Ep. 68 - Everything to Know about Winter Intersession

In Episode 68 of the CSUSB Advising Podcast, academic advisor John Noriega chats with Veronica Martinelli, Senior Program Specialist at CSUSB about everything you should know about Winter Intersession 2024! How many units can you take? Is financial aid available? When do you register? Find out in this episode!

For more information, check out the CSUSB Winter Intersession website!

E-mail: winterintersession@csusb.edu 

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Transcript

John Noriega  
Hello and welcome back to the CSUSB Advising Podcast for episode 68. My name is John Noriega, and I'm an academic advisor at California State University. San Bernardino. On today's episode, we have the wonderful Veronica Martinelli, Senior Program Specialist from the College of Extended and Global Education who will be talking to us today about winter intercession. Veronica, welcome. 

Veronica Martinelli  
Thank you. I'm glad to be here. 

John Noriega  
Thank you for joining us today. I know throughout some of my advising appointments and meetings, questions about winter intercession have come up multiple times, and we would love to answer some of those common questions that students may have about winter intercession. I would love to get started with the first question, when do winter intercession classes start and how long is the term?

Veronica Martinelli  
Winter intersession begins December 22 of 2023, and it ends, January 17 of 2024 January 17 is your is your finals day? So the last day of instruction is January 16.

John Noriega  
Now, another question that has come up is, are winter intercession classes the same amount of units as classes in the fall or spring semesters?

Veronica Martinelli  
So, yes, so it's a regular semester class, you can take up to four units. Most classes are three units, but if you have a lab, you may have an extra unit. That's why we love four. But it's the same units. If it's a three unit class during fall and spring, it's a three unit class during winter intersession. The only difference is that you have three weeks to get a full semester completed. But it's also great because you get you have three weeks to get over and people students really like it, because they're able to get that prereq. So sometimes you need the prereq to get into your next class, but if you can take it during winter, then you're a semester ahead, because you didn't have to wait until fall or spring to get into it. So students like to take that a lot for the prereq, or to get ahead like that.

John Noriega  
Yeah, it is a compacted session. So some students will think, Well, if it is a three unit class, you know you're expected to be there for those three or four weeks of instruction, it's going to be compressed. There's going to be an accelerated course. But if it's only one class, you can do that in in that winter, break right and catch up with the prerequisites, stay on track with graduation? I see it as a benefit.

Veronica Martinelli  
I do recommend that if you are not doing well in your classes in fall, or you are having difficulty that you do not take winter intercession, yeah, it is very fast paced. It's like I said, three weeks and you're having difficulty in a 15 week class, then you I mean, we don't want to hurt the students. We don't want students to in any way. We don't want to set them up for failure. So if you are having difficulty during fall or spring, then winter intercession is probably not the best session for you to take.

John Noriega  
Yeah, and especially because of the limit, right? With the four units being the limit that you could take over the winter break, we don't want to overdo that, because that could be a lot for three weeks of instruction, right? But one other factor when we're thinking about classes is the financial aspect of that too. One question that's come up is, is financial aid available for the winter intersession?

Veronica Martinelli  
So financial aid is not available. However, you can use any remaining financial aid from fall. So if you did not accept all of your fall financial aid, or you have some in the bank for something that for your financial aid. And what happens is, if you go in and accept any more fall financial aid, they will the campus the university will send you, send the student a check or the money and or could be direct deposit, and the student will then have to go and pay their their tuition fees, right, right? So, however, we do offer what's called a winter assistance discount and a Graduation Initiative discount. The winter assistance discount is we pay up to 50% of your tuition, and it is on a first come, first serve basis, and there are limited fund funds available. And last year, you know, registration starts at 12:01am, yeah. Yeah. So it starts at 12:01am and we ran out of funds by 945 in the morning that same day. Wow. And what I do want to say is I'm not at work at 12:01am and sometimes I'm not in control of registration. And if there's any mistakes that happen during that time, or it doesn't open, or whatever, I won't know till like eight o'clock in the morning. So the best thing is send me an email, because even though the winter assistance discount is by first come, first serve, and you may not be able, you tried to enroll, but you couldn't I do take the emails that I received with anyone who's have any student who had an issue where they couldn't register for some reason, not because you have a hole that you didn't take care of, but immigration wasn't open or there was an error. I do take the time stamp from their email, okay? And that's how I determine their registration, because they were trying and so, but you must send me an email. Don't send me one at 10 o'clock in the morning and say, Hey, right, right at that time, because that's how I'm going to put you in order. So it is at a first come first serve, it is limited funding, and we, we don't increase the funds.

John Noriega  
Yeah, so the timestamp is really important. I would say as soon as you know, students register for classes, any issue that comes up during that again, it's the midnight time, right? We're not going to be checking emails, but that time stamp is important. Can we get the date again on when winter registration begins? And that time again, Veronica?

Veronica Martinelli  
So winter registration begins, November 13, and it is for all students. It is open enrollment, so the community an Open University student can enroll. There's no priority registration, so seniors don't get priority over sophomores. It's just 1201, it opens, yeah, and so. And then I didn't finish about the winter assistance discount and the Graduation Initiative discount. So the winter assistance discount, there are the eligibility requirements that are on our website. You can look at those, and you will know it will help you if you're eligible also then the Graduation Initiative discount that is only for soon students who are graduating in winter. So if you're not graduating in winter, you're not eligible. And academic success and undergraduate advising will be reaching out to the students who are eligible to graduate, so there is not an application process for either of the discounts. But unless you're graduating in winter or think you can graduate in winter, you're not eligible for the winter graduation discount. So if you have questions, contact that one and again, so again, so the winter graduation at discount. That also is that is just like the summer gig Graduation Initiative Grant, but It's same for summer, except you don't have to apply. It does pay 100% of your tuition. You still can only take the four units, but it doesn't pay for books, or if you have an extra class, like a class fee of, you know, a lab of $30 or whatever, it only pays the tuition, but it's 100% of the tuition.

John Noriega  
Yeah, and, and that will be for for this winter tuition, is what the winter graduation initiative would cover. We left out the word fees, because the benefit of winter intercession is that there's no fees. Is that right?

Veronica Martinelli  
That is correct. So at least campus fees, yeah, there are no non resident fees. Yeah, international students, they don't have to worry about paying the resident the non resident fee, or anything like that. So it's a straight $320 per unit for undergrad and $340 for post bac.

John Noriega  
Good to know the cost per per unit. Now thinking about for those folks who are planning to register as soon as possible and would like to be considered for the winter assistance discount, how soon would students be notified if they are eligible for the winter assistance discount?

Veronica Martinelli  
So we do determine eligible? The week of November 20, okay? And then we will apply the discount. That's just automatically, we apply it to your account, and so students who did receive it will see it on their account. And we do send out letters by the end of the following week, because November, the week of November 20 is Thanksgiving, right? Very short period of time. We want to get it on the students accounts so that they know, and you know if you see it, then you have it, and then we'll just notify you the following week.

John Noriega  
Definitely a reason to give thanks before the winter or the before the Thanksgiving break, right? And Veronica, I'm thinking about those two who might not be eligible for the winter assistance discount or the winter Graduation Initiative, because I know some questions come up, are there payment plans available for the winter intersession?

Veronica Martinelli  
No, there is not. It's too short of a session. Yeah, your payment plan.

John Noriega  
Gotcha. Gotcha. So it's all one lump sum paid there by the deadline. Now, we touched a little bit about this earlier, but if, if a student is new, let's say they're an incoming spring 2024 student, because we're getting some new transfer students, right, and they probably want to get a head start. They want to go ahead and start this winter intersession. Which department should they contact if they're not again right now, matriculated as a student or an incoming transfer? Who should they contact if they're interested in going in, registering for a winter intersession class?

Veronica Martinelli  
So those students, anyone who is not matriculated, would take Open University. Gotcha. So again, they don't admit anyone to the winter. So normally, like, I know in summer, you can do it, but what they do in summer is they admit you for summer, but we don't admit anyone in winter. So you would take us through Open University.

John Noriega  
Open University, wonderful. So yeah, for any of those that are new students, definitely a great chance to get a head start on and taking one class over the winter. And Veronica, this is wonderful information again. Thank you for this. If there are any other questions after today's podcast, are there is there a contact information email that students can reach out in case they have any follow up questions.

Veronica Martinelli  
So they can go to our website, which is csusb.edu forward slash, winter intercession, all one word. Or they can email us at winter intersession, all one word@csusb.edu or edu, or they can call us at 909-537-3978, there's also flyers around. You'll see us tabling outside. So there's flyers that have all of the contact information, and we're also there to assist with any questions.

John Noriega  
Yeah, your team is doing a wonderful job on advertising that, placing that everywhere on campus with your contact information. So I truly appreciate that. I appreciate your time too on today's episode, and can't wait to feature this information to all of our students. But Veronica, thank you so much for being on our podcast today, and until next time.

Veronica Martinelli  
May I add one more thing, I am getting questions from students at the tabling sessions about they're confused on the fees and how they apply because summer they had to pay the full amount if they only took three where I just want to reiterate that this is per unit. It's not a flat fee, it's per unit. So if you take two units, it's 320 per unit, for you know, and three then it's just 320 per unit, or 340 per unit. And so some students have been questioning that. So I just wanted to make that clear. It's great that the students aren't confused. We want to make sure that everything's as clear as possible for them.

John Noriega  
Absolutely no. And thank you so much, Veronica, I think after today, all the questions that we've kind of provided and more, of course, that your team will be happy to answer, I feel like we've been able to clarify some of those doubts and concerns on their episode today. So again. Thank you so much for being our podcast today and until next time.

Veronica Martinelli  
Thank you very much.