What I will cover here is what the semesters are and why it could be advantageous.
My university offers something called intersession which is the first half of the spring semester. You're not taking a full course load (5 or 6 courses) during this time as the courses run on a different schedule, for example your French class offers lectures 3 times a week but that one French course has two 1.5 hour lectures a day or maybe the course has 1 hour lectures Monday to Friday. Labs I believe are increased to about 2 times a week.
The other seven weeks for those not taking the full spring semester my university calls the summer semester. I believe it runs the same scheduling as the intersession.
Now the spring semester runs for the same amount of time as the fall and winter semesters and is pretty much the same format as those semesters (7 weeks of lectures/labs, mid-term break, 7 more weeks of lectures/labs, exams).
The reason to take courses in the spring/summer the way I see it is to get rid of some courses that are necessary or some electives so you have a chance of finishing your program a little early (or catch up if you somehow switched your program). Maybe you failed a course/did poorly the first time and the course is being offered again during this time. Sometimes a course is only available during the spring/summer
An example of a course available over the summer (I think this applies to arts students. I'm not sure if this applies to the other fields but there may be something similar) is a summer program in which you can spend a month expanding your field of study at another school/university. My university I know offers courses where one can visit places like Spain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia. Note that depending on the size of the department and interest in these programs determine the frequency of their occurrence (and some trips may be specific only to a certain instructor). If you have the money and time for an experience like this go ahead and do it; you may not get another chance by the time you graduate and also these programs can knock off some credits.
Anyways that's all I have to say about this. Anything that I'm missing just ask me or point it out.
(note: at the time I wrote this I signed up for a summer program in Russia so my viewpoint on this may change once the event has happened)
The other seven weeks for those not taking the full spring semester my university calls the summer semester. I believe it runs the same scheduling as the intersession.
Now the spring semester runs for the same amount of time as the fall and winter semesters and is pretty much the same format as those semesters (7 weeks of lectures/labs, mid-term break, 7 more weeks of lectures/labs, exams).
The reason to take courses in the spring/summer the way I see it is to get rid of some courses that are necessary or some electives so you have a chance of finishing your program a little early (or catch up if you somehow switched your program). Maybe you failed a course/did poorly the first time and the course is being offered again during this time. Sometimes a course is only available during the spring/summer
An example of a course available over the summer (I think this applies to arts students. I'm not sure if this applies to the other fields but there may be something similar) is a summer program in which you can spend a month expanding your field of study at another school/university. My university I know offers courses where one can visit places like Spain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia. Note that depending on the size of the department and interest in these programs determine the frequency of their occurrence (and some trips may be specific only to a certain instructor). If you have the money and time for an experience like this go ahead and do it; you may not get another chance by the time you graduate and also these programs can knock off some credits.
Anyways that's all I have to say about this. Anything that I'm missing just ask me or point it out.
(note: at the time I wrote this I signed up for a summer program in Russia so my viewpoint on this may change once the event has happened)
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