Graduating in 3 Years

<ol>
<li><p>There is a good chance that Swarthmore will not accept any credits from NYU. There is no general rule, as far as I know, and it is up to each dept head to decide. But you should not count on it just based on NYU being a top U.</p></li>
<li><p>It is ABSOLUTELY possible to graduate from Swarthmore in 3 years if you get lots of AP credits, and take 5 classes at least some of the time (it is not as hard as it sounds - but depends on classes, your personality, etc.)</p></li>
<li><p>You will miss out on "college experience" and on opportunity to explore topics in- and outside your major</p></li>
<li><p>If you aim at top gradschools, you will be somewhat at disadvantage because you will probably have less depth in your area of study.</p></li>
</ol>

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[quote]
Tonight, my mom presented me with the idea of taking extra classes every summer and getting my BA in 3 years instead of 4 to save money. My initial response was to reject this idea (which did not make my mom too happy) but I was wondering if anyone knows of any Swatties getting their degrees in 3 years instead of 4. Is it even possible? Would I still be able to do honors? Would doing so mean I would forgo my social life in college? As of now I am really iffy on the notion....

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You absolutely can do this. Don't listen to the people here speculating about whether you'll get credits or not for your NYU courses. You will. I took classes in the summers after my freshman and sophomore years, and I got credit for those. Some were only worth half a credit, but others were worth a full credit, and the university where I took the classes wasn't as prestigious as NYU, not even close. These credits for summer work allowed me to skip out on classes where I didn't like the department at Swat by taking them elsewhere, and they also let me take light course loads in my junior and senior years so that I could slack off, get high, and not have to wake up before noon. Good times.</p>

<p>If you really work hard over the summers and max out on the course offerings available to you, you should be able to get enough credits to graduate in three years without having to take five courses per semester at Swarthmore (something I don't recommend). Figure out which departments are the most flexible about this (ultimately, a professor will have to sign off and approve the coursework as being worthy of credit) and zero in on those subjects.</p>

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[quote]
Figure out which departments are the most flexible about this (ultimately, a professor will have to sign off and approve the coursework as being worthy of credit) and zero in on those subjects.

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I don't think this is the right approach to your 50K/year education.
But yes, you will have a much better chance getting outside credits if you have the classes you are planning to take pre-approved.</p>

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[quote]
I don't think this is the right approach to your 50K/year education.
But yes, you will have a much better chance getting outside credits if you have the classes you are planning to take pre-approved.

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In case you didn't read the first post, this all started from his mother looking for a way to save some money. The economy isn't doing so well right now, you know. It would kind of suck to go to Swarthmore for three years, run out of money, and then have to find a more affordable school to finish your degree.</p>

<p>^ The mother is a professor at NYU. If the money is that great of an issue, the OP could just go for free to NYU. I am sure that it would be a better choice than "figuring out which departments are the most flexible about this and zeroing in on those subjects".</p>

<p>I am pretty sure that the professor-mom wants to save money if possible, but not at the expence of the quality of education.</p>

<p>Note that, according to the Swarthmore catalog, a precondition to graduating in three years is accumulating 14 credits by the end of your first year, then applying for and being accepted by a department as a major. Taking summer courses will not help in achieving this. As I understand it, Swarthmore does not grant credit for college courses taken elsewhere before matriculating (unless you come in as a transfer student). The only way I can see of getting to 14 credits by the end of your first year is a combination of AP credits and taking 5 or more credits per semester your first two semesters.</p>

<p>Of course, I may be reading the catalog incorrectly. That's where a conversation with Martin Warner would be more authoritative.</p>

<p>dadx3,</p>

<p>I don't think it's that strict. My daughter did not consider graduating in 3 years, and although she might have had 14 credits by the end of her first year, she only applied for major in the spring of her sophomore year with the rest of her class. She had enough credits by the end of her junior year to graduate (and had fulfilled her major requirements by then), so at some point she got an email from the registrar (that was apparently sent to all the juniors with lots of credits) that if she is planning to graduate, she should let them know. The rules at Swarthmore are generally not written in stone...</p>

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[quote]
^ The mother is a professor at NYU. If the money is that great of an issue, the OP could just go for free to NYU. I am sure that it would be a better choice than "figuring out which departments are the most flexible about this and zeroing in on those subjects".

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All I can tell you is that my efforts in the summer netted me about 4 credits. I didn't take the maximum, either. If I had, I could have gotten double that, no problem.</p>

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[quote]
I am pretty sure that the professor-mom wants to save money if possible, but not at the expence of the quality of education.

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This is kind of corny. My university courses were just fine and, like I said before, I chose a department that I found to be lacking at Swarthmore, where I didn't really enjoy the classes or like the professors very much. Also, I actually took some classes that weren't even offered at Swarthmore.</p>

<p>What's more, you're not making any sense. How is doing three years at Swarthmore, running out of money, and then finishing in a year or two at NYU (you may be surprised to learn that you won't get 100% transfer coming from Swarthmore, either) going to give you a better overall educational experience than doing three years at Swarthmore and graduating because you also took some summer classes?</p>

<p>OP and his mother obviously place some value on a Swarthmore education, or else the decision would have been very easy to just transfer to NYU and enjoy a discounted education. That said, $50,000 would represent a considerable savings to a lot of people, so trying to shave off one year of expense may be worth it, and figuring out a plausible way to juggle that may be better than just giving up and transferring to NYU.</p>

<p>I don't think anyone was talking about "running out of money and transferring" option here. It was either going for all 4 years, or graduating in 3 with some outside credits. Both can be viable options for the OP, and both have their advantages and disadvantages.</p>

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I don't think anyone was talking about "running out of money and transferring" option here. It was either going for all 4 years, or graduating in 3 with some outside credits. Both can be viable options for the OP, and both have their advantages and disadvantages.

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The entire impetus behind the OP's question is that his mother would like to save some money. The question, then, is one of optimizing the educational experience while trying to save about 25% of the total college bill. If the savings is important, I think the three year plan is perfectly viable, which was in response to a lot of people suggesting that it wasn't. That's the only point I was trying to get across.</p>