For four years in the 1990s, as soon as I returned to campus from winter break, I started Interim .

Does your school offer Interim? It's a concentrated academic session for the month of January. (Some colleges call it January term or J-term.) In one month, you take one class—usually for four hours a day, five days a week—and receive full credit.

I loved Interim. Not only was it a welcome break between the fall and spring semesters, it offered an opportunity to study intensely and independently.

My first Interim class was—I'm not kidding—"American Family Folklore ." It fulfilled an English requirement, but not much else. Hey, I was a freshman and in the last group to register. My options were limited.

During Interim of my sophomore year, I tackled a four-credit American Government class. My friends, slightly less ambitious, took aerobics. Turns out I should've joined them: About halfway through (and the night before an exam), Operation Desert Storm  began. Completely transfixed by the happenings on CNN, I called my professor at home and told him that I couldn't take the test. He was kind enough to give me an extension, but he told the whole class about it. I didn't live that down for the rest of my college career!

As a junior, I finally got it right. I traveled to England and Scotland to study literary landmarks with my favorite professor and a small group of fellow English majors. In Stratford-upon-Avon, we saw "Romeo and Juliet"  and "Henry IV, Part 1"  performed by the incomparable Royal Shakespeare Company . We studied the poetry of Sir Walter Scott in Abbotsford and Robert Burns in Edinburgh (doesn't his "Address to a Haggis"  sound so much more appealing when it's read in a Scottish accent?). In the Lake District, we wandered the hallowed grounds of Dove Cottage  (William Wordsworth's home) and hiked to Hill Top Farm  (Beatrix Potter's home). Among all the castles and cathedrals and abbeys, I decided I wanted to be a professor of English literature. Obviously, things changed.

My final Interim was spent in "Light in the Darkness: Courage and Evil in the 20th Century." This was my Capstone class, required for every senior and designed to "encourage students who are concluding their college experience to wrestle with issues of meaning and moral value." Three of my favorite professors—one in English, one in Government, and one in Religion—taught this class, which had a special emphasis on the Nazi Holocaust. We read "Night"  by Elie Wiesel and Albert Camus' "The Plague."  We viewed the films "Cabaret"  and "The Killing Fields."  We took a weekend trip to Minneapolis to talk with Holocaust survivors at a Jewish community center. It was the most intense and emotional month I had at college. Fourteen years later, my school is still offering this course—and with the same three professors.

Are you studying at a college with an Interim period? Is it worth your while—and your money?