Graduating college in less than 4 years

teller80

DIS Veteran
Joined
Apr 13, 2012
I keep reading about kids entering college as a sophomore or above because they have college credits that they earned during high school. I often wonder if their student really graduated in two or three years.

My daughter entered college with 40 credits from dual enrollment, but she still went 4 years. The credits she earned counted towards her general electives, but it still took 4 years for her to schedule her major classes. It was nice that she had breathing room though, so no regrets.
 
I keep reading about kids entering college as a sophomore or above because they have college credits that they earned during high school. I often wonder if their student really graduated in two or three years.

My daughter entered college with 40 credits from dual enrollment, but she still went 4 years. The credits she earned counted towards her general electives, but it still took 4 years for her to schedule her major classes. It was nice that she had breathing room though, so no regrets.

My 2 college age kids entered with a semester of transferable credits under there belts.

As you said it gave them breathing room. Oldest ds picked up a couple of classes his last semester towards his master's. And will have his Masters in May after an expected total of 5 years of school. He worked, had a semester internship and was very involved in several activities on campus.

2nd ds is in year 2 of a 7 year pharmacy program. He was just advised to pick up classes for a minor in biology or chemistry as he's taken or came in with enough elective credits. Still fully expect it to take him 7 years to get through. His program is harder than oldest ds's so he's not working or as involved on campus as older ds. He's also not as intense and out going as oldest ds and needs alone time to recharge. Whereas oldest ds thrives on lots going on.

When oldest ds first went off, I was surprised at how many students 'take a victory lap' (as the speakers at orientation called it) , a 5th year to complete their 4 years. I'm guessing these students fooled around their 1st year and didn't easily transition to college studies.
 
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I didn't graduate early but could have. I actually ended up doing roughly 6 years of college because even though I had a year from high school and then transfered after a year I liked mynnew school so much that I stayed for a whole 4 years and jsut didn't claim any of my high school based credits and the trasnfer credits allowed me to take extra electives.
 
Some majors have a progression of classes it takes a full 4 years to complete. My son graduates in May with a Chemical Engineering degree. He had enough credits to graduate early but could not take some of his required courses at the same time for that reason. It was nice though to have some breathing room. He's in his final semester and has a lighter load, which he's really appreciating long about now.
 


I keep reading about kids entering college as a sophomore or above because they have college credits that they earned during high school. I often wonder if their student really graduated in two or three years.

My daughter entered college with 40 credits from dual enrollment, but she still went 4 years. The credits she earned counted towards her general electives, but it still took 4 years for her to schedule her major classes. It was nice that she had breathing room though, so no regrets.

For starters it is expected to take AP, IB, or other programs in HS at some colleges as part of the "application process to get scholarships".

My dd is planning on getting a double major/double minor because of the credits she has. She could graduate early if she wants however she is actually going another yr. She currently is on a leave of absence this semester due to a medical issue.

Dd crafted her AP classes to gain credits in her major at the college she is going to. She had 27 credits due to AP scores. She blew the foreign language credits but that is another story....lol.
 
Mine will enter with anywhere from 1.5 to 2 years worth of college credit (depending on AP classes this year and next). But, I have told both of them: PLEASE spend 4 years in college. Don't rush your adult life. Their credits will give them lots of cushion, and may allow double majors, for example. That's great. But, I am not in a hurry to have them grow up. :-)
 
I keep reading about kids entering college as a sophomore or above because they have college credits that they earned during high school. I often wonder if their student really graduated in two or three years.

My daughter entered college with 40 credits from dual enrollment, but she still went 4 years. The credits she earned counted towards her general electives, but it still took 4 years for her to schedule her major classes. It was nice that she had breathing room though, so no regrets.

My daughter had 27 credits to start, and has taken 18 credits every semester. She could have graduated at the end of this year, except that two of her required courses were not offered in the timing/sequence that she needed, so she wasn't able to acutally finish in 3 years.

My college room mate did, in fact, graduate in three years. She started with quite a few credits and took some community college classes each of the summers to get more, she took 18 credits every semester and had no issues graduating in three years (and with straight As even). This was back in the 1980s when everyone didn't have a million AP credits to start with like now.
 


I took 3 1/2 years ago, my oldest took 3 1/2, and my younger son went all four years but got a double major. Like you said, timing and sequence of classes makes it difficult. That said, I told my kids to go ahead and take advantage of the four years but also to try to consider 4 years as a maximum and that their parental funding would end at that point unless they had a REALLY compelling argument. I figure those AP credits just allowed them to fit more into the 4 year period.
 
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Mine will enter with anywhere from 1.5 to 2 years worth of college credit (depending on AP classes this year and next). But, I have told both of them: PLEASE spend 4 years in college. Don't rush your adult life. Their credits will give them lots of cushion, and may allow double majors, for example. That's great. But, I am not in a hurry to have them grow up. :-)
That is exactly what I said to my DD. She will graduate from high school in June. A month earlier (in May) she graduates from her dual enrollment program with an Associates Degree. She will enter college as a social freshman/academic junior. She plans to use the extra time to double major or to complete a 4+1 masters program in her 4 years. She doesn't want to graduate early, and I fully support (and will pay for) that as long as she makes the extra time in college count for something.
 
Some majors have a progression of classes it takes a full 4 years to complete. My son graduates in May with a Chemical Engineering degree. He had enough credits to graduate early but could not take some of his required courses at the same time for that reason. It was nice though to have some breathing room. He's in his final semester and has a lighter load, which he's really appreciating long about now.

Same here. Older DD received a Chemical Engineering degree. She earned credits from HS and took some summer classes, but still had to stay 4 years to take required courses. Her last two semesters were light, three courses in fall and only two in spring to complete her degree.
 
Some majors you can be out of early. But others have a certain progression of classes with some required before others and require over 120 units to complete. My son's hours that he already has got him out of Gen Ed Classes he would hate. But they aren't going to get him through his major any faster. It's a this class, then these two classes, than these four classes and these four, type of major.
 
I graduated in 3 1/2 years. 9 credits of AP (this is a low number for my super competitive high school!), and I took 18 units every semester. I had the time in my schedule to do so and since tuition covered up to 18 units it was practical to take advantage of it. It was nice because I had a partial scholarship and they applied the full amount to the last semester, which essentially made it free. I was a decent student (graduated cum laude) but I was honestly over academia by this point and just wanted to get it over with and work full time.

My friends with science majors had a progression they had to go through so it was almost impossible to graduate in less than 4 years.
 
Many universities also have chosen to "accept" AP or dual enrollment classes as credit toward a particular subject, but NOT as replacements for their own required courses. So you can get a departmental course credit which counts toward graduation total requirements, but still have to take their sequence of courses in that subject if they are required for your major/minor (paying them tuition for each, of course!) It makes it harder to trim time off of a four year degree. I see this more and more these days. One can argue that it's because they want you trained in their particular curriculum, but it also keeps tuition dollars coming in to them, rather than just to the College Board or your local CC...
 
My oldest is in college now---two friends of theirs graduated last year in less time (one might have been 2 years, certainly 3 or less, can't recall). I know the one felt like he really missed out on a lot and was very nervous trying to enter the workforce so much younger than everyone else. Those are issues that i would have enver even thought about.
 
My neighbor's daughter did it in 3.5 years. She had about a semester's worth of AP credits and she majored in English, so that all transferred well. Those that major in STEM generally have a more difficult time.

My son's school wasn't thrilled about accepting any AP Calc credits as most of the kids who had them couldn't keep up with the next level of Calc at college.
 
Depends on if the university accepts AP or high-school earned CP credits. Neither of my daughters used AP credit (one had 7 AP exams taken with mostly 5's on the exams) at their colleges. One college didn't take any, another took one, I think?
 
I got my AA before my high school degree and graduated with my BA two years later. I was going to continue on to get my phD so it would take less time, but then I got married and followed my husband to law school. I was 19 when I graduated with my BA, married at 20, and had my first baby at 21. 15 years later I still don't have my PhD but I do have two more kids and am married to a lawyer, so I think it all worked out.
 
DD had a year's worth of credits. Her program is three years on campus followed by one year of clinical at a hospital. Because of the tight scheduling of her program, she will not be graduating or moving on to the clinical portion any sooner. But, she does have an easier load.
DNiece had quite a few credits, but not a full year (uncertain of the actual number). She added two minors and will graduate on time (four years).
A cousin's son had a year's worth of credits and graduated after three years.
 
Many, many years ago I graduated in 3 years. I didn't have any high school credits although the math and physics I had my freshman year of college were not as advanced as my high school classes. But I did take 9 hours in summer school one summer. I basically took 18-21 hours a semester. I did it to not have to borrow money for a 4th year.
 
I went into college with 11 credits already. I took french for college credit during high school (which was through my community college and all I had to do was pay the per credit hour fee..nothing about the actual class was different) and a math class over the summer right before starting college.

I graduated with excess credits as well (and actually my alma mater already reduced the amount of credit hours needed to graduate).

My husband was under the aerospace engineering program. Normally that program is a 5 year one but you can do it in 4 (usually by taking 18 credit hours each semester ALL 4 years of college). I'm really not certain if he could have graduated early at all due to the program he was in. I believe however he had a few excess credits as well just due to how it all worked out.
 

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