Graduate From College In One Year
21 September 2006Over at One Big Mortar Board, there’s the story of a University of Virginia student who used AP credits and an extremely heavy courseload to graduate from college in one year - at a net profit of $200 after scholarships, no less. That seems a little excessive to me - his second semester involved double the coursework of a normal semester. But it does show that it can be done, and it’s a good story to forward on to any of your kids who are currently on the “six-year plan” that seems so common these days. I graduated in three years mainly for financial reasons - paying for a fourth year just seemed like a waste. And it’s not really a difficult accomplishment, either - if you take a few Advanced Placement courses in high school, you can end up a semester or more ahead. They’re gold for admission to better schools anyway, so there’s no reason not to do them if you think you or your kids can handle the workload. My advice to anyone going into school now would be to try to do it in three years - less than that makes it much more stressful, and I think there is a benefit to having a few years on your own to mature somewhat before you go get a job or go to graduate shcool. Three years is very easy to do, and saves you a good bit of money on that fourth year (not to mention the money you could earn working).
Discuss this on the Free the Drones forums.
3 Responses to “Graduate From College In One Year”
October 21st, 2006 at 1:31 am
Yea, thats what I’m trying to do. With chemistry its kind of hard…would you suggest a larger minimum number of years for that?
October 21st, 2006 at 1:34 am
forgot name in last comment
October 21st, 2006 at 11:34 pm
One year is cutting it pretty tight for anything, but I could see you doing chemistry in three without any problems, two if you take a full load of summer classes. A lot of places require more credits for stuff like that, and what I would watch out for are any departmental requirements that you can only take at certain times. That nearly derailed my plan to graduate early.