<p>With a ton of Ap credit (like i will have) i can go to a school like madison and finish in 2 years (or something like that) i know a guy who went insane with aps (like me) and in his first semester at madison is a senior. can you imagine? ima year younger then all my classmates, if i did the same as him, i could be in grad school when people my age are starting their undergrad. do you think all this early graduation is a good idea though? i mean you miss out on the maturity and experience that comes from college. what do you think?</p>
<p>don't miss out on it. skip a year AT THE MOST. why throw away the most fun years of your life - you have your whole life to work.</p>
<p>I don't think it is. Yes, AP is rigorous. However, it's not the same. College is about more than academic rigor - it's an experience - life inside the classroom and outside the classroom are not separate and often serve to both go against and reinforce each other in ways that they don't in high school. That preparation - finding balance between school and friends, learning how to budget (even if it's budgeting meal points...), learning how to live and work with other people, gaining professional experience through internships - serves the great purpose of either making you ready for the world or making you ready for graduate school should you decide to go.</p>
<p>When you simply take AP classes in high school, you'll miss out on all of that hard-to-learn-but-essential-to-know stuff you'll get in college.</p>
<p>well i would feel most nervous when (assuming i do this) i end up in some grad school and i have no clue how to study, no patience for reading 100 pages of a textbook by the next class period. a ton of work i just cant manage etc. it would suck really bad. still, what do you do with all your credits? do you just let them go to waste? do you really want to pay for years of college you dont need? the economic argument is strongest. i mean for an instate person like me, madison is 25000. do i really want to waste 25 grand on credits i dont really need?</p>
<p>If you're planning on going to graduate or professional school after undergrad, then it makes sense to graduate early since you'll be in school for a few more years anyway (and in the case of a PhD, many more years).</p>
<p>You may not "need" them, but, trust me, they will prove a valuable resource. There is a reason that there is undergraduate between high school and graduate school. If graduate schools didn't think you needed a little more polishing and developing, they would have programs where you could enter straight from high school, and, as far as I know (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), there are none.</p>
<p>Yes, there is the economic factor, but what I'm saying is not about economics. Also, compared to what alot of other kids are paying to go to top schools these days, $25,000 total isn't really that bad. You will thank those who pushed you to go to college when you enter grad school. Undergrad will give you not only valuable skills, but valuable knowledge and connections that high school, even in AP, cannot give you.</p>
<p>I'm not saying you should go for four years. If I decide to stay at my current university, I will be graduating in two years, a winter session, and a summer. All I'm saying is that you should go for at least two years or so. You may be "throwing away" credits, but you will be gaining alot more. </p>
<p>I know that if I were a grad school adcom, I would be very weary of someone who skipped college on the merits of AP exams. AP exams are tough, but...</p>
<p>yeah, that is the point i was trying to get out for debate, thanks for writing it for me, and so eloquently ;)</p>
<p>so what do you think? 2 years enough? i dunno why im worried about this now. if all goes well and i get into some elite school, i wont get that much ap credit anyways. its just kind of interesting and if i do decide to go to madison i might do something like this. still, the idea of being the 19 year old grad student is appealing lol.</p>