<p>I'm trying to decide whether I want to go to a state university and graduate in one or two years (depending on the standing they give me) and go to gradutate school (at MIT or somewhere) or to go to MIT or some other good college and graduate in four years and go on to graduate school.</p>
<p>I've passed enough AP exams to start college as a junior at the University of Minnesota (or another StateU that gives lots of credits for high school stuff). I also will be taking 8 college courses at a local LAC next year, which will give me ~20 credits, leaving me with 40 or so (~1.5 years) credits to gain to graduate.</p>
<p>Also, the financial end is important for me. I wouldn't mind working a job or two to pay for college (my parents won't), but if I went to StateU, I'd pretty much be guaranteed a full-ride, and only have to pay for personal expenses.</p>
<p>You probably would have a hard time getting into a school like MIT for grad school if you only have 1-2 years at college, especially if not a top one. Most people can't jump from AP into the high level classes grad schools will want.</p>
<p>jumping right into junior year would hurt you socially. by that time all the students will have their own cliques and you will have a harder time fitting in</p>
<p>cliques...are basically non-existant in college, especially at big state publics. you'll have the greeks, the anti-greeks, and the i-dont-really-care-but-i-just-dont-want-to-be-a-greek crowds, but other than that....not many cliques.</p>
<p>keep in mind that you may have a buttload of credits from AP courses...but do they cover your required courses for your major? Remember major courses (especially upper level) are focused to ONE, maybe two areas of your specialty, and have to be taken in order of prerequisites. you may have the number of credits to graduate, but can you take the required classes in 1.5 years, in order, without any issues w/ pre-reqs?</p>
<p>I'll have 8 credits for AP Calc BC and another... 12-16 from Calc III, Linear Algebra, Adv Math Concepts, and Analytical Geometry. I'm pretty confident this would be enough to major in, say, math.</p>
<p>4 years at MIT...life is not a race. You'll get a better education, be better prepared for grad school, and will have those two extra years to mature before jumping into the graduate world and beyond. Don't be in such a rush.</p>
<p>"Calc III, Linear Algebra, Adv Math Concepts, and Analytical Geometry. "</p>
<p>If this is all the math you've done you probably don't know what real math is yet, i.e., those courses were probably not rigorous unless you studied extra yourself, and i would feel bad for an undergraduate math major only knowing that much.</p>
<p>Wait, are you planning on majoring in math? And if you are why would you go to MIT for grad school for math, I've never heard of their math graduate program being stellar.</p>
<p>Another thing is you could probably get those credits recognized at MIT anyways, so if you can get in go. You can then either petition for your credits or take advanced standing exams if you don't get the credits automatically.</p>
<p>I don't get the people who try and skip college over, freshman year was the best year of my life thus far. Seriously.</p>
<p>"Wait, are you planning on majoring in math? And if you are why would you go to MIT for grad school for math, I've never heard of their math graduate program being stellar."</p>
<p>Are you joking? MIT is the #1 ranked grad school in math according to US News.</p>
<p>Is it, never realize that, I always felt Princeton and Harvard trumped them pretty heavily. Nevermind then.</p>
<p>I guess it's weird since being an undergrad I only get that perspective where Math and Economics majors are looked down on (it's especially true with economics which people will continuously put down, but our grad school is considered on of the best in the nation) while engineering is held on much higher standards and is basically considered the only real major as an undergrad among the engineering students.</p>
<p>Well then ... still think you should go to MIT as an undergrad and enjoy yourself.</p>
<p>EDIT: And I should say Math isn't looked down on due to the students or the rigor of the work (the lack of I mean), but simply because of the system. The require like 8 classes and then you have to fill up the rest of you beyond GIRs with random classes, it's weird.</p>
<p>And also if you want to go to MIT for grad school you should also look into if MIT accepts MIT graduates (several majors refuse to do so, I know I have to leave MIT after undergrad because ChemE doesn't allow MIT graduates into their grad school). They probably do, it's only a couple of majors that have that policy.</p>
<p>^USNews grad rankings don't hold much merit, but yeah, MIT Grad Math is one of the best programs in the country. Other top programs are Berkeley and Caltech...maybe UChicago and Harvard.</p>
<p>I think the one thing USNews and World Report rankings <em>are</em> good for is graduate school rankings. The one caveat is that graduate schools that specialize in one or another subfield or are smaller in general will be penalized, but generally they are very reliable. </p>
<p>But you're right, MIT was rated 5.0 and Harvard and two or three other schools were rated 4.9. Pretty close to being indistinguishable, but Sklog was totally wrong in saying that MIT math wasn't "stellar" </p>
<p>BTW Sklog, there is only like one or two technical fields where MIT is not a top 5 school out of like 40 fields. And they were oddball ones like agricultural engineering.</p>
<p>"And also if you want to go to MIT for grad school you should also look into if MIT accepts MIT graduates (several majors refuse to do so, I know I have to leave MIT after undergrad because ChemE doesn't allow MIT graduates into their grad school). They probably do, it's only a couple of majors that have that policy."</p>
<p>What do you mean? When I went there, if you got above a 4.3 GPA you automatically got into the masters program. Many faculty have all 3 degrees (BS, MS, PhD) from MIT. </p>
<p>As far as I know, MIT engineering undergrads do not have a problem getting into the PhD program at MIT as long as their GPA is decent. In math and science, going to MIT grad school is discouraged--although not impossible. This is something which is generally true of the field--undergrads in math/science are encouraged to study elsewhere as a matter of policy. They told Feynman he should go to grad school somewhere else to get exposure to a different academic environment.</p>