<p>Here's my situation, I am an in between a freshman and a sophomore with 21 college credits 9 short of a full sophomore. I am entering a 4 yr university this fall with 21 college credits and a full load of 15 credits in the fall. I need 120 college credits to graduate and I have 99 college credits left to fulfill. I am wondering how can I graduate college in 3 yrs and how can I complete all my requirements for a Liberal Arts degree. I have a goal of wanting to complete college in 3 years and work on my graduate nursing degree.</p>
<p>It depends on your school. Yes, it’s possible to get to 120 credits by 3rd year but you need to meet with an advisor to see if you can fulfill all your requirements. Sometimes pre-reqs make it impossible to graduate early because you need to fulfill x, y, and z courses before you can take course q. This sometimes makes it impossible to finish in 3 years.</p>
<p>Absolutely. You sound like me as a freshman. </p>
<p>My school (Binghamton University) requires 126 credits to graduate, with a normal semester load equaling 16 credits (4 classes at 4 credits each). I came in with 23 credits, so close to a semester and half’s work. My APs removed my lab, math, humanities, and social science general education requirements. They also gave me one major requirement fulfilled.</p>
<p>I proceeded to take one summer class worth 3 credits (but nothing else, no gen. ed, no major reqs.), one winter course worth one credit (nothing else), a spring seminar in bankruptcy worth one credit (nothing else), and one extra gym course during my third fall semester (2 credits plus one gen. ed fulfilled). That equalled the extra credits I needed to make 126 in 6 semesters without overloading.</p>
<p>Advice- figure out what number of credits you need to take per semester if you wanted to graduate on time (4 yrs) and then the difference for graduating a year early, and then see if you can make up credits by overloading/summer/winter courses and spread it out as much as possible. Next, see what requirements you can combine into the same course. I combined two of my gen. eds together to cut back on a course. I was required to take a certain number of writing courses that I combined with gen. eds and major reqs. Next, see if any incoming credits meet major requirements. This didn’t really help me since I took more courses for my major than I really needed (I took them because they were interesting, not because I needed them), but it can help you. Lastly, if you can begin taking major courses right away, do so. This will make it easier to get it all done. Some schools prevent this however, so make sure its possible. </p>
<p>This last thing will probably make or break an early graduation, so if you are undecided, it will make early graduation more difficult. </p>
<p>Note: I decided to stay a full four years for my own reasons, but I could have graduated an entire year early.</p>
<p>Map out your required courses for the next three years, taking into account prerequisites and when classes are offered. It can be tedious, but it’s definitely worth it.</p>
<p>Then, if you can fit them into three years, see how many units away from the graduation requirement you’ll be. You will need to go above 15 units some terms or take summer courses.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>I am looking at wanting to graduate in 3 yrs so i can focus on Graduate Nursing school. I know I’m allowed to take a max of 17 credits per semester, though a standard is 15 credits. I want to graduate in 3 yrs with two summer school sessions at a local community college. Is it possible to fulfill the 99 college credits I have left in 3 yrs</p>
<p>depends on school, program, how much are you willing to cram/pay extra for the class. a combonation of those and other possible factors</p>
<p>Note that you have an intermediate option between graduating in 6 semesters versus 8 semesters: graduate in 7 semesters.</p>
<p>You will probably need summer courses to accomplish this, otherwise I think you’d realistically be looking at 3 years and a semester. </p>
<p>If you’d prefer to be home for the summer (to save money on housing, work, whatever), it should be possible for you to take some of your general education requirements at a local community college over the summer and then transfer them. You’ll just have to speak with your adviser about how to set it up.</p>
<p>Well if you need 99 credits in 3 years, that’s 33 credits a year…so 16-17 a semester. If you just overload slightly, or take a couple summer classes, then yeah, it sounds like you could do it in 3 years.</p>
<p>The way I was thinking is take a 15 credit load for the fall semester and spring, which would give me. Which would give me 51 by the end of the academic yr on top of my 21 incoming credits. Then in the summer take 4 summer classes in the summer of 2013 and by next fall 2013, would put me in Junior yr with 63 and by the end of my Junior yr in 2014, I would be at 93 credits and well within senior yr in 2014</p>