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I will be graduating in three years, and getting plenty of research experience & three great recommendations was anything but difficult. When you plan to graduate in three years, you’re not taking different classes from the four-year students – you’re just taking them earlier in your college career, so why would a three-year student have less access to professors? If anything, the three-year track impressed my recommenders. One of them only did three years himself, so he was especially gung-ho about it.</p>
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Unless you’re not completely set on going to grad school yet, I’ve heard pretty universally that this is not a good idea anymore. Grad schools liked seeing dedication to research through a tech position back in the 90s (and earlier), but nowadays not so much. Given the time it takes to complete a PhD has increased drastically from the olden days, too, I think the consensus is that starting sooner is better. All the techs I know are working as techs precisely because they are NOT sure whether grad school is for them.</p>