<p>How likely is it to graduate from Carleton in three or three and a half years? My S intends to apply here for Science/Biology major (Pre-med) and I was wondering if it is at all possible to expedite undergrad courses.</p>
<p>I definitely know kids who graduated a trimester early.</p>
<p>Agree with Yds, it is not hard to graduate a trimester early if you really want to, but earlier than that is difficult. You can transfer credits…sometimes (for example if you took a college course while a senior in high school), but I don’t think AP credits transfer.</p>
<p>The thing is that your S wants to be premed. You need about a ~3.6 to get into med school, and between a 3.7-3.8 to get into a good state medical school. You also need to show you’ve done more than study…research, volunteering as an emt, etc Your Son will be going up against students who may actually be slightly under loading to make sure they get good grades when taking some of the harder pre med courses. For example, maybe Orgo II has a B/B+ average. A student will take Orgo II (6 credits), A chemistry lab (2 credits), A non-science elective (6 credits), pass/fail (Scrunch) guitar lessons (2 credits), and that’s their load. It is hard to compete against that student when overloading or even taking a full load.</p>
<p>It is hard to find a magic solution that gets you out of Carleton and into med school in less that 4 years.</p>
<p>AP credits can be acknowledged but they do not always apply to the requirements:
<a href=“Prior Credits Policy | Academic Catalog | Carleton College”>http://apps.carleton.edu/campus/registrar/catalog/catalog12/prior_credits/</a></p>
<p>Once registered at Carleton, a student’s course credits earned at another college (like a summer course taken at a university in hometown) will not be acknowledged by Carleton. This is different from many other colleges.</p>
<p>My S finished one trimester early, with a double major. He needed AP credits (though not all of those to which he was entitled) to do so. He was not pre-med, though he took a good number of science courses.</p>
<p>Several of my D’s classmates finished one trimester early or took off the first or second trimester of senior year to concentrate on grad school applications/interviews.</p>
<p>I am aware of one young man who finished two trimesters early with an Econ major.</p>
<p>The point being that it can be done, but it makes sense to heed the caution about doing this as a pre-med, and also not to count on it. My S did not make his decision until the very end of winter term senior year.</p>