Taking a light course load and graduating in 4 years or normal course load and graduating in 3?

Student Lounge College Life
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I’m starting my freshman year at Temple University. They awarded me 26 credits for my AP exam scores. My degree requires 126 credits. If I take two summer courses at community college, I could graduate in 3 years by taking 16 credit semesters (roughly). Since a typical semester is 15 credits, I wouldn’t be overworking myself. A lot of the classes in my major are 4 credits. I’m also a journalism major and journalism is considered an easier major, in comparison to STEM.

My financial aid package included max. federal loan amount, max grants, and a small scholarship. For first year, the max federal loan is $5500 and I should be borrowing that same amount in the subsequent years even if/when tuition increases because right now I actual have some left over aid money. (Which I"m using for books.) I also work during the summer and could work part-time in school. And, I could also receive more scholarships in the future. My aid covered my dorm, meal plan, and tuition.

So, the difference in student debt would be around $5500 if I stay the fourth year, rather than finishing a year early. Total debt would be around $16,500 if I graduated in 3 years which is below the national average.

At first I was very eager to graduate in 3 years and leave myself as well off financially as possible. I’m starting in a few days and I’ve sought advice from other students, the advisors on campus, and friends’ parents. They ALL said that I should enjoy it and go the four years. The only person who told me otherwise is a friend who is also a financial analyst. I just feel like college will be a really good experience and it’ll be the only time left before going out in the “real world”. And a lot of job opportunities are offered at or around graduation so if I wanted a break and took a service year after school, I might still be missing out.

All four of my high school years were great and each was important in my growth of a person and if college is similar in that respect, I don’t want to leave early.

My goal is to graduate summa cum laude. At Temple, for the school of communication, the cutoff is at least a 3.89 and they yield 2%. If I stay for four years, I could take 4 classes as opposed to 5 just about every semester. I think that would make my time easier than my peers and give me the competitive edge to accomplish my goal even easier.

I have to decide because if I don’t take enough classes my freshman year and then change my mind and decide I want to graduate early, I’ll be behind. What should I do?

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I would take a normal (15-16) load freshman year. You may not want to graduate early, but you may want to:

  1. Do a Co-op//internship
  2. Study abroad
  3. Do a 3-2 Master’s program
  4. Do research
  5. Take lab courses
    and take the 4 years.

It depends on what you want to major in…if those make sense.

But by starting off on a normal schedule won’t be worse than anyone else and you can slow down later if you don’t do any of the other things.

My daughter graduated in 2.5 years (HS Credits + some summer courses) but then finished her masters in 1.5 years…since we would pay for 4 years of college, she got a second degree within that time. We also told her not to rush but were not going to prevent her.

If you graduate early, you will be younger than others at work/grad school…my daughter wasn’t even 21 when she started grad school. Now she is a teacher at just barely 22.

However, if you didn’t take a loan and started work earlier, you gain that salary (if you are only looking at finances).

But I agree with you…don’t be in a rush if you don’t have to.

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@booper Thanks for responding. I’m also starting to be a little nervous because I signed up for math this semester. I did great in Humanities but have really struggled through math my whole life. It’s elementary algebra. I have to take it before I can take the math gened but the credits won’t count towards my degree.

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But they say the class is easy, it’s just a review and is supposed to help. My roommate is my best friend and she’s an actuarial science major who took Honors Calc and AP Stat in high school. She’ll help me and the work will be a breeze for her. I can also go to office hours and my school offers free tutoring so I think I can do it :slight_smile: my other classes are pretty easy (Intermediate Spanish, Mosiacs, Journalism & Society, and the diversity GenEd.)

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  1. Using help you pay for at your college ! You already have some good ideas. For example:

  2. Go to Professor’s office hours early in the semester. Ask this question: “I know this is a really difficult class-- what are some of the common mistakes students make and how can I avoid them?”

  3. If you have problems with the homework, go to Prof’s office hours. If they have any “help sessions” or “study sessions” or “recitations” or any thing extra, go to them.

  4. Form a study group with other kids in your dorm/class.

  5. Don’t do the minimum…for STEM classes do extra problems. You can buy books that just have problems for calculus or physics or whatever. Watch videos on line (Khan Academy, etc) about the topic you are studying.

  6. Go to the writing center if you need help with papers/math center for math problems (if they have them)

  7. If things still are not going well, get a tutor.

  8. Read this book: How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less by Cal Newport. It helps you with things like time management and how to figure out what to write about for a paper, etc.

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Another option is to graduate in 7 semesters, rather than 6 or 8 semesters. Or you can graduate in four years but with one semester off doing a co-op job (i.e. 7 semesters in four years).

But also remember that large amounts of AP credit may not be very applicable to the subject requirements for your bachelor’s degree, so do not assume that it will shorten the needed number of semesters by that much.

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I’ll share my personal experience of what 3 years feels like as an incoming final year:

AP credits have shortened my college career to the point where I only have to take three general education courses and made graduating in 3 years at a normal course load possible. If you’re ahead of course schedule, internships (requiring those upper division courses) will consider you if you meet the qualifications early as I’ve gotten interviews at the start of my 2nd year (okay, I’m a bad interviewer and I’ll admit though so I didn’t get any of the jobs I interviewed for but there are still others I’m waiting on).

Going into my Senior year, I’m also standing above the required GPA to graduate Summa Cum Laude but it has gone down from a near perfect first year GPA as courses are getting harder. --The longer you stay and the more classes you take, the harder it is to hang on to a 3.9. One or two bad grade hits to the GPA and it’ll be hard to recover because you need to consistently score over a 3.9 (it doesn’t go up as much as it goes down because there is little space between a 3.9 and 4.0) for a longer period of time to get the GPA back up. Maybe my GPA would be closer to a 4.0 than a 3.9 if I spaced out my schedule for more time with difficult engineering courses.

As an engineering major, I share the mindset of really wanting to get straight to the workforce without having to jump through too many hoops. Engineering professors at my school don’t recommend double majoring and that you find work before attending grad school because it’s a waste of time and money when often you can go straight to working.

College life / experience: Yes, there will be so many bucket list items --I’m going to be vague-- that you want done but you won’t finish them in the three years of college. Going into my final year I’m already cramming together a list of things I want to experience while also focusing on academics and careers. I think my third year will be extra exciting to take on all of these things and if I burn out, I’ll tell myself I’m almost done. If there is anything I could do if I had more time, it would be experiencing different leadership roles in clubs and be able to meet a few more people. Because I’m a commuter, once I graduate I’ll still be able to participate in activities and hang out with the friends I’ve made in college… Hang out and have a nice summer if I can before going off to work.

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If you decide to go the four year route, I urge to consider taking a full course load if you can handle it. Why not take the opportunity to explore other areas outside the required courses or take more in depth courses within your major? This would also give you an edge over just taking the bear minimum to earn a degree. This might be one of the easiest time to explore other interests. When working there is no guarantee that you will have a university nearby or the time to take a challenging college course. You are paying for a full course load. I get that it will be easier to maintain the high GPA but consider the opportunity cost. Employees will look at more than GPA. They will consider rigor and work experience. It not just about GPA.