Graduate college in 3 years or less?

Question

i am going back to school and looking into really trying to get my bachelor's degree within the next 3 years or less, preferably by December of 2009 or spring 2010. i have about 27 credit hours. What is the best way to do this and any advice i should should know, and also what about trying to work or participate in extracurricular activities?

Answer 1

In order to do this, you'll definitely need summer classes. You might even need to overload your semesters by taking one extra class every semester. This can be very daunting and time-consuming, as some semesters are difficult enough with just the typical number of credits. You can try to work or do extracurriculars, but if you want to graduate in 3 years with a 4-year degree, you have to realize that your time will be greatly consumed by your studies.

Answer 2

That is completely do-able, and you can do it faster if you take summer courses. A normal BS program is 4 yrs. or 8 semesters, averaging 15 credits per semester. You already have almost 2 semesters worth of credits, although if you're changing schools or majors, not all of what you have may apply. That would leave you only 6 semesters, and if you take classes during the summer semester, that would only take 2 years, not even 3. Lots of people work and go to school at the same time--a part time job is totally feasible, but a full time job would be tough. Make sure you don't overload yourself, because grades are important. There's no reason to get a degree if your grades suffer because you're not going to get a decent job. If an employer is going to pay for a college graduate, they want someone who knows what they're doing and the grades to prove it, or if you're going on to graduate school, you'll need the grades to get in. As for extra-curricular activities, well, everybody needs something other than work and study. Leave time for a social life! Shouldn't be hard unless you try to go to school full time and work full time. But even then, I've known people who have pulled it off. Just depends on how badly you want that degree. Good luck.

Answer 3

Let's suppose that you are attending a school that requires 120 credits in order to graduate with a Bachelor's and uses semesters rather than quarters. (You should be able to adapt this to a school using quarters or that counts credits in a different way.) You could take 15 credits each semester during the Fall and Spring semesters, thus earning 90 credits in 3 years, plus 15 credits in each of the 2 Summer semesters that fall between the 3 years in which you attend Fall and Spring. If you went up to 18 credits each Fall and Spring semester for the 2nd and 3rd years, you could drop to 9 credits in the Summers. (Summer semesters are often condensed, meaning you spend more time in class each week than you do in the Fall and Spring, and therefore more time studying outside of class.) Now, whether or not the Chemistry and Biochemistry departments offer the classes you'd need frequently enough for this to actually work is another question. If I were you, I'd sit down with an advisor in my major department and try to work up a degree plan that covered just the degree requirements and prerequisite courses for pharmacy school. The general education classes and electives are the easy part of the planning. And if you need a job to pay some of your expenses, that's another potential problem. If you are working enough hours, you may not be able to take 18 credits a semester.

Answer 4

This depends totally on what you major is and how flexible your schedule for classes is.

Of course if you can go full time as a resident student, summer school as well, then you have a good shot at it. But if you have to work and can't do full time in summer then it is going to be near impossible.

Probably it is better to go to a very large state school and major in something vague, like Business Admin, or History. Then you can take a wide variety of courses that are offered repeatedly to large groups of students. The way you could get stuck is if you are in some major that has a lot of specific course requirements - then a class gets cancelled or is held sometime when you can't be there, and your whole graduation schedule is thrown off by a semester.
You will have to pay really careful attention to what courses you need, when they are taught and how you will make you schedule work so that you have all your prerequisites done in time to go on to the required advanced courses.

With such a tough, crowded schedule you are not going to have much extracurricular time (or much of a life!) but it probably WILL be possible to achieve this goal if you are dedicated.

Probably someone is going to answer this question and say how it's easy to do this. It is NOT going to be easy. But it is doable. Only half or fewer of US college students finish their BA or BS degree within six years of starting college. So, the goal you have set is an ambitious one. But it is setting goals like this that will mark you as one of the people who will succeed. Good luck. Keep focused!