Does finishing college in four years matter to you? I heard a statistic that the majority of recent college grads have been in college for at least five years, and that finishing in four years has increasingly become a rarity.
Personally, I want to finish in max four years. If I could graduate in three years I’d do it. If I could finish undergrad in three years and then go on to finish to law school (as I plan to), I’d become a lawyer at 23. That would be awesome. Earlier the better.
Now, I WANT to do that. But in all likelihood, for whatever reasons, I WON’T be able to do that.
Does it personally matter very much to you to finish undergrad as soon as possible? Or are you willing to spend five or maybe even six years undergrad in order to get the best and very most out of a college education/experience?
<p>It does matter very much that I graduate in four years or less. I skipped a grade in elementary school, so I'm already a year younger than my peers. I dunno, I guess I just want to get the whole schooling experience over and done with in the shortest amount of time possible. </p>
<p>Then again, if I do pursue a Master's or PhD, I'd still want to rush through it quickly.</p>
<p>for me, no. i plan on doing co-op, and the university i'm going to has a co-op program where you'll get your degree in 5 years, but you get about 2yrs work experience with that, which can be beneficial when it comes to finding a job. i'm graduating high school a year early, but i don't really have that same feeling of wanting to get through college quickly. I think doing co-op will keep me from becoming restless because i won't be studying all year. </p>
<p>I might go to grad school, depending on what engineering major i choose (haven't decided yet), but i still think the work experience will still be good because i'll have a good connection with the company i co-oped with, so i'll have somewhere to go for summer internships, and they might give me a job once i finally get out of college altogether, and if i'm lucky, they might even pay for grad school.</p>
<p>it's a cruel cruel world out there. why cut in line? I finished hs a year early only because i was bored out of my mind, but cut my college experience short?! nah-uh. These are (have been) the best years of my life. It's already half over for me, and I am already mourning the fact that I only have two years left. It might seem hard now, because all of us have had 10+ years under our belt inside a classroom, and we just want to get out, but when you have 40 years in the workforce, you'll wish you could have been in school longer.</p>
<p>It's only important to me 'cause my family can't afford to keep spending 45K a year on me any longer! Seriously though, I plan on enjoying college to the fullest and I definitely won't want to cut it short. Grad school's a bit of a different story -- I'm sure there'll be a point then where I just want to get out into the real world -- but I definitely won't want to rush it 'cause I'm gonna want to be really well-trained.</p>
<p>The sooner I graduate, the sooner I can get a job on Wall Street...</p>
<p>I'd like to finish in under four years, though I doubt I will. But there's no way I'll let myself graduate in more than four; I'll take summer classes if I have to.</p>
<p>I have some friends who are finishing in 3 with the credits they came in with, mostly because they're putting the money towards grad school that they're saving on the yar less in undergrad. But I know many many people who could graduate in 3 years who are staying for 4. College isn't like high school. In HS, you can't wait to get out. In College, you'll be having a blast the whole time, assuming you find a good fit for you.</p>
<p>My school also has a 10 semester rule... if you're staying longer than 10 semesters, you have to petition for that right.</p>
<p>I was one of the very few at my university who cared about graduating quickly ("quickly" here means four years, not three). I went to a state university and the average graduation time currently hovers around six years with just over forty percent of the student body never graduating at all. To me those numbers say lack of guidance and lack of focus rather than desire to prolong the experience of academic enlightenment. (if you like academics, library cards are much cheaper than tuition, and if you really love taking classes auditing/sitting in as a special are much cheaper) </p>
<p>If you are going to enroll at a state school, particularly one of the giant, bureaucratic flagship institutions, you will need to keep track of your own progress toward graduation. At my university very few students had contact with their advisors more than twice during their whole undergrad stay; many did not know who their advisor was; degree requirements were extremely convoluted and changed frequently; required classes were often closed by the time many students were able to register; instructors never never never mentioned timely graduation as a worthy goal; graduation time was not an issue most students ever considered; and most of my friends graduated with at least $40,000 debt (which is a lot considering in-state tuition here was only about $5,000 a year).</p>
<p>If you want to hang around in college past the four-year mark, then go for it. However, make that be a conscious choice rather than something you just fall into. Reasons given on my campus for late graduation included fear of going forth into the "real world"/getting a job, not wanting to have to begin repaying loan debt yet (you don't have to repay education loans as long as you are a student), not really knowing what one wants to do/starting a new major five years into college, wanting to stay involved in student clubs, and why not?--everyone else is staying for six years so I will too.</p>
<p>Keep in mind also that if you are going to professional or graduate school, you will have plenty of academic years ahead of you whether you complete undergrad quickly or not.</p>
<p>I don't think finishing in four years makes any sense. Do you really want to start your 9-5 job when you're 21? what is the rush? Personally, I can see myself being in school for the next 10 years. I'm probably goign to take a year off...reapply somewhere else as a transfer and not even have enough credits to qualify as a sophomore. But who the hell cares? Finishing early is the most ridiculous, unrealistic goal I've ever heard--and you'll regret it in the end. If you're so apt on finishing early, why don't you just quit college and start working now. ANd get married while you're at it.</p>
<p>Well I would like my S to push for 4 years just because we are paying out of state tuition. If he were in state I would not push so hard. To finish a computer engineering degree at his school in 4 years he has to take 16 credits per quarter (not inluding summer quarter), for a whopping total of 48 credits / year. I think students on the more standard two semester schedule take only about 32 - 36 credits per year so I realize it will be very, very hard to do in 4 years.</p>
<p>If anyone would like to look up the 4-year graduation rates of various colleges and universities, an excellent resource is <a href="http://www.collegeresults.org%5B/url%5D">www.collegeresults.org</a>. It will also tell you the 5 and 6 year rates as well, and how a college's grad rates compare to other similar schools. It's a very useful resource.</p>
<p>what is good for some people is not good for others. Though I cannot see how a school would like to accept you as a transfer student if you complete a whole year of school, take a year off, and STILL don't have enough credits to be a sophomore. I also don't see how post graduate schools would like that, so unless those "10 more years" of schooling you're planning on are all at the undergraduate level, I suggest that you may want to reconsider.</p>
<p>If you want to be in school for the next 10 years, then get a PhD. Sticking around for extra years means that you are wasting resources that could have been used to educate another student, and society as a whole is worse off. At least do something productive with your time.</p>
<p>I know some kids who are graduating in 3 years, and it doesn't seem like they're having much fun at school. I definitely hope to graduate in 4 years, no more, no less... I want to enjoy college while I'm there but I don't want to prolong the experience. Then I think I'll head off into the real world after graduation for a few years, because as a Swattie I hear you become totally disconnected from it. :p Then I'll probably head back to grad. school, and get my MBA or JD or something.</p>