<p>I want to graduate from stanford in three years instead of four, so I can go to medical school. I know that some people might say that I am missing out, but I have already made up my mind. Is my method feasible in Stanford?</p>
<p>Well, you’d need to major in something that isn’t unit-intensive, and start on pre-med classes in your first quarter. You’d also need to take on average 20 units per quarter in order to reach 180 units in 3 years. 20 is the max number of units you can take in a quarter without petitioning to take more (15 is the normal average). Though, that 20 units can be filled up with an easy class / activity classes.</p>
<p>It’s possible, but it’d be tough, and you’d need to have your “three-year plan” from day 1.</p>
<p>There’s also the possibility of taking classes during summer quarter to speed up the process. </p>
<p>But I must say, a lot of people who sped through college in three yeras tend to regret it down the road…</p>
<p>Why would they regret it? They did get into medical school right?</p>
<p>You should meet with the pre-med advisors.<br>
The competitive candidates for med school admission have experiences beyond their classroom achievements…research, internships, fluency in a second language, interpersonal skills and leadership. You will enjoy your time at Stanford and boost your chances of admission by looking beyond the classroom for other learning opportunities.</p>
<p>First, I would say that many people regret it because college is supposed to be one of the best times of your life. I could easily see how when you’re 45 and entering your 20th year of the same job, you’re thinking “wow, did I really trade an extra year of college for a year of this?”</p>
<p>I could probably list 10 reasons of the top of my head telling you why cutting down your Stanford experience from 4 years to 3 years is a horrible idea, but since you’ve allegedly got your mind made up, I guess I can actually try to answer your question:</p>
<p>I’d say a major problem with trying to finish college in 3 years and head straight to med school isn’t a specific problem with Stanford, but more with the process itself: if you’re trying to go to med school right after your junior year, that means that you’d have to be applying during your junior year and would therefore need to take your MCAT during your sophomore year (you could technically take it during the summer in between your sophomore/junior year, but this could potentially delay your applications, which open at the beginning of the summer…and since many med schools admit on a rolling basis, this could be a big disadvantage).</p>
<p>So to summarize, regardless of which school you go to, taking 20 units a quarter (or maybe 18 units a quarter if you’ve got AP classes [as a side note, your AP chem/AP bio/AP physics/AP calc generally won’t count for your premed reqs {with some exceptions, some schools do take AP calc}]), while studying for/taking the MCAT, and trying to remain active in some sort of general activity that shows your interest in medicine is basically going to be really difficult, regardless of where you go.</p>
<p>Anyway, as for Stanford specifically, I’d say the main hurdle is that class times/the quarters that they’re offered often switch from year to year, so it can be difficult to make out a 3/4 year plan that you’re going to be able to stick to. You could get lucky, but it’s just something to look out for.</p>