How hard would it be?

College Life
1

<p>How difficult would it be to obtain a bachelor’s degree in 3 years? I’m majoring in Biology to teach high school…and wouldn’t mind going to college during the summer, in fact, I enroll as a freshman this June.</p>

<p>But I’m wondering how difficult it would be to get a 4 year degree in 3 years and then start a masters program?</p>

2

<p>You could cram stuff in during summer, it wouldn’t be that bad.</p>

3

<p>In general, it’s doable, but not common. 3.5 years is far more common (but still the minority of students).</p>

<p>With bio, graduating early might be particularly difficult. Probably still doable, but you’ll really need to plan for it. Heavy degree requirements plus lab schedules can make overloading even more difficult than normal. Might just come down to your school and some luck more than anything else. Talk to your academic advisor ASAP.</p>

<p>Good luck :)</p>

4

<p>It’s really quite easy at most universities if you start as a freshman knowing what your major is, if you’ve taken a few AP classes and they give you credit for them, and you go to summer school. The key is strategizing your courses from the beginning to get prereqs done optimally. Biology is a little more difficult because there are so many prereqs to upper division courses, but on the other hand, those prereqs are usually available during the summer.</p>

5

<p>I would probably graduate in 2.5 because of my incoming credit. I think you have some incoming credit, then you should not be that difficult. 3 years would be challanging but still doable. With a biology major, I think you should do 3.5</p>

6

<p>The problem you may run into is that many education programs are at least 3.5-4 year programs. They have sequences that you must follow and you can’t just skip a step. And most likely those sequences aren’t going to be offered during the summer session. Hard to observe in the classroom when there’s not kids, right?;)</p>

7

<p>It’s probably doable, but plan it out YOURSELF. Find a list of the requirements for bio and for gen ed, look at the prereqs for each class and figure out a plan for each term (it will have to be somewhat flexible because of possible class conflicts, but having the plan will help make that easier to deal with). DO NOT just trust what your advisor says you should do - more likely than not, you will get screwed over.</p>