Is it possible to finish college in 3 years in UIUC?

<p>I'm admitted to Engineering school, major in MechE, thinking about to switch to EE though. I already got some AP scores, Cal BC, Physics Mech, E&M, all 5s. Is it possible to graduate within 3 years instead of 4 if I work hard?</p>

<p>It is possible, but I would really think about it before you test yourself out of either Physics or Calc 2 or higher. Do you feel like, without studying, you could go back and get a 5 on all of those exams again right now? That is about how comfortable you need to be with the material in Calc and Physics (especially mechanics for you). Most of the time, AP classes won’t prepare a student as well as the university equivalent would, so while there are some people who can test of of them and be totally fine, there are others who will test out of them and then start off behind in the classes that rely on them. You just need to weight your options there, as I can’t tell you which type of person you are, only that if you aren’t totally comfortable with the material that you should reconsider testing out.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t be in such a hurry to graduate though. Honestly, college is some of the best years of a person’s life, so why shorten it. If you test out of things and still take the full 4 years, it will just enable you to relax a bit and not have to take such fully loaded semesters, which is definitely nice, so if you don’t graduate early, that is a nice consolation prize.</p>

<p>If you stay in MechSE, then I would advise you to avoid taking any class taught by Bentsman, Tseregounis or Fang. Conversely, I would do everything I could to take a class with Kyritsis, King, Glumac or Jacobi.</p>