Sharpen Your Skills
Looking to get an 'edge' on your first year? The UC Merced Summer Edge Program is FREE and open to all incoming UC Merced students! This non-credit online program is designed to prepare UC Merced students for college-level chemistry, computer science, math, and writing courses. Through a combination of asynchronous and live interactions with instructors, mentors, and other participants, you will build your academic skills, campus knowledge, and sense of belonging at UC Merced.
Benefits of Participation
- Designed to meet your needs: Enroll in College Mathematics Readiness, College Writing Readiness, College Chemistry Readiness, or College Computer Science Readiness. You may take as many as you'd like depending on your needs and schedule.
- Useful: Sharpen your math, chemistry, writing, and programming skills in preparation for university-level work.
- Efficient: Spend less than 24 hours per week for six weeks (approximately 7-8 hours for each class).
- Gear up for success this Fall: Through weekly College Readiness workshops and support from fellow UC Merced students, you'll have a head start in understanding the requirements and expectations of being a UC Merced student and the resources available to support your success.
- Start to build community through your Edge discussion group for each class -- your small group of 20-25 students serves as your first Bobcat Community.
- Courses do not affect your GPA. Focus on learning -- not grades. You'll learn the strategies and skills needed to be successful in future courses.
- It is free for all incoming first-year UC Merced students!
Smart Use of Time
Your time participating in Summer Edge is less than 24 hours per week (7-8 hours per class), so you'll still have time to also work part-time, take a course for credit, or follow another additional pursuit this summer. For each class, students can expect the following schedule each week:
- 1.5 hours of pre-recorded instruction
- 2 hours (spread over the week) of live support workshops in your discussion group of 20-25 students
- 1 hour of live College Readiness workshop activities
- 2 hours of classwork and assignments
- 1 hour per week connecting with your community, including social and group meetings, office hours with instructors, and other interactions
Focused on Skills for Academic Success
Summer Edge courses are non-credit, do not appear on your UC Merced transcript, and your grades do not impact your UC Merced GPA. This means you can focus your efforts on learning the skills and strategies needed to be successful in UC-level computer science, math, or writing courses.
Summer Edge Course Descriptions
COLLEGE MATH READINESS: This course is designed to prepare you for college-level mathematics coursework. It is taught so that you will acquire a solid foundation in Algebra and Precalculus. Emphasis is placed on understanding the properties of linear, polynomial, and rational functions. You will learn to work with various types of functions in symbolic, graphical, numerical, and verbal form. This course also includes materials about how to learn mathematics. You will learn tips for studying math, mental models to more effectively structure your math learning and the cognitive science behind math student success.
COLLEGE WRITING READINESS: This summer experience is designed to help you prepare for engaging in writing classes at UC Merced, focusing on fostering critical thinking and cultivating effective habits of mind, setting a strong foundation for your overall academic career as a University of California undergraduate student. It will include an accelerated review of writing practices, including writing process and analysis of texts, and expository writing and revision. The course prepares students for college-level writing.
COLLEGE COMPUTER SCIENCE READINESS: This course is designed to prepare you for introductory computer science coursework at UC Merced, focusing on programming, computational thinking, and problem-solving techniques. Elementary programming skills such as variables, I/O (input/output), conditionals, and loops will be covered, using Python as the main programming language.
COLLEGE CHEMISTRY READINESS: This course is designed to prepare you for foundational chemistry courses at UC Merced. It includes elementary concepts of volume, mass, energy, density, temperature, and periodic trends, as well as the fundamentals of atomic and molecular structure and of states of matter.
COLLEGE READINESS WORKSHOPS: This series of weekly one-hour workshops focus on the skills and resources you need to be a successful university scholar, from time management and study techniques to locating resources on campus and managing your finances. All students who enroll in one or more Summer Edge courses are automatically added to the College Readiness Workshop course in CatCourses; this way you have access to the materials even if you cannot participate in the live online workshops.
Placement Exams & Assessments
Students who succesfully complete a Summer Edge class (or classes) will have the opportunity to (re)take the placement test (Math, Chemistry & Computer Sciences) or placement assessment (Writing) at the end of the program!
Build Connections
Build connections with other students, faculty, and staff members through activities intended to introduce you to the expectations and opportunities available to you at UC Merced. An opportunity to meet other Summer Edge participants in person will be provided at the start of the fall semester.
Updated 02/18/2025
