and curricular calendars that disallow them from participating in the fuller terms during the normal school year.

The questions one must ask and answer to determine whether the Summer Term is best suited to the student are:

• Is it a matter of timing? If a students’ curricular schedule does not permit participation in a full term, then the Summer Term would be the only viable option. However, one must determine if the advantages and disadvantages warrant the financial expenditure.
• Is it a matter of cost? The overall cost of the Summer Term (including tuition, travel, and food) is estimated to be $9000 less than a full term.
• What does the students want to achieve from a term in Oxford? In particular, is the student more interested in the worldview intensive (due to Kevin’s or Summit’s reputation), or in the Oxford tutorial experience? If the latter is the reason, then one would benefit much more from one of the full terms. If the former is the reason, then rest assured that students will enjoy a serious and sustained worldview intensive during the Summer Term. However, given that time in Oxford is 50% of the normal term, the mentoring relationship will be somewhat diminished, and the time to ruminate on what is being read and discussed may be truncated.