<p>Do any of you know which colleges make it possible to graduate with a bachelors degree in 3 years? Not necessarily an advertised possibility, but one you may have heard about through friends or family? Thanks</p>
<p>I think if you go in with a lot of AP credits, it is very possible to finish at many state universities in 3 years. I did it myself "back in the day" at Indiana. I took a few very heavy semesters, but I did it.</p>
<p>my girlfriend had so many APs that she is going to be able to finish at Santa Clara University in 2 years and then she just got accepted at Harvard for grad school...so in the 4 yrs of my ug she is going to graduate with a B.S. and an M.A</p>
<p>If I would have gone to my state school I could have finished in 3 semesters...</p>
<p>What you have to do is check on each college's policy on how they give credits for APs, and for college courses taken while a student was in high school. It think there are huge differences in policies in this regard. Some schools severely limit the number of credits earned in high school,regardless of where obtained, that they will "count" towards their degree. Others give essentially full credit.</p>
<p>The downside is they won't extend financial aid past the point where you can first graduate. So if they do count all prior coursework, and you have a lot of it, you could be in the situation where after only two years there they cut off all aid and require you to start repaying loans.</p>
<p>Wait, why? Why, why, why? Aside from having a certain year that you need to finish in for a legitimate reason (eg, that's when your younger sibling needs to go to college and you need to be able to support him/her, or another 'special case' like that), there are pretty much only two reasons anybody would want to finish college in three years.</p>
<p>1) Financial reasons: Okay, this is completely valid, and if this is your reason for wanting to finish in three years, then that's fine. Quit reading here.</p>
<p>2) Wanting to be <em>impressive</em>! I can finish my college degree in only <em>three</em> years! I don't need this college thing, I can get a degree and that means I'm <em>educated</em>!: Don't do it. College is a great time to explore and figure out what you want to do with your life, and who you actually are. We go to college for an <em>education</em>, not to collect a bunch of knowledge in a specific area so that we can get out and make tons of money (though that's a nice side benefit). People change majors, too. How are you going to know what your true calling is unless you take elective courses in several areas? I may be an engineer, but I learned that I <em>really</em> like sociolinguistics. I learned about music. I learned about accounting. I learned how to draw, and I learned about astronomy. If you're looking to impress people or further your career, in twenty years, nobody's going to care that you only took three years to finish your college degree. They're going to care that you can carry on an intelligent conversation, or that you've got experiences that you can draw on from all of your many endeavors.</p>
<p>Use college to its fullest. Don't sell yourself short if you can avoid it.</p>
<p>my friend had some ap credits built up, and took some extra classes, and he graduated from cornell in 3 years. very impressive. the kid is a natural</p>
<p>"my friend had some ap credits built up, and took some extra classes, and he graduated from cornell in 3 years. very impressive. the kid is a natural"</p>
<p>LOL... Sigh. Ever feel like you're hollering into a strong wind?</p>
<p>haha, I totally agree aibarr. I wouldnt trade college for anything. Grad school just isnt the same...</p>
<p>you could if you do one or (most likely) a combo of some of the following: </p>
<ol>
<li>pick a short major that doesn't require many courses</li>
<li>take summer school</li>
<li>load up on many units each quarter/semester</li>
<li>enter with a lot of AP/IB/CC units</li>
</ol>
<p>I know someone who got his Mechanical Engineering degree (yes, engineering) from UCLA in exactly 3 years by taking 9 AP credits in high school, then enrolling in four courses every quarter, including over the summer.</p>
<p>Yes, and I went into college with 32 hours of AP credit, but I still took 4 years. It just gave me a lot more breathing room so I could take different classes and learn more things about non-engineering subjects. I can therefore write in complete sentences with correct punctuation and spelling. Might I add that this is impressive to potential employers? ;)</p>
<p>aibarr, I understand your reasoning. I'm just checking out my options, considering my current career choice (physician) requires a lot of extra schooling. I understand that I will have the opportunity to work hard my entire life, but I also realize that going to school has taken up a large chunk of my life so far, and cutting a few corners won't ruin me. I don't want to be stuck at a college for 4 years and regret not looking into this option. And I don't think there is a "prestige" factor associated with graduating in 3 years, just the satisfaction of time well spent. As one of those "crazy" females who wants to have a family and a career, getting 1 year out of the way wouldn't hurt.</p>
<p>College is the best years of your life most likely. You will never get back that year. If for financial reasons, sure, graduate early but I cant think of any other.</p>
<p>Some schools, Emory is one that I know of off hand, offer combined BA/MA or BS/MS programs in four years, so you're still spending four years at that college, but you might want to consider it.</p>
<p>California99, I hear you... I'm a female in engineering who's going through graduate school and is going to be doing that for at least five more years, and I'd like to have a family, too... I want to have established my career well enough by then so that I can drop back to doing consulting work and actually <em>raise</em> my children, too, so I'm facing the same sort of biological time crunch you are.</p>
<p>But really, it's so, so, so worth it to take your time in college. College is the last point in your life where you've got a bit of time to smell the roses and figure out what you want in life before you press on with the grind. The question I asked myself was, "Don't you want to spend part of your life actually living your life?" I took four years because I knew (and completely rightly so, in retrospect) that I'd get so burned out if I didn't build in a little breathing room. I learned a lot about myself in the meantime that I know I wouldn't have learned if I'd taken 19 hours every semester and had spent all my spare time studying for all those classes.</p>
<p>These days, you bust your hump getting good grades and extracurriculars in high school, you graduate from college and have to go into med school or grad school, and then straight on into careers and raising families... The only time you have to look forward to in order to figure out what you love to do and who you are is when you retire! By then, it's too late. And you'd be completely out-of-luck if you were to die of a heart attack from the stress... =</p>
<p>College is the time to figure all that stuff out. Don't underestimate the importance of taking time to live. What else will you teach your children about if you don't live your life to its fullest?</p>
<p>Just my 2 cents.</p>
<p>Another big reason to graduate early is if you plan on doing something after graduation which requires a lot of training (pretty much any PhDs->postdocs if you want to go into academia, MD/PhD, etc.). Some people might say that "its only one year", but they can accumulate as the years go on.</p>
<p>Thanks aibarr, that explanation sits better. In the end, I suppose a year doesn't make too much of a difference, but its still an interesting idea.</p>
<p>I must agree with my nemesis (aka, slipper) on this one! LOL California, College truly is the best years of your life. Do not squander them or rush through them. Savor them and make the most of them. Trust me, I have never met anybody who graduated early and did not regret it. What difference does it make whether you get your medical degree at 26 or at 27? If I were very wealthy, I would be a college student for life! hehe</p>
<p>On the other hand:</p>
<p>I was pretty fed up with college, myself after three years and would have been very happy to move on. I preferred graduate school.</p>
<p>another aspect: If you come in with all these credits, and your school accepts them all, they may basically force you out early. I know someone who is now classified by their college as a junior, having been there only one year. They are going to have to write a petition of some sort to justify why they should be allowed to stay longer than one more year.</p>
<p>I am currently taking summer courses, and I plan to do so every year. I am not doing this to graduate early (unless by some miracle I can), but to leave plenty of room for a possible double major.</p>