A lot of students take courses here that have nothing to do with their career plans or with their regular academic work. Susan Gens, a psychology major at Clark University in Worcester, is taking courses in photography and expository writing this summer.

She is enjoying both of them, she said yesterday. In one case she likes the work a lot, and in the other, she likes her teacher even though she's not really crazy about the subject.

"They're not pressured courses, but they're very time-consuming," she said. "I enjoy them."

Gens said she decided to come here this summer because she wanted to "do something productive for the summer." She didn't really have to get a job, she said, and since she could afford the tuition here and wanted to come, she did.

(She did spend the first month of the summer selling ice cream off a cart, but she said she didn't even make minimum wage--a warning to would-be ice-cream vendors.)

Gens knew one or two people before she came here, but she has not spent a great deal of time with them. Instead, she has gotten to know the people in her entryway, and has spent much of her spare time with new friends.

One of the things Gens likes about photography, she said, is that it's easy to mix work and play, "I try to go places and do things and take pictures while I'm there," she said, adding, "It's nice not having the academic pressure."