<p>I really want to know if a person who is in MIT can graduate in 3 years instead of four if he/she takes a few extra courses?</p>
<p>Yes, absolutely. A few of my friends graduated in three years, although I knew a lot more people who could have graduated in six or seven semesters but chose to stay for the full eight.</p>
<p>It's easier to graduate in three years in some majors than in others, and graduating early can involve taking heavy courseloads for a few semesters (unless you come in with substantial AP credit).</p>
<p>My daughter could graduate in 2.5 years, but it isn't going to happen. Like many other students, she came in with some advanced placement in physics and math classes, and after the first semester, when freshmen have unit limits on coursework, she always took a fairly large number of classes. By the end of her sophomore year, she'll have finished all the requirements for the Course 8 Flexible option (physics) and have only some HASS concentration courses in visual art to finish up.</p>
<p>HOWEVER, like the large majority of other students she's met, she has no plans to finish early. Instead, she will either double major or finish the Course 8 regular option with a couple of concentrations in other fields. There's just so much to do; so much to explore; so much to learn. Or so I've been told.</p>
<p>Why would you want to do that? There's so much to take advantage of here.</p>
<p>yea, this might be a good thing for those who go to weaker schools and want to get to grad school early, but if your at MIT, there's so much to gain that it wouldn't make sense to leave early.</p>
<p>Well, it doesn't actually make sense to graduate too early if grad school is your goal, regardless of where you're going to school -- grad schools, particularly for the PhD, want to see lots of research experience and maturity, and it's hard to build a good research resume and show that you're prepared for the commitment of a PhD when you're applying after only two years of undergrad.</p>
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Applying early with an intention to immediately enter grad school, probably. Graduating early and taking a year to focus on research while pursuing other meaningful interests, I'd say definitely not.</p>
<p>Oh, for sure, as long as you were sure you had three solid LORs.</p>