Question bout Graduating Early from College

<p>I am a current IB Diploma Candidate and would have in addition taken about 8 or 9 AP classes by the time I graduate. With the amount of college credit I have, I am sure I will be granted junior standing at Berkeley and therefore would be able to graduate college in 2 yrs. I know this because I know someone with an identical course load as I have who did it last year.</p>

<p>I am planning on doing this for a variety of reasons, mostly because my parents have other financial obligations so I would be saving them alot of money. </p>

<p>Anyways, do you know how graduate school will view an applicant who graduated in 2 years? How do MA/phD programs, or professional schools, view this? Also, can the credit I have with AP and IB be used to fulfill major requirements or premed requirements?</p>

<p>i'm curious about the same thing, i'm graduating with a BS EE in 3 years... employers think it's great, no idea about schools.</p>

<p>If your goal is to continue to grad or professional school, many people would advise you not to truncate your undergrad by that much time since it could be detrimental to your application. These programs all look for experience (in research and/or clinic) and a record of academic achievement, neither of which if you enter as a junior and will be applying again to these programs one year hence.</p>

<p>*neither of which is possible if...</p>

<p>What is it you want to do? I don't think that I would necessarily try to graduate as fast as possible to save money, but I also don't know you or your situation. Besides, you can save your parents money by paying your own tuition =p =). Scholarships and loans are always available.
The time spent in college is a nice maturation period, personally and professionally. If you can hit the ground running and are SURE of what you want to do, start talking to professors to get the experience you need for your CV. I don't think it matters how fast you graduate, as long as you have the appropriate credentials. I believe some of your credits can be used as prereqs, and I would only use them for those. I would not recommend skipping a major course requirement even if you could.</p>

<p>Personally: unless it's a huge burden (which I guess you've said it kind of is), why don't you try to have at least 3 years. This is for personal reasons. Just to make college better. I didn't really begin to enjoy Berkeley until halfway through my 3 1/2 years.</p>

<p>Professionally/academically: I think you should investigate the norms in the field you want to go into. For instance, if you graduated with all the pre-reqs for med school and did well, I think your young age could be impressive to med schools. But for other fields, perhaps this would be less of an issue or could even be a drawback.</p>

<p>it depends on your school. I know my school has basically no research opportunities in my major, let alone my interests... so i didn't see the point in paying upwards for 40k to take undergrad electives or put another internship or REU on my resume. if grad school falls through i can work and get experience in my field (and make money instead of spend it on tuition). </p>

<p>and after 2 and a half years i've decided i'm going to get all i can out of my school by the time i graduate. But i might feel differently if i was at berkeley. and i definitely didn't feel this way at this time last year after only a year and a half.</p>

<p>does the grad school at berkeley have any kind of program where graduates with high GPAs or who meet some requirements are pretty much automatically accepted into their grad schools? our school does that but the masters program here, well, it isn't berkeley. we also have some kind of deal with several semi-local universities, one of which is very good and pretty much guarantees graduates acceptance into at least a master's program. maybe you could enter into the grad program after finishing undergrad and then decide where to go.</p>

<p>3 years BS EE for me too. Wouldn't recommend it to anyone, i had to take summer school every single year and I had to take a lot of classes out of order to obtain it. For example, right now I'm taking multi-var calc at the same time as my senior project T_T</p>

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does the grad school at berkeley have any kind of program where graduates with high GPAs or who meet some requirements are pretty much automatically accepted into their grad schools? our school does that but the masters program here, well, it isn't berkeley.

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<p>Hahahaha. No way. Berkeley is nowhere near as nice to its undergrads as that.</p>

<p>If you will be at Berkeley, grad schools will definitely look askance at you if you graduate that early. There are tons of opportunities at UCB for research and a wealth of upper-division courses, and you are expected to take advantage of those. Additionally, it is more difficult at Berkeley to develop a relationship with your professors, and you will likely need at least three years there to do this in order to garner the types of recommendations you would need.</p>

<p>Grad and professional schools could care less how long you spent in college or what age you are (within broad limits on the upper end). They DO care about your potential in the field, hence leejwwc's post 3, but that post was way too simplistic. If you can show research ability in one or two years, fine. If you can show potential in some other way, fine. </p>

<p>The point is ability and promise, not the calendar, academic or otherwise. So I do not agree with DSP, unless DSP was really saying "if you cut corners, grad schools will definitely look askance..."</p>

<p>Keep in mind that accomplishing a task like completing degree requirements in record time can be taken by some grad committees as an accomplishment in its own right.</p>

<p>I think a big part of the problem in answering issues like this is that grad school admissions are very idiosyncratic. Each department (heck, even programs within a department) does this its own way. so what one place views as a plus may be viewed as a minus somewhere else. that's just the way it is.</p>

<p>To the OP: Since you seem to be so directed, maybe you already know what you want to study in grad. school or do in life. If this is the case, you will be able to hit the ground running and find out soon whether in the field you've chosen it is or is not advantageous to graduate quickly. My recollection with Berkeley is that you get an option regarding whether or not to declare all those "pre-earned" units. Find out whether Berkeley would kick you out earlier if you claimed all those units. If, in the course of study, you decided you did want to spend an extra year or two, make sure you had kept that option open earlier. A lot can change.</p>

<p>For a school with the expansive resources of Berkeley, I am inclined to agree with the poster that said, on balance, a graduate school is apt to demerit you for not having taken advantage of all Berkeley has to offer. Now, of course, you can claim hardship if you want to defend your really rapid graduation to a school that doesn't look at it favorably. Additionally, it is harder to establish a connection with professors at Berkeley, on average, than at other places -- though in many cases I believe this is a lot owing to students' not applying themselves to this task -- so more time (in addition to a focus) will likely provide more opportunities to establish these connections.</p>

<p>And to the extent you can afford the luxury -- or your parents can: pay attention to your personal life too. College is not only about when you graduate or your classes. Use it as a time to explore friendships and fields you might not have time to explore later.</p>

<p>To the OP: Contact some grad schools you don't plan on applying to. Ask their departments what they think, state your current position, etc. They will obviously be able to give the best idea.</p>

<p>hey I'm graduating in three years and am applying to graduate school.</p>

<p>I had some research experience since high school, so it will total to about 4.5 - 5 years of research experience. I've done loads of research work over the past 2.5 years (yet I do admit sacrificing some social life to be in the lab)... after all I'm sure about what I want to do. </p>

<p>Some people love college life because they can spare the immaturity (or however you would call it, it could be a synonym of "fun"). You sure have less responsibility as a college student than if you are a real grown-up in the real world. If you don't mind having less time for "fun" in college and your parents don't want to pay for you to stay in there; take some time off and work after college. That's quite a good way to gain experience. From my experience, I can tell that research is much easier to learn if you've had enough coursework and do it in a full-time basis. After all I love working and hate school because school turned out to be a 24-hr/day work, which is much harder than a full-time job (which is 8 hr/day obviously). I loved the summers which I've been working full time and look forward to actually working full time.</p>

<p>And, btw, I think it would be hard to get a professor who doesn't know you to talk about a life issue like that. Chances are your email will be ignored and you will be kicked out of some professor's office... well I've stood some ignorance, having gone to a big research university where professors were busy as hell. Wait until you start your college career at UCB, when you are assigned an advisor and given a chance to talk to him/her. At that point they can't ignore you and really have to tell you something. I doubt there's a one best answer for this though.</p>

<p>Well that's pretty defeatist. There's no harm in shooting off 50 emails that basically all read the same way.</p>