Does coming in with AP/IB credits typically mean graduating early or taking different classes?

@StewyGriffin‌, personally, I’d add a masters if possible instead of another major.

I’ll be graduating a year early - I came in with exactly 30 credits from 9 AP exams and 1 dual enrollment course. My Honors advisor told me that a lot of students who come into my University’s (state school) Honors College with a semester+ of AP credit graduate early despite scholarship money that covers 8 semesters of study.

I’ll be 20 when I graduate and I plan on moving to Europe (dual citizen of EU) and living/working there while I prepare for graduate school admissions exam(s). Advisor said that other students who are interested in pursuing graduate school graduate early so that they can enter the workforce and save up some money/gain work experience to sort of solidify their desire to go to med school/law/masters etc and make it slightly more financially feasible for them.

I often see arguments against graduating early because college is supposed to be an important part of becoming an adult and one has their whole life to work but the culture of my specific university doesn’t foster that same sort of “experience” - my school is very much just an institution focused on educating the student body and granting degrees. Everything else is sort of an after thought. (They’re working hard to change that but I doubt it’ll change in the near future.) I probably wouldn’t be interested in graduating early if I was going to, say, a LAC and living on campus, but alas, I do not.

My plans might change - I’m certainly tempted to take lighter semesters and graduate in 4 years instead of 3 but as of right now my degree plan is three years (two years after this semester is over.)

@Preamble1776, which college are you in?

My daughter took 4 years to earn her undergraduate degree (accounting - 2 1/2 years) and her MBA (1 1/2 years - she finishes this May.). She is to thankful that she earned so many credits in high school that she was able to do this. She is very ready to be done with school (well almost since this summer will be spent studying for the CPA exam) and classes. College was fun, but she isn’t going to miss it.

Note that another option besides 6 or 8 semesters is to graduate in 7 semesters if you feel that 6 is too rushed but 8 is too long.

YMMV depending on jobs/career paths.

Some may not want someone with a Masters without work experience to go with it and others may regard the MA negatively as they feel they may need to “pay more” for the Masters entry-level candidate over the bachelors only candidate.

Also, Masters programs vary greatly in quality as well.

For instance, some grad programs for Masters or even PhD programs at some schools had syllabi which were equivalent or sometimes had less work/rigor than undergrad programs at more respectable/elite colleges/universities.

@cobrat, there are various specialized programs that are only offered at a Master’s level. In any case, I’d explore.

I don’t know where you get the idea that people would react negatively to a masters, though. I haven’t seen it, most companies understand that many/most masters grads won’t have much work experience, and at worst, they just pay them the same as a bachelors grad.