So yeah, I want to get a head start on life, I am already going to graduate with an Associates in General Studies, but I want to start getting a head start on my designated major (Either Law or Business). Would it be possible to finish a year of my undergrad over the summer? I want to get as far ahead in my studies as a I can before college, because I know all of the things I want to pursue (Law, even Pre Med) will require me to stay in college longer than most of my peers. Thanks!
No.
A typical year of college is 30 credits. Most summer programs allow 12 credits as full time. You might be able to do 15 if you find a school that has more summer sessions. For example, most of the Florida school have Summer A, B, and C, where A might be a 4 week session in May, then B will start in June and go 6-8 weeks, and C will start in July and go 4-6 weeks.
I just signed my daughter up for summer at a local university. They did have a few classes offered in May for 3 weeks. The main classes are June 4-July 21, and you are limited to 12 credits.
Also remember that not all courses are offered in the summer. Not as many upper division classes offered.
Not really
No, my D once did 12 credits over the summer and it was tough. You learn a month’s worth of material in one week, usually in 3 hour sessions. She couldn’t work that summer.
I know all of the things I want to pursue (Law, even Pre Med) will require me to stay in college longer than most of my peers.
Your high school peers? Don’t worry about it. your new peers will be other students on the same track as you.
Good luck.
You cannot major in law as an undergraduate.
Or pre med.
I know, but I realize that I will be in school for 8 years. I would like to shorten that.
Depending on the school, you could possibly take some classes at 2 schools over the summer, especially if the classes are online classes. Perhaps your regular University and a community college. The university may or may not frown upon this arrangement.
Having said that, 30 semester units is way over the top for the summer. 15 semester units in fact would be over the top. If these were all discussion-type classes with no labs it’s remotely doable to do say 4 classes max. Maybe 5 if the are some easy online classes mixed in. My guess though is that you got all your lower division stuff out of the way and there won’t be much online available.
You can graduate in 3 years, but it would generally require a combination of things to accrue the extra 30 hours (at a typical college). For example, I know a friend’s kid who went into their university with 12 AP credits. They are taking 4 credits at summer school at that school and 9 credits at a study abroad program. They also earned 2 credits working in a lab. So they’ll have 27 extra credits right there, but not all in one summer.
It would be exceptionally difficult to do it as a pre-med student. Pre-med students will generally have to take an array of classes to prepare for med school/MCATs. Many will not be in your major or meet other degree requirements. Many are science classes that must be completed in sequence. It is often difficult for students to complete them in four years, let alone 3.
A couple of other things, med schools now look for students to complete a great deal of volunteer activities to prepare them for med school, and to ensure that medicine is the right field for them. I know a pre-med student. At their very good national university, the med school advisors wanted students to complete 1200 service hours, most of them in medical areas, like being an EMT. The school had a committee that passed along a recommendation to med schools for each student. It would be hard to bypass this committee, and it’s recommendations/requirements, and get into med school. I know that that committee, at that university, would straight up tell a student not to attempt it in 3 years, and would not provide a strong recommendation without the service hours, etc.
Also, often law, business, and med schools look favorably on applicants who’ve worked or done other things for a time after completing their undergrad studies. So you might want to do that. And, MCATs are hard and require preparation. So you could do something like graduate in 3 years and then stick around and complete the recommended pre-med courses, which you had not taken in completing the requirements for a degree–I’m thinking like 9 hours a semester for 2 semesters–while studying for the MCAT, and maybe working as a volunteer EMT, or something like that.
Law school can be a little easier, because you just need to graduate to qualify. And you aren’t advised to take all the prep classes that help with the MCAT. BUT, I’d think law schools would tend to be a little more reluctant to admit a younger student coming right out of undergrad. Many law students are older to begin with, so a 20-year-old, or someone just turning 21 is going to be very relatively young.
Not to say you can’t graduate in 3 years, just saying it’s extremely difficult (not impossible) to do that and go right to med school, and there are other important things to consider.
Good luck!
Life is a marathon, not a sprint.