<p>I'll start my college as Freshman in Spring 2012 (Chemical Engineering). Due to financial reason, I'm forced to graduate in 2.5 years. That means:
Spring 2012
Fall 2012, Spring 2013
Fall 2013, Spring 2014</p>
<p>Summer 2012 and Summer 2013 are the only time that I may get internship and so on.</p>
<p>Graduating in 2.5 years is not what I really want to do, but I'm forced to do so for money sake. </p>
<p>How much will this hurt my grad school application?
What should I do to optimize my experience and background so that I have a chance to be admitted by top grad schools?
Is it possible for me to get an internship in Summer 2012 after just 1 semester of stay at college?</p>
<p>I don’t know how you think you are going to finish a chemical engineering degree in 2.5 years. Most people take 5 years to finish an engineering program and that’s loading up on classes. If you can’t afford at least 4 years at the school you plan to go to, then don’t go there. Go somewhere cheaper.</p>
<p>It’s possible for me to finish in 2.5 years with advanced standing. I have already taken a look at the courses outline. I can only afford 2.5 years, going somewhere cheaper doesn’t make any difference.</p>
<p>What kind of financial reasons are you talking about? This sounds like a great way to waste 5 semesters worth of tuition, not a plan that actually leads to graduating with an engineering degree!</p>
<p>Sigh…</p>
<p>To answer your actual questions:</p>
<p>
Probably a lot. Grad schools don’t care how long you took to graduate, just what you actually accomplished, so everything you sacrifice in the interest of graduating quickly hurts you.</p>
<p>
Not this. Graduating in 5 semesters means that you will honestly have little to no chance to do ANYTHING that would count as experience.</p>
<p>
Yes. You will not get paid and you will mostly just make coffee, because after one semester you will not have any applicable skills.</p>
How sure of that are you, and what kind of advanced standing is shaving off 3 semesters? Have you considered prerequisite chains, variable course availability, what happens if (God forbid) you need to drop a needed course, and other such trivialities?</p>
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<p>This doesn’t make any sense unless your available money is larger than any tuition bill but turns into a pumpkin in 2.5 years. If you have X dollars in a bank somewhere, going somewhere cheaper will allow you more time.</p>
<p>Have you looked into financial aid? Stafford loans are low-interest and mostly ignore financial need. Seriously, you need more than 2.5 years and trying this is just going to force you to choose (in 2.5 years) between abandoning your degree partway through or considering (late) the financial aid options you should have considered from the beginning.</p>
<p>OK, now I have to change my question a little bit.
If I graduate in 3 years (start in Fall 2012), how much will this hurt?
As far as I know, european universities only require 3 years of undergrad.</p>
<p>^ Yes, but European college students study nothing but their major. </p>
<p>American students have to put up with general education requirements and free electives, and on top of that often start out less advanced in math and sciences than their European peers. (For example, calculus is a high school graduation requirement in Germany and British universities require A-level math for entry into an engineering program.)</p>
<p>euro unis only require 3 years of undergrad because they don’t have GEs; they go straight into the relevant subject matter. as far as how much it will hurt, i don’t know.</p>
<p>If money is a big issue for you, you need to spend some serious time in the Financial Aid Forum reading up on how that works. There may be options for you that you have not yet considered.</p>
I’m sure it happens, but it is not very common. If you look around, you’ll notice that these forums have had a fair number of posters lamenting about how they graduated early but were not able to position themselves for grad school. Grad school generally requires (among other things) a high GPA, some quality research experience, and some sustained professor interactions (primarily in research) that lead to great LOR’s. All of these are made more difficult by speeding through undergrad, so early graduates often either fail to get into grad school or else take a hit in program quality. Very few people are capable of doing just as well in 3 years as they would have in 4.</p>
<p>I would also note that 99% of those entering college with ambitions of going to a top PhD program fail to do so - while you may have performed very well in high school (I presume), college is a completely different ballgame and grad admissions even more so. Realize that when you graduate with your undergrad, there will probably be no more than 10 “top PhD” openings for which you will be able to compete (assuming you rock undergrad), and you will do so against roughly 200-500 high-quality graduates, all of whom have high GPA’s, GRE’s, and great LOR’s.</p>
<p>It will hurt you in the long run. I would stay at least until the Fall of 2014; that way, you can get an extra internship or research experience under your belt.</p>
<p>Despite shows like Doogie Howser and the news media adulation for kids who graduate early, whether that be HS or university, the world of academia seems to be unimpressed with that. They seem to view the time spent as being for more than just checking boxes on a list of courses required, rather they seem to prefer the students be involved on campus and stretching their brains outside the classroom- whether that be sports & other ECs in HS or research and higher order academic experience in undergrad.</p>
<p>Not only do you get no bonus points for finishing quickly, it seems to be a detractor!</p>
I have a friend who graduated in 3 years and is now a math PhD student at MIT. However, he started taking graduate courses in his very first year in college, so he was very advanced after his 3rd year.</p>
<p>MIT was actually the only top school that accepted him after 3 years. His backup plan was to delay graduation and stay for a 4th year if he didn’t get into a top 10 graduate program in that admission cycle.</p>
<p>I forget to mention that I’m international student, so I do not qualified for any financial aids.
I have a new plan:
Spring 2012
Fall 2012, Spring 2013
Fall 2013 (apply for grad school), Spring 2014 (if accepted, go to grad school; if not, stay for 1 more year for MS degree)
Fall 2014 (apply again for grad school), Spring 2015</p>
<p>I’m not sure whether this will work. Do I get any financial aid for the MS degree?</p>