5 ms·
College doesn't take four years now. I finished in 3. AP credit from high school, 2 summer sessions, and a few extra courses was all it took. Anyone ambitiou
by edw519 17y ago
College doesn't take four years now. I finished in 3. AP credit from high school, 2 summer sessions, and a few extra courses was all it took.
Anyone ambitious enough can do it. The first thing to do is stop thinking like the crowd.
Default thinking is for most people, but not everyone. I suspect most people here already know that.
- tokenadult 17y agoWhat was your major? Can any entering freshman with no previous courses in the major department finish in three years? (That was barely possible for my major at my alma mater, back in the 1970s.) Were you working to pay your bills while going to college? That makes a difference for a lot of students too. Props to you for doing something besides the default.
- steveplace 17y agoIt depends if you're willing to take classes over the summer as well, it's certainly possible.
- tokenadult 17y agoWillingness to take classes during the summer can be constrained by the necessity of working for expenses during the summer.
- scott_s 17y agoAlso by what classes are offered during the summer. In the computer science departments I've been in, junior and senior level classes aren't offered during the summer.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- jacquesm 17y ago> since my last name begins with "W", I had trouble getting classes in almost every other department. Why on earth would that be a factor ?
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- tokenadult 17y agoThe students had registration priority in alphabetical order, of course. At my alma mater (where my oldest son currently takes dual-enrollment classes), the registration order is rotated through the alphabet each term, so that over time every family name is favored at least once. I think this is more fair, even though our family name is near the beginning of the alphabet.
- yummyfajitas 17y agoI did much the same thing. 1 year at community college, 2 years at university, graduated with a BS in math/physics. It's been a while so I don't remember all the details, but I'll roughly sketch out how it works. Year 1: Calc 1 during the summer, calc 2 fall, calc 3 and 4 concurrently in the spring. Take other standard intro courses (Physics 1-2, Chem 1-2). Goal of year 1: make sure no prereq requirement stops you from doing year 2. Year 2: Basic senior level/grad courses (quantum mechanics, math methods, functional analysis) and whatever other grad courses are offered. Fill in distribution requirements. Year 3: Whatever other senior/grad courses I missed and fill in assorted distribution requirements (literature, intro prob&stat, etc). I think the main trick is to take hard courses first. Then you can load up on credits without doing much work (my senior year I took 36 credits, which was nowhere near twice as much work as 18 credits). For example, stat mech (in year 2) was hard. Thermo took about 4 hours of work: 2 hours refreshing stat mech before each test. (For those who weren't physics majors, statistical mechanics == derive thermodynamics from first principles.) In short, it's doable. You need to know your major and plan ahead, but it's eminently doable. The hardest part is fighting with the beaurocrats who will try to stop you.